Erik describes PPA’s.
This is my 8th video interview with Erik Bowman (I said Mark in the video – oops) with his new company of IES (Integral Energy Systems) of out of Golden Colorado.
SolarDave: What is going on with the PPA Power Purchase Agreements lately?
Erik Bowman:
[transcription coming soon ...]
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2 users responded in this post
Dave,
Cranking out the videos lately, eh?
Couple of questions:
1) SunRun is calling its third-party financing program in Colorado “solar leasing” http://blog.sunrunhome.com/.
It’s a bit fuzzy to me if there is a clear difference between solar leasing and SPPAs — or if they are just two different terminologies referring to the same thing. I need to clarify this for myself, and it might be helpful for a future interviewee of yours to do the same. Just a thought.
2)It would be really interesting to have a solar company CEO, consultant, talk about the following: What’s a smarter and better financial path — solar leasing/SPPAs, or buying a system outright?
Here I go again, answering my own questions.
Here’s a link to a SolarPowerRocks.com page — http://www.solarpowerrocks.com/affordable-solar/whats-diff-lease-vs-ppa/ — that establishes the differences between a Power Purchase Agreement and a solar lease.
Tor, aka, “SolarFred” claims at the end of the piece that “in the long term using a home equity loan or an energy efficiency mortgage to buy your panels” is a better financial bet than an SPPA or solar lease.
SolarFred is definitely legit and a good source of info, but I’m not sure I’d take his as the “final word” on whether buying — and financing a system through an gov. energy efficiency loan — is always better than a SPPA or solar lease.
Personally, between the SPPA — you buy the buyer your system generates from 3rd part, and the solar lease — you pay a rental/lease fee to the 3rd party company, but you don’t technically buy the power being generated off your roof — my first reaction as that an SPPA, at the very least, seems more satisfying.
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