for all you "green" folks out there

[geojen]

My DH and I have come across this new start-up company called citizenre.
The Citizenre Corporation

Basically, you rent solar panels from them for a fixed period of years (say 10 or 25). They lock in what you pay your utility company right now per kilowatt hour for the next 25 years. So, if right now you pay .09 cents per kwh, that is what you pay citizenre for a set number of kwhs. Theres more to it, but the web site does a great job of explaining it.

They haven't started advertising yet, so I thought Id pass the info along.

[nim3]

Thanks for the info....will take a look

[geojen]

This might be a better link to go to than the one I first posted:

 The Citizenrē Corporation | Bringing Solar Power to Your Home

[bjl584]

Thanks. This is something that I have kicked around at doing. I have a perfect roof and a good view of the afternoon sun for solar panels. I need to crunch the numbers and see if it would pay to do this.

[msnln]

It's a great concept, except that the company is a startup and I heard that they do not yet have the funding to buy the panels and install. It may be some time before they can actually put the practice to work. In the west coast, utilities have picked up on this idea and leasing rooftop from businesses to install PV panels to increase generating capacity, or financing businesses to put up the solar panels by charging set monthly fee. Monthly fee comes out bit higher than usual electric rates but business gets benefit of free electricity through the panels.

[noppenbd]

The best idea I have heard along these lines is in the city of Berkeley, where the cost to install the solar panels is basically added into the property tax bill and amortized out over the life of the panels (something like 20 yrs), so it stays with the house even if sold. The biggest obstacle to installing solar panels IMO is that you don't know if you will stay long enough to recoup the investment, plus you need a big initial outlay.