91–100 of 167 posts
I've been looking for something just like this! I find that people get really weird about solar stuff, so I'll explain why I've been looking for something like this. 1. I believe that man-made climate change is real and we should do something about it. 2. I want to limit/eliminate my own family's personal contribution to the warming of the planet for ethical and emotional reasons 3. I believe that solar is a "green"…
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> investing in a hypothetical public utility that intends to make all its electricity from solar panels? Is this something I can do as a retail investor? What sort of minimum investment is needed?
It would be pretty tough to get exposure to solar panel equity by any means - aside from providing a great experience, we actually will be pretty much the next closest thing to owning solar panels if you don't have a suburban home. We are different from investing in a utility for two reasons. First, you'll own simple direct ownership in a panel, not in an entire organization and all its bureaucracies and stakeholders…
One of the problems with mass solar panel deployment is that the sun only shines during the day, but people want electricity at night. Batteries are expensive, so initial deployments often rely on slack in the system.
Once you are at a substantial part of the production in an area, that won't work.
I've been thinking about this kind of "solar condo" or "solar co-op" for a while. City people use energy, and might want to know that their personal energy usage is positively covered by solar.
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Rooting for you to succeed, but to be candid your response kind of proved my point. Many of us on this site have a lot of experience with early stage startups and get nervous when we hear founder roles described like this: > She will be key in helping Legends create a resonant brand with cultural currency as we grow and evolve. Brand is no doubt important, but execution is what makes a startup work. > I wanna push ba…
We are more than just a website/hype machine... we've sold a few $100K worth of panels to accredited investors while we get our app and platform off the ground. We are only 5 months old, but plan on bringing on project finance experience ASAP. For the time being, we lean on some of our pre-seed investors for help on that front. I am running things fairly conservatively, the marketing site is the tip of the iceberg. W…
(Accredited investor with solar experience here) - On a commercial scale that's 1 or 2 installs. Good for getting your feet wet with solar but what you're proposing is a different game entirely.
> Per 'doers' - my point is that 'doing' is not taught in engineering school or consulting or Goldman Sachs any more than it is in product design. In that sense it is an ethic, not a credential or professional discipline. I think we are more or less simpatico here.
"Doing" is definitely taught in engineering school in the context of doing engineering things.
I don't think anybody here doubts that you can "do" designs. The point is that the type of "doing" this startup needs has little to no overlap with the founders' experience. It's not enough to make hand-wavy claims that "doing is an ethic". Someone still has to do all of the business things and execution.
I wonder if it will be possible to sell your stake after having bought some solar panels? Also, will you be legally proprietary of said panels?
We hope to operate a secondary market, may introduce some other form of periodic liquidity. Ideally yes, you will own a real individual panel. But we may settle on a different structure if necessary from a regulatory or tax perspective (its a long story).
If it is structured as a share of a collective, it might be easier to take those expenses out.
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gonna pile on here so it's easy for OP to answer. 4. What contracts are in place to maintain the panel, and lease the space? What happens if the building decides to discontinue service. Will the solar panel be delivered to me (at what fee?) will the solar panel be re-placed on top of another building? (at what fee?) 5. are the devices insured against common forms of damage? (wind, hail, acts of humankind) 6. Can we i…
7. Can I re-sell my "panels" (shares in the facility) at a later date if I want out?
I've been looking for something just like this! I find that people get really weird about solar stuff, so I'll explain why I've been looking for something like this. 1. I believe that man-made climate change is real and we should do something about it. 2. I want to limit/eliminate my own family's personal contribution to the warming of the planet for ethical and emotional reasons 3. I believe that solar is a "green"…
The way this is structured isn't great for retail investors. You're not really owning anything the way you would with a traditional investment. You're basically just giving them money and trusting that they'll continue to be in business long enough to pay it back. If they go bust, the panels and installations go to creditors and you get nothing. Great deal for their creditors, bad deal for you.
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gonna pile on here so it's easy for OP to answer. 4. What contracts are in place to maintain the panel, and lease the space? What happens if the building decides to discontinue service. Will the solar panel be delivered to me (at what fee?) will the solar panel be re-placed on top of another building? (at what fee?) 5. are the devices insured against common forms of damage? (wind, hail, acts of humankind) 6. Can we i…
These are all great questions - so far we've worked with accredited investors to place $100K+ solar facilities while we've built our product. They are basically beta testers while de get out design, software, payments integrations, etc going. We answered those questions for accredited, for everyday retail investors it will depend on the solar facility we select and the financial structuring design.
I dont know if you heard of or followed sweater ventures. But this kinda feels like a similar niche, but w/ a solar angle instead of VC .
Say I want to invest in solar to generate revenue to pay for charging my EV driven 15k miles a year, or about 3750kWh (@250Wh/mi).
In my area, that will require about 2.6kW of PV, which at local rooftop PV rates of about $3/W would be $7800 pre Federal tax credit, or $5772 after the Federal tax credit.
Meanwhile, 3750 kWh purchased from my utility will cost me about $1000/year at today's electricity rates. So the payback time for my hypothetical rooftop PV array is about 6 years, give or take, after which I get free miles.
If I instead chose to invest in a group solar scheme like this, what is the upfront investment required to generate a guaranteed $1000/year. Extrapolating from the 7.3% rate of return on your website (the tool only allows 10 panels to be selected), it seems line that would require a $13698 investment.
For my rooftop solar example, the rate is return is 17% annualized, and the investment is $5772.
Other questions:
After 25 years when the panels are performing at 85% capacity can I keep using them?
Can I claim depreciation on the panels, since they are a purely depreciating investment (both in physical and in financial terms)?
What if a worker accidentally damages my panel(s). Does your insurance pay for that or mine?
My questions are sincere, not an attempt to shoot down the idea.
I'd much prefer to own PV in a field somewhere instead of more attached to my house (I already have enough PV to provide for domestic electricity), and not much more roof space.