Fighting Entering a Game You Could Easily Go Into and WIN

Why aren’t the energy companies/providers asking to install solar panels for you on your roof?

Major energy producers across the country are grappling with the pros and cons of residential power customers adding solar panels to their roof tops.  The solar panels connect directly to the grids controlled and maintained by companies like PG&E and Southern California Edison here in California.  The pros include relieving stress from over taxed grids and allowing companies to focus more on their big corporate customers, the cons include losses from those smaller customers that are no longer paying costs to maintain the grid.  So here’s a good question, why are these major energy producers letting upstarts like Solar City and Sun Run make off like bandits in the solar installations and leasing programs?

In It to Win It

It’s seems this simple: you have the names, addresses, and energy consumption information of EVERY resident/customer.  If I was SCE, I’d be leasing solar panels to anyone who wanted them.  Much like some companies are doing now by going to big box retailers like Wal-Mart and installing solar on expansive roofs, energy producers should go to builders of new tracks of homes, and existing neighborhoods and turning them into solar farms.  SCE would still be making all the money off of energy production and sells, while greening the grid and cutting out the middle man.  Instead of paying companies to build huge solar arrays out in the desert that take years to get through EIRs (environmental impact reviews), we can cut the time and costs on these projects in big ways, and spend less on transmission lines.    

Major energy companies have huge resources to be able to buy large quantities of solar panels and receive mass discounts from bulk purchases.  One of the major pros of having residential solar, is having energy produced in exactly the same place it is being used, mitigating any loss of energy in transmission of power that occurs at any energy production facility (nuclear, natural gas, coal, etc.)  Yet again, I don’t understand why energy providers aren’t falling over themselves to enter into residential solar.  There are several legal avenues through property law they could even take advantage of, including granting of easements on roof tops to energy companies.  Perhaps energy profits from residential purchasers will drop as solar costs plummet below any other competitor, but at least energy companies will be making that money and not third parties like Solar City.

The genius behind Solar City and their brethren is that they enter into lease agreements with their customers for 10 years.  That’s guaranteeing you have these customers for 10 years!  Not one time purchasers that fluctuate.  Years of revenue practically guaranteed.