05/05/2016
A lot of our business clients ask us whether they should install solar on the roof of their house. Since we don't offer that particular service we thought we'd share our Unbiased Opinion. Every savings proposal that we have seen makes one critical assumption that historical facts don't back up. It assumes that Utility rates will increase at a pace of 3-4% per year. That means that your current rate of 10 cents per kWh will become 15 cents and 22 cents per kWh in 10 and 20 years respectively. To the naked eye that seems like a reasonable assumption but history shows something different. Let me explain: right now if you live in Western Mass your electric rate is 10.4 cents per kWh, 10 years ago in 2006 your rate was 10.75 cents per kWh meaning that right now your rate is actually 3% lower than it was 10 years ago! The lowest rate in the past 10 years was 6.7 Cents while the highest was 14.2 cents, with the average being 9 cents. Now back to that savings analysis that every solar company gives you as a "no brainier" to getting roof solar, if you plug in 9 cents as the electricity cost the ROI picture would look quite different. There are many factors that contribute to cost of electricity and we won't bore you with them here, but if you educate yourself before making long term commitment of getting roof solar then we have done our job. This is not meant to say that roof solar isn't a good deal, we are simply pointing out that a lot of the ROI projections are very optimistic, in our opinion. Roof solar will pay for itself, but it won't do it in the time frames promised by most solar companies. If you have any questions feel free to message us directly. Like our page for more helpful energy information, Share this post if you think your friends and family will find this useful.
