4 thoughts on “Newsflash: Guy Has Bad Business Idea”

1. It’s more likely (at least for now, until we can get a real Renewable Portfolio Standard in place in Virginia) that a private, third-party firm would lease the rooftop space(s) than Dominion, and then take advantage of federal tax credits to generate electricity that consumers could purchase. I’d bet you that a sufficient number of property owners in the City would jump at the chance to buy clean, renewable, locally-generated energy, even at a higher rate.

2. I thought there was a local business (Keswick area?) that does exactly this. I’d particularly love it at our nine schools.

3. I’d bet you that a sufficient number of property owners in the City would jump at the chance to buy clean, renewable, locally-generated energy, even at a higher rate.

   I’d take that bet. :)

   I thought there was a local business (Keswick area?) that does exactly this.

   I don’t see how. Dominion doesn’t actually pay you for generating power, they just give you a credit on your bill. So, fine, you set up a bunch of solar panels — the best you’ll get is a $0 bill for power for the month. A bill passed the General Assembly last year that will have Dominion pay the standard rate for that power (an average of $0.061/kWh), but that’s way, way undervalued. People will clearly pay more for clean power, as Dave points out. The numbers just aren’t there.

4. An average American house would need a 10-kilowatt solar array to meet its electricity needs. The rough cost of this system is around $100,000. The value of the electricity produced by this system over a year, at Dominion’s rate ($.o61/kwh), would be $900.

   Who would want to make this kind of investment, and pay to rent rooftop space? Dominion will go buy more wind before it buys solar.

   To make this work, I think this is what would need to happen:

   If the city would decide to pay for half of all solar arrays, an investor/third party would only need to pay $50G’s for the above solar system. Also, if the person who owns the roof agrees to buy the solar electricity for a price 5 times higher then Dominion’s rate, then the investor who installs the solar energy system on the rooftop, will recover their money after ~11 years.

   There are a lot of “if’s” in this scenario.

   Solar electricity will become more feasible when:
   -nonrenewable electricity rates go up
   -silicon becomes cheaper
   -more state and local tax credits are available

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