World Changing Ideas: 20 Ways to Build a Cleaner, Healthier, Smarter World
Scientific American
If you live in California or Arizona and you have a south-facing roof, there is a startup – possibly even startups – who would like to meet you. Their goal is simple: stick solar panels on your roof at no cost (or virtually no cost) to you. Really.
Filed under: green technology, Scientific American, solar panels, solar power, solarcity, sunrun
[...] Here’s how those work: The feds pay nothing, and the contractor itself pays for the retrofit. Then the feds pay the contractor what they were paying before, for energy. The contractor keeps the difference between new, lower energy bills and what they’re paid, until the cost of the retrofit is paid off. Then the contract ends, and the feds reap all the efficiency benefits from there on out. It’s a similar financing mechanism as, for example, SolarCity, which offers homeowners solar panels for free. [...]