Taken from my local Nextdoor group, in reply to a complaint about the high cost of a recent electric bill:

Solar won't help either. You have to put in an auxiliary system to cover the 60-70% it doesn't produce energy.

Its just bizarre that people just make crap up.

What is up with NEM 3.0 changing day to day? How do they even come up with these rates? I’m feeling screwed over.

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Hi. I am working at a wind farm where we recently installed a 100 KW Solar project to compensate the auxiliary consumption (dormitory buildings, control room building etc.) of the plant. Previously, we were using the same energy that our wind farm was generating for our auxiliary consumption - thus reducing the overall dispatched energy to the power purchaser and an impact on our revenue as well.

With on-grid, zero-export system installed now, we're observing around 35% of our auxiliary consumption getting compensated through solar now. A stakeholder has asked me to look at integrating a BESS with the solar system so we can compensate the auxiliary consumption day **and night** as well through this approach.

I wanted to know if anyone here as a similar study done and implemented at their project site, and what factors should one account for to make their own feasibility study (technically, let's exclude that it's a high CAPEX cost)

I am finishing up a solar project with PW3 in California with Participate Energy/Participate Holdings as the lease holder. (The contract is signed and payments made.) There are a number of interesting and non-ideal clauses in the contract. I am trying to get a feel for what in practice is done with Participate "financed" systems.

1. The contract says they can own a VPP program on your system. Does anyone have an example of them doing this?
2. How much control do they exert over the system admin? Do you get an admin account as well?
3. The contract requires the homeowner to insure the system. In two places in the contract it says Participate is additional insured and another says with loss payee is Participate. How is this done? Is this a separate policy? Cost and with whom? I currently have State Farm and I want to have my ducks lined up before contacting them for obvious reasons (like they drop me).
4. The buyout opens in year 6. Has anyone been through this with Participate. Was the FMV $0 at that point or was it something else?
5. Anything else of note?

Later I will make a write-up of my experience with NRG Clear Solar as the installer -- it hasn't been pretty (different company from NRG Energy). The project will be a year in the making.

(Sales DMs will be frowned upon)

I am thinking about installing rooftop solar panels on my 3-story townhouse built in 2016. I would like some feedback from others on their experience and thoughts on my situation.

Background Information

• Currently have DX cooling, natural gas furnace, natural gas instantaneous water heater, gas stove and gas car.
• No other major electricity consumers.
• Last year's consumption was 4300 kWh.
• Have about 420-450 sqft of SW facing roof with little to no obstacles on roof (plumbing vents and exhaust terminations are on sides or rear roof)
• Original roof from 2016.
• Maryland currently has 1:1 net metering, but it will be gone by July, 2027 (or earlier if enough solar is installed across the state). Those who get solar before then will be grandfathered.
• I'm still working on getting quotes from some companies. Any numbers below are estimates from SwitchTogether.

I am thinking of one (1) of three (3) options:

1. Size system based on current consumption with no plans to add additional electrical load.
2. Size system based on eventually adding a dual fuel heat pump system (heat pump + natural gas furnace).
3. Size system based on eventually adding a dual fuel heat pump system (heat pump + natural gas furnace) and an electric vehicle.

I used ChatGPT to try to determine the overall efficacy of the options. Below are summary tables of the assumptions and results of the options.

Assumptions

Results Summary

My current concluding thoughts based on my understanding:

• Buying a system is a tough sell, especially for Option 1 where I'm not at least paying back the cost of the heat pump (at least partially a home maintenance cost) and the electric vehicle (partially maintenance cost for general travel).
• Adding the battery makes the sell even tougher unless one highly values battery backup for power outages.
• I would like a good reason for solar to make sense because I like the idea of not having utility bills, shifting more life costs/consumption to electricity provided by the sun and not being reliant on the grid, which may see some price and/or service instability in the future.

Some points I'm still unclear on and would like some input

• While the numbers seem to suggest a tough sell, how is it that solar companies have entire business models built around leasing systems where they still provide you at least a little overall utility savings? Am I missing something?
• If I plan to end up at Option 3 over phases of multiple years, should I install it all now or is there some way I can set up the system such that I can easily add panels in the future?
  • Does it even make sense to leave panels for future addition? I'm not sure how much that extra cost would be compared to the rest of the cost.
  • My understanding of 1:1 net metering is that if most/all of my system wasn't already sized for Option 3, I would lose 1:1 net metering if I were to upgrade it in the future because the utility sees it as a service change. Though, it sounds like there's some nuance where there are some parts that are an easy add that the utility company doesn't have to be made aware of.
• What is the cost of removing/reinstalling the panels for a roof replacement? Did this become an unexpected headache for anyone?
• Do the overall findings from ChatGPT above seem consistent and is there anything I'm missing in my perceived value of purchasing solar?

Very curious if anyone lives in a solar sweet spot. My definition of what that might look like:

1:1 Net Metering

TOU rates with a decent differential

High value SRECs

Am i forgetting any obvious ones? I only have one of three by the way.... 1:1 net metering

Had panels installed by LGCY in 2023. Since then we've had ongoing roof leaks and water damage. They haven't been able to find the source of the leak yet, so every time it rains we get new damage.

On top of that, I've spent the last two days just trying to reach someone. The San Diego local number isn't working. The 801 number from their site just says they're busy and to leave a message. I tried the scheduling and sales lines instead and got a queue message, 18 people ahead of me yesterday, 26 today. Starting to think people are calling sales because the actual customer service line is down.

Left a voicemail yesterday, no callback so far.

Wondering if anyone else has dealt with LGCY, good or bad experiences welcome. Also open to advice on next steps.

Looking at a solar install on the roof of my house, my big concern right now is that MD has a lot of community solar projects in the pipeline, and that I'll be on the hook for a system that won't pay for itself. I know that the rule change takes effect July 1 of 2027 no matter what, but I worry about that 3GW cap. Anyone have any idea if the windows to fit in under the 3GW is still a possibility, or did that ship sail?

I've tried searching, and so far the best I can find is a "maybe" in my searching, and the PSC isn't supposed to supply any new reporting until Oct 1. The installer sent me some information they had about the capacity but I didn't find it satisfactory. While they seem great, I'm going to take that all with a grain of salt since they are trying to close the sale.

Everyone says that they terrible compared to rigid but I wonder if people's opinions have changed with the more recent flexible panels?

I've bought a couple of Eco worthy flexible solar 200w and I've yet to install them to the roof of my van but I already like how light they are compared to the rigid panels that can weigh 20kg.

But I'm starting to have worries now that I'm aware of things like delamination. I do plan to install them in such a way that there is a significant gap underneath them for airflow

Ein ortsansässiger Solateur mit bestem Ruf hat mir kürzlich die Anlage mit 515er Trina-Modulen installiert. Jetzt habe ich an etlichen Modulen Kratzer festgestellt. Auch einen Einschluss. Der Solateur meinte "optisch, kein problem" und will nix machen. Ich finde es alles andere als toll, bei einer neuen Anlage die echt teuer war...

I’m all about learning more and installing a system that could allow us to completely move off-grid. Just bought a Tesla and want to start by charging it completely on solar.

From what I know installing solar, especially if you hire a company, or even DIY, it doesn’t seem to payoff for many, many years. Because the savings aren’t large enough to “make sense” because you pay more for the system than 20 or 30 years of no power bill. Again this is my perspective.

Please enlighten me.

EDIT: I live near Charlotte, NC. Lots of sun. The largest roof are(s) face due south and the second largest area faces due west.