All Forum Posts by: Steve K.

Thanks @Bill F., I hate to be the guy correcting people on here, and I’ve tried to avoid getting into back and forths, and I would go insane without @Andrew Smith. But a lot of the things people have said in this thread about solar, presented as fact, are so far from the truth it would be the equivalent of writing “Interest rates are currently 35%, real estate investing doesn’t work”. Correct me if I’m wrong Andrew but I don’t think that’s even an exaggeration. If somebody wrote that on here, I would hope a qualified mortgage lender would pipe up and correct them, so that everybody doesn’t think interest rates are 35%. Cooking dinner now but I will read that article tonight, thanks for sharing. 

 Yes thanks for clarifying, in our office we calculated the tariff as a 5-10% increase on total system cost, while the tax credit reduces it 30%, just trying to avoid getting too granular with this crowd ;)

 Nobodies defensive, it’s sad your opinion is formed with false or outdated information, that’s all.

Of course the degradation factor is taken into account when we do energy forecasts. It's less than 1% on avg., high quality panels less than .5%. 

I have never cleaned my panels nor do many of my 1,000's of customers (only the really anal ones, or the large scale bank-owned ones required to do so by investors). All of these systems are producing better than forecasted, dirty or meticulously cared for, basically same end result. If there's a dust storm or something, they can easily be cleaned or you can just wait for it to rain like I do. If you clean them daily you might make a few extra pennies a day. Or if you think it's necessary, as some managers of large scale arrays lead us to believe (mostly to justify their position "managing" and array with no moving parts, or to appease investors who have little solar knowledge and just like to have something to point out and think it's important), then paying some guys to run around with spray bottles and squeegees for a few hours isn't going to be a deal breaker on a multimillion dollar system. Soiling is a non-issue in my experience. In areas with heavy dust like the Mojave or the Gobi where the largest solar arrays are, cleaning them is a teeny tiny expense compared to the many millions of dollars worth of electricity those large arrays produce. 

Yes, the recent tariffs increased the cost of imported panels by 30%, and the same president signed off on extending the 30% tax credit. So now we mark them up 30% and then down 30%. Makes sense to me... free market! Interesting fact: both policies were signed into law by the party of "less government"; the 30% tax credit in 2005, extended in 2017, and the 30% tariff in 2017. Less government achieved by more government? Energy subsidies are extremely complex, and solar isn't unique in that regard. If you look into subsidies for any form of energy it's migraine-inducing. Despite the tariffs panel prices have dropped by 75% since 2009 and will continue to drop as they are increasingly mass produced. 

Current prices have been more than economical for renewables in CA for quite some time that's why almost all new generation is coming from solar and wind. 

@Andrew Smith you beat me AGAIN! And you even had more updated info than me... I stand corrected, nuclear is down to 9% of the CA energy mix, I'll have to update my number of 14% from a few years ago. It's quickly on its way to zero. 

Whatever question is being asked about energy, nuclear is never the answer. How did we forget to account for the cost of managing the nuclear waste for literally 100,000 years? Taxes pay for that, and if we don't protect it, it can be made into dirty bombs. Great idea indeed but solar "doesn't make sense".... ok. 

California's population is growing consistently by 300-400,000 people each year over the last 10 years. Some residents are leaving, but more are moving in. They definitely don't have a problem with a "mass exodus", if anything the opposite is true, they're struggling with ways to accommodate their growing population. That's why it makes sense to include a power plant with every new home. Build a new roof, power the home with that roof. 

Financially solar panels make a ton of sense. There's an upfront cost but over time the power they produce is far less expensive than traditional energy sources. 

Solar panels don't last very long? That's utter hogwash. Down the street from me is NREL, where they test new technology. They have an array consisting of solar panels from the 70's and guess what? Still producing power. Why would we recycle them when they still generate valuable electricity? Modern solar panels are even better, they come with 20-25 year warranties, degrade less than 1% per year, and will still be producing valuable electricity in 30-40 years at least. If you want to "recycle" some panels, just bring them over my house, I'll plug them in and sell the electricity.

Also not sure what "toxic metals" you think solar panels are made of. They're made mostly of silicon which is the eighth most common element in the universe that is non toxic and easily recycled. The embodied energy in a solar panel, the amount of energy it took to produce it including mining the aluminum for the frame, all the materials in it, assembly, shipping and everything, is offset by the production from the panel in 1-4 years, so they pay for themselves in terms of energy return on energy invested many times over during their useful life, that's why they make so much sense environmentally. 

"Actually, isnt CA almost exclusively nuclear power anyway right now?"

 Nope. Currently about 14% of CA energy comes from Nuclear, compared to 19% from solar. California is not big on nuclear. They’re shutting down the last remaining nuclear plant and not building new ones. Fukushima was the last nail in the coffin for nuclear. We realized having these facilities was too much liability, especially next to the ocean and on top of major fault lines. Side note: Did you know there’s a nuclear plant in NJ that's the same dangerous design (Mark 1 by GE, 1960's technology that we've known was faulty since 1972) as Fukushima? The biggest job maker in nuclear currently is the decommissioning industry. It takes over ten years and costs billions of dollars to take these things apart. Guess who pays for that? Taxes. Meanwhile people think recycling solar panels is a problem SMH.

@Cody Furman Just serve notices, every time. That should be enough of a reminder, and starts the clock ticking. I’ve spoken to tenants about it like you mentioned; explained calmly and as kindly as possible that a judge will evict them and a sheriff will come remove them if they don’t pay, that it’s hard living with an eviction on your record, that I have my own payments I have to make to the bank and the bank doesn’t have a heart either, that they’ll lose their security deposit because I’ll keep that for unpaid rent and go after them for additional monies if they cause damage, etc. Didn’t help at all in my experience. The moment it becomes real is when the judge asks them, “Will you be out by tonight, or do I have to send a sheriff to forcibly evict you.” That’s when they get it. To answer your question though I don’t know if it’s illegal, but you definitely want to avoid doing anything that could be viewed as threatening and anything in writing can be used against you. I don’t think it hurts to have a calm polite conversation if you have a good working relationship with a good tenant, one last attempt to find out what’s really going on. But be careful and I wouldn’t send a formal letter or an email, that’s what the notice is for. Anything additional after the notice is kind of like a triple dare. Nobody that double double dares is serious. As others have said your landlord tenant handbook is your manual. Definitely don’t text a message that Bruno is on his way to their house and he’s coming for their kneecaps. Good luck!

@Christopher Lombardi Says the guy from New Jersey. Haven’t you guys been in danger of defaulting on your massive debt for years? What is it up to now, $150B? I just read today everybody is dumping NJ bonds, again. It seems like every week the S&P is downgrading New Jersey. But yeah CA sure has it rough.

 That’s crazy Andrew, we should just keep digging up fossils and burning them until we completely smoke  ourselves out. Because, you know, market forces and windmills and China.

 Agreed. If somebody perfects the Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor coupled with a flux capacitor I can use to power my DeLorean, I'm all for it.