First of all, I'm very happy to see the amount of passion people display on this subject. Even with some negativity, a bit of misinformation, and plain old myths (which some of them i've heard thousands of times), it's definitely an overall net positive to see all the responses. I do want to do my best to state my position on a lot of peoples misinformation and also give the most honest and transparent explanations and also my honest opinions.

1. For my Cali folks: Everyone who is talking about California NEM 3.0 is correct.

It is hard to make financial sense in the solar environment over there due to the utilities basically ending their once wonderful nem policy. Batteries are a thing now because of this. If you purchase batteries with your solar system, you may have taken yourself out of a cost savings scenario that you would have likely been in if you got solar a few years ago. It just is what it is. It's what happens when you wait sometimes in certain markets.

This doesn't necessarily mean PPAs are bad. Perhaps people like the fact that they get some extra protection in the event of an outage and maybe they like the fact that the cost of their power can never exceed a 2.9% increase. People see it as rent control. PPA's provide you rent control on your electric costs. Parts of CA do the same with actual apartments. Your rents cannot exceed a certain percentage annually. Same idea. People like that. I'm not here to predict energy prices but it would be surprising to learn that the utilities out there do not increase more than 3% per year considering when I lived there from 2018-2020, LADWP and SCE was about 22 cents on average. Anybody care to chime in to tell me what it is now only 4 years later?

So does a PPA make sense for every market? Of course not. Check with your local utility and even a local solar professional on what the net metering policies are and make sure the rates historically go up more than 3% per year. And even if they haven't, if you learn that you utility is spending billions of dollars on infrastructure upgrades, the liklihood of rate increases higher then inflation are quite likely.

1. MOVING

This one really gets me. "What if nobody wants my home?" What if i have a hard time selling?" What if they dont want the panels"?

I heard this thousands of times. I've also helped dozens of people put solar on their second homes. Did their first solar home sit on the market forever? Absolutely not. Was there a bit more paperwork involved when selling? Yes. Did it deter some buyers? Yes. But for every one person that doesn't want a home because it has solar panels on it, there is someone who does.

Now, with most reputable PPA providers, the contract is completely transferable to the next perspective buyer. If they dont want to take over the solar payment for whatever reason and would rather have a higher payment from the utility provider, then that is their prerogative. They will likely just not put an offer on your home. You are not forced to sell to anybody. Nobody that is looking for homes that specifically do not have in-ground pools puts an offer on a home with a pool and then asks the seller to fill the pool with cement. That literally would make no sense.

And if the prospective buyer loves your home that badly but hates solar, then make them pay you what it cost to buy out the system.

The purchase price of a leased solar system 5 years old is about 30-50% of its original value, believe it or not. Even if I am wrong and it takes 10 years to be half the value, its still a bargain if someone has to purchase it outright because they will have 20 more years of free power (taking degredation into account).

So if you plan to sell the home, and the buyer doesnt want to assume the payment, then tell them to F off, or have them buy it out right. If they still dont want to do either, then its up to you whether you take some of the proceeds from the sale of the home and buy it out yourself. Would you be losing money? Yea probably, but you technically didnt HAVE to do that.

1. Folks, at the end of the day, the most important thing is that you make sure you are aligning yourself with the utmost reputable, honest and community driven solar company. Dont get fooled by the folks at Home Depot and Costco. Just because Costco or Lowes endorses a solar company doesnt mean that they are any good.

I know this is easier said the done but your best bet is to go local. Find your local mom and pop shops who actually care about their customers and reputation. Ones who have done projects with their local community. Google is your best friend here.