solar in Houston

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

solar in Houston

Wouldn't you know, just when the wife and I are winding up our working career and are poised to blow this joint (e.g., get out of town), Houstonians are finally going to have the option of installing solar panels on their homes and paying only for the cost of the electricity generated.

I wish this option had been around when we built our last home in Houston. We sold it two years ago so we could leave Houston easily when we retired.

And of course now we are moving into an area that does not have this solar option. Grrr. But we will have SpaceX as a neighbor.

SolarCity Expands Into Houston Area for First Time

SolarCity announced this week that it has now expanded into the Houston area for the first time, giving residents the chance to go solar for as little as $40 per month.

SolarCity, the United States’ leading solar energy provider, relaunched its solar program earlier this month into 14 states across the US, with plans to expand as soon as possible. The new solar loan program replaced the company’s MyPower product, which the company pulled earlier this year. Announced on Monday, SolarCity revealed that it is now making its solar services available to the Greater Houston area with purchase, loan, and lease options all available.

SolarCity, for as little as $40 per month, provides solar installations complete with the design, installation, financing, monitoring, and a performance guarantee — and qualifying customers can also walk away with a Nest Thermostat free of charge.

In addition, for Houston homeowners, SolarCity has partnered with local retail electricity provider M2P Energy to give residents, whose transmission service provider is CenterPoint Energy, access to full net metering benefits.

SolarCity installed 870 MW of solar in 2015, up 73% from its 2014 figures, solidifying its position as the leading solar installer in the US. However, SolarCity only offered installation guidance of 180 MW for its first quarter, which worried some investors, and only installed 214 MW of new solar in the quarter, which would have been OK, if it had not also lost $2.56 per share during the quarter.

Nevertheless, SolarCity continues to expand, and is expecting to hire between 50 and 100 local staff in Houston for sales, installation, and related fields.

Original.