MONEY IN SOLAR BEATS S&P 500

Report: Forget Stocks, Invest In Solar Panels

Tom Kenworthy, January 13, 2015 (ClimateProgress)

“…[I]n all but 4 of the 50 largest cities in the U.S., installing a fully-financed 5 kilowatt solar panel system makes more financial sense than investing in a popular stock market index fund. Further, the same system would beat the costs of buying energy from local utilities in 42 of those 50 cities…A key qualifier in [ Going Solar in America from the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center] is that the benefits of installing residential solar photovoltaic systems are greatest when homeowners finance the systems (at an assumed annual interest rate of 5 percent) rather than buying them upfront. And the study does not investigate the availability of such loans. The study finds that in upfront purchases of solar, residents in just 14 out of the 50 largest U.S. cities would pay less for electricity than if they buy from their local utility…[and solar would be] a better investment than the broad stock market index fund in 20 of the 50 cities...Looking at the levelized cost of energy for solar PV systems (the average cost per kilowatt over the expected 25-year life span), the NC Clean Energy Technology Center’s study found that nearly 21 million homeowners in 42 of the nation’s largest cities would save money with financed solar systems over getting their power from the grid. More than 9 million homeowners in 14 of the cities would save money even if they pay upfront for solar systems…” click here for more

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