BP Solar is not actually going out of business, but according to BP Solar’s CEO, “BP Solar will shift its strategic direction to focus on large-scale project development activities.” In other words, you won’t be able to buy BP Solar solar modules at SolarTown or anywhere else unless you have a very large project. BP Solar is closing its facility for good, leaving behind unfulfilled promises. BP Solar was a name in U.S. manufacturing. Now its solar headquarters will be relegated to the dustbin of the history of U.S. manufacturing. We are sorry to see you go.
Archive for July, 2011
BP Solar: We Hardly Knew Ye
Thursday, July 28th, 2011Do Home Solar Panels Add to the Value of Your Home?
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
If you have a home with solar panels and next door you have a home without solar panels, you would expect that there should be a premium for the home with solar panels. So you have just sunk $20,000 for your solar panel system—and you will get some of that back from incentives, but will you be able to recoup any of your out of pocket cost if you move in a year. If the useful life of the solar energy on the home is 25 years, and we use a discount rate of 5% per year, then the economic value of the solar panel system you have on your home is $11,000. All things being equal, and assuming that the market is rational, a purchaser of your home should pay an additional $11,000 over what the house next door is selling for without solar panels on the roof. You would expect that you would recoup at least the present value of the energy savings over the next 25 years if you go sell your home. There is scant evidence out there and we at SolarTown wanted to see if this assumption was correct. Accordingly, we are now completing a study to see whether homeowners do indeed receive a premium for the “solar savings” of having a solar energy system on the home. We are about to release the results of a study on this issue. Stay tuned to the SolarTown Learning Center to see the results.