by Steve Clark Founder of Citizens for Clean Energy 1989 (changed to the singular “Citizen” when no one seemed to care during the ’90s), now affiliated with Clean Energy Action

 

Because of the great policies helping promote solar energy use here in Colorado I have been helping some friends sell solar equipment. In order to help the customers understand the advantages I needed to get familiar with the state rebates and the federal tax breaks. This included learning about spread sheets and meeting with accountants and economists to get a clear idea of how to present this information to customers. People always want to know what the payback is when purchasing a solar energy system.

I was glad to learn how to show people the "numbers" and help them justify the not inconsiderable cost of buying a solar photovoltaics (PV) system - tens of thousand of dollars up front versus just continuing to pay their electric bill. I needed to help them see when their investment would begin to make sense financially. The payback for PV against the cost of electricity bills is quite a long time but with the rebates and tax breaks it can be as little as three years. This makes economic sense not only for home owners but for businesses.

I found myself wishing that PV was as sexy as say a new car so that my job would be as easy as a car salesman's. Of course they never show a customer spread sheets. No car salesman has ever been asked what the payback is on a new car. Really when you think about it the "sale" has already been made. The customer is bombarded with ads telling them they have to have this or that model of new car to look good and be attractive to the opposite sex. By the time the customer walks into the showroom they are desperate to get their hands on a car. The salesman is just there to help pick out colors, run up the price with options and take their money.

Car salesmen never have to justify the cost of new car because it is not an investment. Its a liability. Especially when you consider how useless the 3 ton piece of equipment is before you add fossil fuel. And if the purchase of a car needed to be justified the salesman could never make any argument about pay back. The best they can do is argue that it loses less money over time than the other brand.

A business could never justify the cost of an investment in equipment that sits idle 23 hours out of every day and the private owner could take public transportation for a fraction of the cost. But no one ever asks about the payback on a car.

Solar Parking

I got to wondering if it was possible to make solar as sexy as a new car and therefore make my job as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. I came up with a sexist "beer commercial" ad campaign to help sell PV. The scene is a suburban street. A somewhat nerdy guy is polishing his new electric car in the driveway and the roof of his house is covered with solar panels. Along come three scantily clad young women. They smile and look at the roof and one says, "Look at the size of that guy's array!". The other says, "I love solar energy." and the third says "My feet are killing me lets go shopping for shoes." The ad ends with the line "Two out of three women love solar energy."

Because a lot of the people purchasing PV systems are women I also thought up an ad with a group of housewives watching handsome young men installing PVs on their neighbor's roof. It's kind of x-rated, but anyway, you get the idea.

Now add the electric car and we are really creating something sexy. Imagine getting mobility from sunshine.... Wow that's sexy! We can be manipulated into buying equipment that loses money, emits lung destroying pollution, is the cause of global warming and resource wars, or we can decide to make solar a sexy purchase and quit asking "What's the payback?"

 

Further Reading:

• The George Bush Solar Chariot Awaits! (very sexy!!)
• The Electric Car Revisited
• A Vision for a Better Future - the Coming Energy Shift
• Solar Energy - Free Deliveries Daily