Citizenrē: affordable solar electricity, or MLM scam?

[Glen Miyashiro]

Has there been an HT thread yet about Citizenrē Corporation (http://www.citizenre.com/), the guys who are offering no-upfront-installation-cost solar photovoltaic services? Wired Magazine just published a highly skeptical article (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72752-0.html) about Citizenrē, suggesting that they might be just a bunch of fly-by-nighters that won't last.

[Hellbent]

sounds too good to be true...

[craigwatanabe]

I remember reading an article about a company who is doing work in developing countries to develop solar energy to impoverished villages and expanded their efforts here in the United States to small businesses and homeowners.

The way it works is that the company foots the cost for the solar equipment. They in turn sell the solar tax credits (at a profit) to the open market like a commodity.

How it benefits a recipient going solar is very simple:

1) The recipient gets solar power for free instead of paying for electricity
2) The recipient gets solar panels for free from this company
3) The solar company receives the tax credits from the federal government
4) The solar company sells those credits as a commodity

The recipient in this case are small business owners who simply want to get "off the grid" or reduce their energy bill or homeowners who want solar but in each case neither can afford the upfront costs of conversion to solar.

Now you ask, "Who would buy solar tax credits?" Businesses that are mandated by our environmental laws to have a certain percentage of their energy consumption via alternative energy sources.

It's cheaper for these businesses to buy tax credits rather than to retrofit their existing infrastructure to accomodate expensive hardware to harvest energy naturally.

Basically it's a big loophole for major companies to take advantage of. But it's a loophole that created a cottage industry of Tax Credit brokering as well as giving homeowners and small businesses the opportunity to get free electricity with no upfront costs.

It really is a win win situation.

[adrian]

I thought you need to pay HECO or something if you want to get off of their grid? (either I remember reading it here or learning it in college).

[craigwatanabe]

I thought you need to pay HECO or something if you want to get off of their grid? (either I remember reading it here or learning it in college).

Actually if you're producing more than consuming and you're still connected to the grid, then HECO owes you.

[buzz1941]

Actually if you're producing more than consuming and you're still connected to the grid, then HECO owes you.

Depends on who you are and how you do it:

http://starbulletin.com/2007/02/14/business/story01.html