TXU offers solar panel lease program through SolarCity

[stump172]

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/02/23/1991849/new-txu-solar-power-venture-drops.html

Their website says that these are grid tied with no battery backup and shut down during a power outage. So, this might not be the kind of thing for us, from a preparedness view, but it does look like an interesting program.  Anything that lowers the cost of solar, can't be too bad.

More info here:
http://www.txu.com/solar

[ZX9RCAM]

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/02/23/1991849/new-txu-solar-power-venture-drops.html

Their website says that these are grid tied with no battery backup and shut down during a power outage. So, this might not be the kind of thing for us, from a preparedness view, but it does look like an interesting program.  Anything that lowers the cost of solar, can't be too bad.

More info here:
http://www.txu.com/solar

This is strictly for the safety of any repairmen.....don't want them coming into contact with hot lines, lol.
I would presume one could wire up a switch to divert the power to batteries for for back-up.

[Ekunga]

Anything that lowers the cost of solar, can't be too bad.

I think you miss the point that every part of society acts to maximise profits. Therefore you will never see solar panels become cheap while scheme like this exist, all that happens is every set of hands on the way to you increases the price to a point where you are still paying the same after the scheme as you would before.

Also as you increase the number of these scheme there is less incentive for competition in the market to bring prices down. I believe that solar will only start to decrease in price once all the incentives dissapear and the price is driven by the real market not the artifical market that currently exists.

[Truik]

And they only lease them to you. Then remove them from your home while they would still have many years of usable service they could provide.

I would be more interested if they actually sold them and then I could hook up a battery back up to make them REALLY useful.

[OvillaBrown]

My neighbor was able to get on this program. He put a down payment of $ 3,500 and he’s done. He does not have to pay anymore. The solar cells are supposed to save him about $200 per month on his electric bill. That is almost too good to be true!

[4bull]

Hey can i rent your roof , i pay the 3,500 and get the check too?

[hanzel]

Was anyone able to download their "Surplus Power Purchase Agreement" at http://www.txu.com/library/DRG_SURPLUS_POWER_PURCHASE_AGREEMENT_FINAL_010710.pdf  I only get a 0k file.  I could not find if this was limited to any specific areas of their service.

 Wonder if I can generate power for TXU and use the profits to pay my Gexa bill. 

[Cool Blue]

Even if the plan isn't for you, the company might be a good place to pick up used PV panels!

[Endure]

This is strictly for the safety of any repairmen.....don't want them coming into contact with hot lines, lol.
I would presume one could wire up a switch to divert the power to batteries for for back-up.

The grid tied setups used in this scenario won't charge batteries...  At least easily, without cutting and damaging the inter-panel wiring in the system.

More importantly, there are usually some very specific clauses on alterations to the array - Start rewiring it or adding/modifying components and you'll end up on the bad side of their contract.

Sorry.

[Stein]

It's called anti-islanding and an important feature to any residential distributed generation.  Most people probably don't know about it and if you are expecting the pv system to provide power during a grid event you will be surprised.

In a nutshell, when the inverter senses a disturbance on the grid it shuts down all power export until the grid is restored.  As mentioned, the main reason is for lineman safety and secondarily it helps the grid operator as he doesn't have to fight a million inverters each doing their own thing.

I think the program sounds great, you get all the benefit with a small fraction of the cost.  Let someone else worry about the reliability of the system and installation.

[csmithsaa]

Hey All! Just wanted to let you know about our (Solar Action Alliance) Fort Worth solar panel info page in case it would be helpful for making solar decisions (or just learning more about solar):

https://solaractionalliance.org/texas/fort-worth/

Let me know what you think or if you have any questions!

Thanks,
Chelsea