Leasing Your Roof

[ruckus245]

Hi All,

I was contacted today by a company that wants to lease my roof so they can install solar panels. They were saying they would pay $2.00/sf.

Has anyone looked in this? Pros/Cons/warnings? If you have, have you done any cost calculations ($2/sf vs $0.8/KW, plus the cost of installing your own panels)?

I wasn't really sure which forum to put it in, Green/Eco-Friendly seemed like the best bet.

Thanks!

[Blueroom]

What's the companies name?

[ruckus245]

Apollo Solar - anyone heard of it?

[Rajuthan]

How long is the contract for?

[ruckus245]

How long is the contract for?

20 years

[r1lee]

Is that $2 sq/ft per month? That's not too bad, I don't think, but I'm not sure.

[Justin]

20 years is a long time. What happens if you need to re-shingle your roof during that period? What happens if you sell the house? Also, $2 will prob have $1 spending power in 20 years. Does the dollar value increase over time?

[ruckus245]

20 years is a long time. What happens if you need to re-shingle your roof during that period? What happens if you sell the house? Also, $2 will prob have $1 spending power in 20 years. Does the dollar value increase over time?

According to the website, they take care of roof repairs. I don't know if that includes re-shingling though. I have to assume that the lease/contract is transferable to the new owner. That $2/sqft is probably what they are banking on if the interest in alternative energy increases.

[pshch]

Read fine print and if possible post it here. Something tells me 2$/sqft is per year not a per month and unless they re-shingling your roof before putting panels it's not clear what will happen when eventually roof needs a new shingles.

[Heynow999]

I would guess it is $2 sq/ft per year. What type of roof do you have? Is it residential or commercial? 1 KW of panels would cover about 100 sq/ft. You can usually get 3KW on a house so you are looking at 300 sq/ft X $2 = $600 year.

[michelb]

If you want to pay for a PV system yourself, you can certainly make more money but if you don't want to, it is extra money in your pocket. It's not tons of money but it's probably $1000-2000+ / year which is probably better than nothing. I'd want to confirm the fine print on the maintenance (what exactly it covers and who's responsible for what), what happens after the contract (I'm guessing they are probably just going to remove the panels which means you'll have holes in your roof to patch), who's responsible for the insurance (e.g. if a tree falls on your roof, are you responsible for $50k of panels?) You'll also be paying income tax on this so don't forget about that. Are they going to want you to cut any trees on your property?

That said, I don't think it's a bad idea but you just have to make sure everything's ok for you.

[1015286969]

A company called Pure energies had a salesman running door to door in our neighbourhood last week. They pay once a year, vs Apollo which says they pay once per month.

[mavericknm]

According to the website, they take care of roof repairs. I don't know if that includes re-shingling though. I have to assume that the lease/contract is transferable to the new owner. That $2/sqft is probably what they are banking on if the interest in alternative energy increases.

Wow sounds like a pretty good deal. Provided they don't disturb you guys too much, I think that's a nice way of helping the green economy get a start. Plus you get the bonus of appearing like an environmentally friendly snob without paying an extra cent. Best of both worlds!

[k2200]

What if the company goes bankrupt and leave the panel on your roof. I guess you have to pay someone to remove it and fix up your roof.

[michelb]

What if the company goes bankrupt and leave the panel on your roof. I guess you have to pay someone to remove it and fix up your roof.

Then you are in luck. For a few hundred or thousand dollars of labour, you are getting tens of thousands of dollars of equipment.

One thing you might want to try to do if that happens is get the company to assign the MicroFIT contract to you (maybe that should be one of the clauses in the leasing contract) so that the contract falls in to you. Otherwise you'd have to get a new contract with OPA or simply do netmetering (i.e. you use the electricity you produce at no fee and any surplus gets deducted from you bill. Not nearly as good as MicroFIT but still very good).

[tanmanwayne]

I was going through one of our City Saver Advertising Magazines where I found something almost identical except through a different company.

Here's the website and in the Questions tab, they seem to answer most of the questions. I take it that they are probably similar in nature to everyone else.

$100/kW/Year

Unfortunately, this is only for residents of Ontario:

http://www.gohomesaving.com/solarsource.html

I was wondering though, if you were to "rent" your roof, could you technically open your own business to write off portions of your house and expenses in direct correlation to the rental?

Just wondering...what other options/benefits one could exploit via loopholes with this type of venture if any.

[michelb]

FYI, microFIT rules have changed and they no longer allow business to rent roofs and install solars. I suspect there are loopholes around it but technically it's not suppose to be done.

[tanmanwayne]

FYI, microFIT rules have changed and they no longer allow business to rent roofs and install solars. I suspect there are loopholes around it but technically it's not suppose to be done.

Strange then...this company must have found a loophole as I just got the pamphlet last week.

Thanks Though!

[michelb]

Strange then...this company must have found a loophole as I just got the pamphlet last week.

Thanks Though!

It was announced August 13th 2010 (possibly after you received your pamphlet, very likely after they printed them).

They (OPA - people in charge of feed-in tariff) said they will have create a program for this kind of company / service but it's probably going to take until the end of the year to get it done.