Citizenre promises to install free solar panels on the roofs of thousands of customers who will pay the same price for electricity that they do now. Sound too good to be true? Maybe it is, according to an opinion piece on renewableenergyaccess.com. To date they have no factory and no funding, though they claim their funding is lined up.So why is gambling on Citizenre's plan a problem? Author Jeff Wolfe sees it this way:
As soon as someone signs up for a Citizenre solar system, they are removed from the pool of potential customers for other reputable solar dealers in the U.S. Already, photovoltaic (PV) dealers are telling me that they are losing business because potential customers are signing up with Citizenre -- people are waiting until the reported 500 megawatt "largest fully-integrated PV manufacturing plant in the world" comes online this fall.But it will be September -- the deadline for the build out of the manufacturing facility and beginning installations will have come and gone -- before reality sets in for these customers when they do not receive their solar system on time as promised. Plans seem poised to fall apart, and at that point we'll have four results:
* A lot of very disappointed and upset people.
* A lot of traditional PV dealers who are out of business.
* Reduced or eliminated federal and state incentives for solar electricity due to a perceived lack of need.
* A solar electric industry in the U.S. that has been set backwards 5 years.
IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Power and Light. Visit us at www.irejn.org.
