Savvy shoppers also see shorter paybacks.
EnergySage
has emerged as the most popular shopping site for solar, and with
prominence comes a robust set of data with a window into the preferences
of consumers who are considering installing solar. EnergySage just released its initial Solar Marketplace Intel report,
the first in what will be a regular series. It assessed more than
10,000 quotes from the latter half of 2014 through the first half of
2015 in the top 10 states for residential solar.
There are a few
caveats. One is that SolarCity, the leading residential solar installer
with more than 200,000 customers, is not a participant in the EnergySage
platform. Another is that EnergySage’s business mirrors trends in U.S.
solar installations, meaning that the data set for California, for
instance, is far larger than those for other states. Even so, the
inaugural report is telling. About 90 percent of EnergySage shoppers
chose to own their systems, either outright or through loans, rather
than lease them. SolarCity said last year that it expected more than half of its systems to be loans rather than leases by the end of 2015.
Vikram
Aggarwal, CEO of EnergySage, attributed the high figure in part to the
fact that customers of his company were really doing their homework.
They often receive multiple quotes through EnerySage, allowing them to
better comparison shop and crunch numbers. The result for the majority
of those customers is that owning the system is a better choice than
leasing. “They’re smart shoppers,” he said, “and they want choices.”
Customers
who get at least four quotes have a 40 percent chance of deciding to go
solar, compared to just 6 percent for those who only get a quote from a
single installer. As prices drop for solar, some customers are
choosing larger systems overall. In New York, the average system size is
more than 20 percent larger than just a year ago. Yet in California,
quoted systems were slightly smaller than in 2014, mirroring the
national average.
There
was considerable variability in the amount of household electricity use
that a solar system offset. In Washington state, the average was 56
percent for EnergySage shoppers, while Colorado, California and New York
all had figures over 90 percent.
Aggarwal noted that as long as
the payback period is seven years or less, solar is an attractive option
to people. “As more companies can price their systems such that it’s at
the seven-year mark, they have the potential to increase the size of
their market.” In the Northwest, for instance, EnergySage customers pay
off their panel systems 2.4 years faster than the average shopper in the
state, which takes 10 years.
He also pointed to the myriad of
system and financing choices for people buying solar panels, no matter
where they are located. EnergySage sees installer offers that select
from more than 40 panel manufacturers and more than 50 finance
providers, although 90 percent of financing comes from just 10
installers.
On
the equipment side, installers are pairing a diverse blend of panels
and inverters. “The amount of choice that consumers have is increasing,”
he said, a trend he expects to continue as more vendors can make the
payback attractive in more states.
http://www.theenergycollective.com/katherinetweed/2284277/90-energysage-shoppers-choose-solar-loans
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