5 days without power in 100+ degree heat both fogs and sharpens the mind.
Fogs as in too hot to think. Sharpens as in figuring out how NOT to be a hostage to the utility companies.

With solar panel prices plummeting with massive over capacity in China, it’s NOW time to go solar at home. I'm doing it in Maryland and Arizona...and it’s NOT costing me a dime to install and my monthly power bill is 20% LOWER at least...with prices locked IN for 20 years.

The secret? PPAs baby.

PPA stands for Power Purchase Agreement. In this form of financing a company like Solar City (my vendor) installs the solar system and I agree to pay a rate per month that is basically 20% lower than the approved price per watt of power from my local utility.
Better...I KEEP paying the lower rate while the average utility rate per watt increases by 5% a year.

Solar City SELLS this PPA paper to institutional investors--even Google is buying the paper in $100 million tranches. The default rate on PPA contracts is VERY low...under 1%. By the time the solar panels fall apart and need replacing, the investor has earned ALL its money back and a nice 10%+ yield too.

EVEN better-I guarantee you are going to see (from NBT and others) PPA Funds that Buy these contracts from the Solar Cities of the world and HOLD the contracts for monthly income.

Why? Again...because hardly ANY ONE defaults on a PPA contract...even people in foreclosure pay the bill.

Second the yields buried within these contracts are 12-14% in many cases...when you understand how they work. In a 1.5% 10 year bond world, PPA monthly returns are magnificent...and NBT and others are in the early stages of packaging the PPAs in monthly income securities.

I can't WAIT to NOT be a victim of my local electric power utility-and to save money AND have way to get OFF the power grid (except for winter weather emergencies).
You can too! Get off the grid!

Toby