Revisiting the solar options

[Dana Dorsett]

Hi Greenies,

In April a startup company Yeloha (see: http://www.yeloha.com/ ) was
launched with $3.5M in financial backing, using a business model for solar
power that has been working for their Israeli parent company, Generaytor
Inc. It is essentially variation on community-solar, where folks who don't
have roofs (like renters) or access to the sun pay for a portion of the
output of a solar array on someone else's roof or property. Under
Massachusetts utility regulations one can "virtually net meter" power going
onto the grid from a solar array somewhere other than their own home just as
if it were on their own roof, by buying into a "community solar" project.
The output of the entire off-site array is metered, and your share comes
directly off your electric bill at the full retail rate (including
transmission & distribution charges), the same same way it would as if the
solar were actually behind your meter.

Yeloha's unique spin on it is that a building owner can "host" a community
solar array at no cost to them (now or ever), and in return they get 25-30%
of the total output of the array net-metered, while the rest of the output
is apportioned across their subscribers. Yeloha owns, maintains, & operates
the solar, and manages all the bookkeeping, not the hose. Rather than
outright purchase, the other net-metering beneficiaries pay something up
front on a three year contract for the output of some number of panels in a
particular array (with no obligation to renew.) Subscribers choose which
project they subscribe to, and even if they move, the net-metering credits
move with them, as long as it's within the geographical limits imposed by MA
regulations. (You can't move to Osaka and have a bunch of Yen taken off your
Nippon Electric Company bill. :-) ) You may have issues if you move to some
other part of MA with a different utility on a different transmission line
feeder, but I believe the contract is breakable. They currently have waiting
lists for subscribers- more wannabe subscribers than the available host
real-estate.

There is more than sufficient area on the south facing pitch of Fellowship
Hall to cover all of the power used by the church, probably by a factore
between 2-4x. Buying & financing an array to just cover the church's needs
would be north of $50K, there are credit hoops to jump through, and there is
no tax benefits for tax exempt entities. There ARE tax benefits (and other
incentives) for third party owners however, which is how the big solar
companies like Vivint and SolarCity can offer $0 down lease deals that come
in at less than the retail cost of electricity for the homeowner.

The attraction of becoming a host site for Yeloha is that an even larger
array can go up, it costs $0, and there are no credit issues. They only need
to know that the host entity owns the building and has a right to put solar
on the roof. It seems like it would be a lot simpler and easier to get done
than outright purchase or leasing, and the utilization of the photon-farm
acreage resource would be higher than it would in a lease or purchase,
providing more benefit to the grid & planet than a smaller array that just
barely covered the church's power use. According to NREL only about 25% of
homes in the US have reasonably solar-optimized roof orientation & shading
factors, and here we have an under-utilized roof with pretty good solar
potential that could be put to better use, both for us, and for others.

The numbers given to me when I looked into the subscriber end of it was that
a typical contract is to pay $400 up front for two 300watt panels expected
to deliver 358 kwh/year, per panel (716kwh/year for two panels). So $400
over three years for 1074 kwh is effectively pre-paid electricty at $400/(3
yrs x 716 kwh/yr) = 18.6 cents kwh, which is just under grid-retail at
National Grid's recent-years' average rates. They also guarantee a minimum
of $464 of net metering credits on that $400/2-panel subscription over the
three years, independently of how much the panels actually produce. They
are able to do that due to the value of the solar credits sold, the tax
credits on their installation costs, etc. If electricity prices go up,
their profit margins go up, if power rates are flat or falling they go down,
but that's their business. The regulatory and incentives in Massachusetts
made it a more-attractive place to launch their US business than other
states, so they must have crunched the numbers to the satisfaction of their
investors. Basically, it a no-lose proposition to the subscribers unless
Yeloha goes out of business before the 3 year contract period is up. If
power prices soar (as they did this winter) it could be a fairly decent
return on investment.

I would imagine that some members of the congregation might opt to become
subscribers to a solar project on Fellowship Hall, but no matter who the
subscribers are, 25-30% of the output accrues to the church. If the project
uses all of the available space it should cover most (if not all) the power
bill. The pitch, orientation and shading factors on the Fellowship Hall are
pretty close to ideal (or would be with the removal of one tree), and it's
large enough that it should be more attractive to Yeloha than the area
available on typical private residential roof. (Their fixed costs of
permitting and project management etc are pretty much the same whether its
10 panels or 100 panels.)

Is anybody interested in pursuing more detail on having the church host one
of these projects? I could dig a bit furher to kick it off, but probably
don't have enough free time to shepherd the whole process through to
completion. If someone else wants to pick it up, the contact person I've
corresponded with recently inside Yeloha is Nataly Cahn [nat...@yeloha.com].
A direct email is probably easier than surfing through the website.

Dana Dorsett