For us, the stimulus has been - and is expected to be in the future - a big
joke. We were lucky in that we get quite a few local off-grid installs and
upgrades, because the grid tie market has dropped by over 50% in the past 6
months or so. While panel prices have dropped, it seems like almost all BOS
components have gone up, somewhat offsetting the savings.
The one big expense increase we have noticed in the past couple of years or
so has been the permitting and paperwork process for grid tie systems. And I
am not expecting the slightly improved credit market to help - just in the
past 24 hours alone, mortgage interest rates have hit the highest rate since
December of last year, up from 4.5% to 5.45% in just a week. On a $300K
home, that difference could have paid for a 7kw PV system.
..................................................................................................
Northern Arizona Wind & Sun - Electricity From The Sun Since 1979
Solar Discussion Forum: http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/
..................................................................................................
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joel Davidson" <joel.david...@sbcglobal.net>
To: "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>; "RE Marketing for
home scale RE industry" <re-mark...@lists.re-wrenches.org>
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 1:07 PM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] sales to-date
This dialogue provides a barometer that helps business owners measure
performance and make plans. Still, I am copying it over to RE-Markets.
Industry consultants predict generally lower sales in 2009. See
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/u.s.-solar-market-so-promising-except-for-2009
However, it looks like established Wrenches have carved out a niche for
themselves and/or have sufficient local business. The good news is lower
module prices make PV affordable to more people. The bad news is the
recession has just about eliminated discretionary major purchases, has put
a lot of potential customers out of work, and is creating more competition
as unemployed workers try to find jobs or start businesses in the highly
publicized but still very small "green" market.
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