A Residential Solar Service Package With a No Down Payment Loan

Originally Published in the ECOreport

Most Californians who want solar panels lease systems, but Mosaic hopes to change that.  They are teaming up with Enphase Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENPH), to offer a residential Solar service package with a no down-payment loan. The rates are comparable to existing leases. 

The immediate advantage for their customers is that they own the system and are eligible for the investment tax credit. Though the loans are for 20 years, homeowners can pay them off at any time with no penalty, and can also transfer the loan to the new owner if they sell their house.

Every customer that receives a loan under this program will receive Enphase’s  Enlighten monitoring and management system, which allows them to  monitor module-level performance through their computers.

This allows them to make adjustments to their configuration so that, according to Enphase, it “delivers more kilowatt-hours daily, monthly and yearly—even through the partial shade of clouds, trees, or structural obstructions. Plus, it increases uptime by eliminating the single point of failure common to traditional inverters.”

Enphase currently monitors 160,000+ systems globally. It collects over 500 GB of performance data daily, and provides a route for their customers to view and share their solar energy production and performance online or through most mobile devices.

Mosaic has been named a top ten most innovative energy company by Fast Company in 2013 and 2014 and has received a Department of Energy SunShot grant, the Sierra Club’s Trailblazer Award and Verizon Wireless’ Powerful Answers Award.

The Mosaic Home Solar Loan program is set up to handle $100 million in loan volume for the next 18 months. Though it is only available in California, Mosaic has plans to move into other states this year.