Pennsylvania Gets Affordable Solar Loan From SolarCity

March 14, 201511 years Cynthia Shahan 7 Comments

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SolarCity this week announced yet another good solar story. It is now offering a highly affordable solar loan in Pennsylvania. According to a press release from SolarCity, described as America’s #1 solar power provider (for a reason), it is “the most affordable solar power offering in Southeastern Pennsylvania.”

SolarCity writes:

“The company will offer its unique MyPower solar loan in the state for the first time, and is also rolling out a new power purchase agreement (PPA) option. Both make it possible for many homeowners in the area to install solar with no upfront cost and pay, on average, 15–20 percent less for solar than they currently pay for utility power. SolarCity will initially make its new offerings available to customers of the utility PECO in Southeastern Pennsylvania—including the metropolitan area surrounding Philadelphia—and hopes to expand its service area further later this year. SolarCity is also currently scouting for a local operations center in Southeastern Pennsylvania and has begun to post new Pennsylvania job openings on its website.”

This plan is quite hopeful and rather akin to some off-grid solar financing options I just wrote about.

“MyPower allows homeowners to install solar with no upfront cost, repay their solar loan gradually based on the solar panels’ electricity production, and also maintain ownership of the system. Customers who prefer to simply pay for the power the system produces can do so through the PPA option. Both options can allow many homeowners to pay significantly less for solar than they save on utility bills to create ongoing savings every month.”

Solar leasing and PPAs have gotten heavily criticized by people who believe the leasing companies are taking too much of a profit and making solar more expensive than it needs to be. However, in many cases, solar leasing seems to be a better option than getting a solar loan. That said, the falling costs of solar as well as better and better loan offerings seem to be putting the advantage on the side of loans. SolarCity grew to be a giant via solar leasing and PPAs, but it jumped into the loan side of things strongly last year when it announced MyPower. As CleanTechnica reported at that time: “A new, first-of-its-kind solar financing option based around a combination of low upfront costs and personal ownership has just been unveiled by SolarCity.” Just a bit earlier, CleanTechnica reported that solar leasing was going to lose ground to solar ownership in 2015.

If you’re interested in the new solar offering in Pennsylvania, you can check it out here: www.solarcity.com/pa.

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Cynthia Shahan