Actually I think that panels are going to become less of a commodity. We’re on the verge of whole varieties of technological innovation in all areas of “cleantech” including solar panels. And that’s good.

Indeed, CR may need to consider what their true innovation is. Is it cheaper panels? Is it the use of leaseback as a selling tool combined with the ability of corporate ownership to claim more tax credits and RECs? I agree it’s not simply vertical integration, nor is it MLM. Those are just icing if they are good at all (I think MLM can be a net negative.)

There are some good ideas in here:

• Customers will be more willing to buy pre-financed PV systems than they are to finance them on their own.
• There are economies of scale in working out streamlined install processes, training and to some extent the arrangement of permits.
• A corporate owner can get the full 30% tax credit and rapid-depreciation where a homeowner can’t.
• A corporate owner can probably sell RECs far more easily than a homeowner.

These are good things, but they don’t bring solar down to CitizenRe’s price. The RECs might do so for a time, but they have claimed the RECs are not in their financial model.

An interesting question is this. If a company offered customers the CitizenRe deal, but based on today’s panel prices — meaning an electricity cost of more like 17 cents/kwh — how would they react? That’s what every customer who puts in solar today is effectively buying. Those customers have to finance their own deals, of course.

CitizenRe offers a price lower than your local grid power, and of course customers will jump at that — they don’t have to have any interest in being green to do that. Perhaps they can cut that number a bit, get it down to 14 or 15 cents. Should there not be a chunk of customers, willing to pay more for their electricity in order to go solar. (Aside from being green, going solar also means backup power during the daytime.)