Solar - Catching Rays and Avoiding Scams

Are solar panels right for your home? The answer depends on multiple factors that many salespeople won't tell you about. Pearson Kilgore, project manager at Suncatcher of Atlanta, a family-owned solar company operating since 1983, breaks down the essential considerations for making solar a smart investment.

Transcript

. 0:00

This is Watt's New, a series of conversations about what’s new in the energy space hosted by Cobb EMC , one of the nation's largest membership cooperatives based in Marietta , Georgia , a suburb of Atlanta . Now, here's Watt's New .

Mike 0:12

And welcome to the solar edition of Watt's New . Pearson Kilgore is our guest today . He’s with Suncatcher of Atlanta , a residential and commercial solar solutions company . Since 1983 , Suncatcher has provided solar electric using state-of-the-art technology .

Introduction to Suncatcher Solar

Mike 0:26

Pearson is a project manager with Suncatcher Solar . Pearson , welcome to Watt's New .

Pearson 0:30

Absolutely . Thanks for having me on .

Mike 0:31

Tell us what you do at Suncatcher Solar as a project manager .

Pearson 0:34

Yeah, so family-owned company, Suncatcher of Atlanta . My father started it back in 1983 doing thermal . So he went to school for thermal

Mike 1:26

Let's talk about the basics of solar and why it is a smart investment .

Pearson 1:29

Ton of upsides to solar

Solar Basics and Investment Benefits

Pearson 1:31

, one being day one savings . So , you know , putting PV panels on your roof, I personally have them on our roof, and we've seen day one savings . But the big thing is trying to guard yourself to utility increases . Cobb EMC, shameless plug, you guys have , you know , the lowest rates in Georgia . You know you're protecting yourself, and you're owning the power that you're producing , and so not just that , it also helps stabilize the grid too as well . So , yeah , and then you know you get into the battery side of everything giving yourself , you know , support if you lose power and things of that nature . So there's a ton of upsides in that regard . And also , just , you know , being more sustainable and helping our environment too as well .

Mike 2:16

How does someone know if solar is going to be right for their home ?

Is Your Home Solar-Ready?

Pearson 2:20

one thing to look at is going to be the orientation of your home , the way your home's facing . South facing is going to be your ideal position , whether that's on the front or the back of the house . If it's on the front , then we have to talk about HOA and things of that nature . But just assuming it's on the back , yeah , dead south facing is ideal . And then your shading . How many trees do you have in your house ? Do you get significant shading throughout the day or throughout the year ? And those are going to be your first two signs . If you check both those boxes: good , south facing and then no shade ? Hey , you know , you can give us a call and we can definitely work something out .

Pearson 2:53

Because solar, it's so ROI driven , being returned on investment . So you want to make sure you know you're making this investment , you want to make sure you're going to get your money back on it . And if you're putting panels and like a north side roof or you know , depending on how it is , east or west , it's going to destroy your ROI . And so you want to make sure the factors are correct . Not everyone is , you know , eligible for solar . Not everyone qualifies well for it . So those are things that you need to make sure that you're discussing and that your solar professional whoever's giving you a proposal is taking consideration to as well .

Mike 3:25

Obviously , people want to go green , they want to save money , but is there an environmental impact

Solar Panel Lifespan and Recycling

Mike 3:30

? How long did the panels last ? Do they get recycled ?

Pearson 3:33

Yes , um , you know , it depends on, you know, how you dispose of them . But , yeah , there's tons of solar recycling and , um , pretty much an industry standard right now for warranty on panels is 25 years . We have some panels , some manufacturers , that are getting to the 30 year mark , but you know , typically your panels are going to last for minimum 25 years . They all come with a degradation warranty too as well . So , basically saying , the manufacturer is guaranteeing that they will hold X percentage of production that they had from day one , which is great . And so it really gives you peace of mind that , okay , I'm going to have to worry about these things failing in five years . And with the efficiency ratings and everything like that dramatically increasing it , the quality of the panels and the longevity of them are definitely coming to .

Mike 4:22

We deal a lot with this topic here at Cobb EMC as an energy company: solar scams .

Avoiding Common Solar Scams

Mike 4:27

They're everywhere . There's even people locally going door to door dressed with Cobb EMC logo shirts, trying to get your information . How can these solar scams be avoided ?

Pearson 4:37

We run into the same thing , not necessarily people dressing up as us , but having to go against these canvassers and door knockers that are selling solar and you know , and just to get in front of it . I don't think all of that is bad . I think you can be a door-to-door salesman and sell an honest product and be great . There's money in that and that's awesome . But too often we run into these salesmen that A have no knowledge of solar . All they're selling is a loan payment and they're not selling anything else . And you know , there's ways to finesse the , the modeling software to make a system look like it's going to produce what it's not going to produce , and so the biggest thing is this being informed , understanding , you know , from a homeowner standpoint , understanding . Hey , these are the big things I need to look for from a proposal to make sure that I'm getting something honest , one , like we already spoke about , making sure your roof is south facing , making sure you don't have you know shading or your shading is minimal . And then also making sure that the person that's giving you a proposal is doing a shading analysis and that they're taking into consideration your 12 month history of your bill , but not even just that they're taking into consideration your consumption habits .

Pearson 5:51

That's a huge thing with solar is when do you use the power that you're using ? You know , if you are a nine to five couple , that everyone leaves the house at eight o'clock every morning and you're not home till six o'clock . Well , you have a peak time of production and that's why no one's home . So you have a ton of extra production . You're sending it back to the grid . The grid's only giving you wholesale value for that . So you're losing money every single time you send a kilowatt back .

Pearson 6:18

Well , you get home six 6 PM , energy starts , you know , ramping up you guys cooking dinner and doing whatever . Well , your solar production is going down at that point . And so you know , if you factor that in , you're not going to really make anything on solar . Your ROI is destroyed because you're not using anything you're producing . And so , in understanding that kind of thing , is what's going to help , you know , a good solar company be able to build you a system that you're going to like . So in that situation , we , you know , we put a battery on your house , store the extra energy , use it at night , and so if your solar installer is not asking questions like that . They're not qualified to be selling you solar, and you shouldn't be entertaining it at all .

Mike 7:00

And , just as a side note , I can't speak for every energy company , but Cobb EMC employees will never go to your house . They'll never ask you for information over the phone payment information , personal information . So please do research if you are planning to add solar to your home . Any incentives going on for solar right

Federal Tax Credits for Solar

Mike 7:16

now ?

Pearson 7:16

Yeah . So the big thing with in Georgia, there's no state incentives . The big thing is the 30% federal tax credit , and that's another thing . Going back to the scammers is understanding how the federal tax credit works . It's not a rebate . You're not going to get a check from the government for 30% of the cost of the system . It is a tax credit that , when tax season comes around , you can apply towards your federal liability . Now there are some advantages there . Where , say , you don't have enough liability to satisfy the full amount , you can roll over the remaining balance to the next years until it's satisfied . And so , yeah , that's a big thing . But the 30% credit is great and it's helped us a lot for making solar a more affordable for everybody kind of thing , and it makes a lot of sense when you factor it in .

Mike 8:04

Well , the podcast is called Watt's New . So what's new in solar technology ? Any new innovations or advancements ?

Pearson 8:09

Yeah

Innovations in Battery Technology

Pearson 8:10

. So the big thing we're seeing in solar is the battery storage side and , more specifically , it becoming more efficient and more affordable . For a long time , when batteries first came out , you know, they're very expensive to install, and now we're having products that are , you know , I wouldn't say half the price but you know , 40% less or so than what we were originally seeing . So companies like Franklin , they've come out with a 15 kilowatt battery that is the price of like a 10 kilowatt battery , which is great .

Pearson 8:39

Um , Tesla has a lot of technology that's coming out with their Power Wall 3, and then you know , it's way more affordable for the uh , for the homeowner , and we're shifting more towards this kind of all-in-one solution , to where you have a battery and an inverter all in one unit , uh , opposed to having like a separate but central inverter and then battery and then , um , so on that end , and then , like on the micro inverter side , you have , like the AC coupling which , like Franklin for example , they're making their batteries more affordable . So that's the big thing we're seeing is battery storage becoming more available , which is great . It's good to see batteries becoming more affordable because it makes it ends up making a system make a lot more sense , not just from the peace of mind to where you have backup in the event of a grid outage , but you're able to make your system more efficient to where you can store that excess energy instead of sending it back . So that's the big thing we're seeing right now .

Mike 9:31

With all the new technology , where would you like to see residential and commercial solar going in the next few years ?

Pearson 9:37

Yeah . So I just would love to see it just continue to become more affordable so that more people can take advantage of

The Future of Solar Energy

Pearson 9:44

it . In Georgia, we're you know , we're not the highest utility rate in the country , based on the national average . So in that regard , our you know , the placement and price and everything is that much more critical to make it make sense for a customer . And so as prices come down , as technology gets better , that's only going to make this industry that much more attractive .

Pearson 10:05

And then , honestly , just a return to more honest and transparent sales , which I think we're seeing kind of a shift now . Covid was a big time where we saw all these door knockers and these fly-by-night sales companies come in and just lie to customers , just blatantly lie to customers , and thankfully , over the solar coaster , as we call it , every year the last two years have been very up and down , which is not great for those kinds of sales companies , and so we've seen a lot of them exit the market , which is great . And so now it's returning more to the you know the the locally owned , honest companies , which is good because it gives a good name for solar .

Mike 10:43

Lots of great info on solar . Pearson, thank you so much for being here . Pearson Kilgore from Suncatcher Atlanta .

Pearson 10:48

Yeah , absolutely . Thanks for having me on .

Mike 10:49

You can catch this episode and future episodes of Watt's New at cobbemc . com/ podcast .

. 10:56

Thank you for listening to Watt's New, hosted by Cobb EMC . Listen to more episodes at cobbemccom .