Slashdot Mirror
Selling Homeowners a Solar Dream
slugo writes to mention a Wired article discussing a unique business looking to capitalize on interest in solar power. The
Citizenr company will install a solar generator on your roof, completely for free. You then buy power from it, instead of a regular power company, at a fixed rate that's likely to be lower than the usual power fees. The company will make money on these usage fees, as well as credits from the federal government for spreading the use of solar power. If it sounds too good to be true to you, you're not alone. A number of financial analysts have warned people away from the company. "The naysayers are finding lots to say nay to. Much of the criticism is clinging to the company's multilevel marketing scheme. So far, more than 700 people have enlisted as independent Citizenr sales agents -- what the company calls 'ecopenuers' -- or about one sales representative for every 10 customers, with significant overlap. Heading that sales army is 42-year-old Styler, a veteran of multilevel marketing and a colorful figure in his own right." Pyramid marketing and shady business or not, it's an intriguing idea.
I've signed up for a system, so yes I'll be paying the company money. But, my rate is 9.8 cents per kWh and I avoid a 2.1 cents per kWh distribution charge so I actually start out save about 17% from what I'd pay the utility.
In my sales activity, I have not been asked to pay anything. I have advertized a little, but this has payed for itself in terms of sales.
It is true, that those who work longer at this will make more money than those who work for a shorter period. In the bible story, all the laborers are payed the same if they came early or late, but this is to make a point. It is more usual to make more if you work more. I've also put some effort into training other people and I think I may profit from this if I've been any good at it. You can see the compensation at http://www.powur.com/mdsolar.
We reject it for the same reason we reject Roland Piquepille's slashvertisements for his blog (which has ads on it such as "make money fast by blogging"). It may be legal, but it is creeping near the grey area because it is a way of separating people from their money in a dishonest fashion. If we don't make a stand against the stuff in the grey area, then the greedy scam artists will merely march further on and take advantage of more people without the wit to see that they are being taken advantage of. (e.g. a girl I know almost falling for the poetry contest scam, "we've selected your poem to be published in our book!" until I did 3 seconds of researching which brought up proof it was a scam since they "chose" someone's purposely random text entry)
You miss the point of how this business is constructed entirely. When the company goes under, and barring heavy intervention from the federal rebates, it's a pyramid scheme so it will, so all the end users and middle men will be screwed. Sure they'll prosecute the Ken Lays at the top maybe, but what did they recover for the poor folks he starved at the end of the day? Yeah, fucking zip, they never made any attempt to recover the money he stole that I'm aware of. It was all about the criminal charges, what was morally right was never considered. Lets just say that what I would have done to attempt to collect some justice for his hungry victims, and what was done to Ken Lay, are two entirely different scenarios. If ever a vigilante action was warranted, that was it.
After they go under, then who is to handle the worthless contract that lets you suck the excess you use from the local power grid? That's right folks, it will all be up to you to negotiate a new deal with Mr. Reddy Kilowatt, and dear old Mr Reddy Kilowatt has you by the short hairs and decides to charge you an extra 5 cents a kwh as a transport fee, just what are you going to do? Short of a lengthy court battle and numerous hearings at your local PUC, not a damned thing that will be profitable to YOU.
The only thing you can do is go off-grid, and live within what you can pull from the roof. Then the furnace will pull the batteries down in a long grey cold snap and where are you? Scrambling around to setup a wood stove for the rest of the winter, and planning to add a few kwh worth of wind power come construction season. Yeah, you CAN make it work, but it WILL change your lifestyle AND it will cost quite a few hay wagon sized loads of cash.
Rottsa ruck as they have been known to say in Tokyo.
--
Cheers, Gene
Well, the nerd that posted this obviously did not do their homework and look at the numbers that were supplied to all in the link in the original post, or this attitude would not pervade. With such negativity, you must work for one of those transnationals, huh?
Maybe in your cubicle "whatever" is a high-functioning response. All kinds of logic there. I guess I'm not a businessman either because you said so.
And how do you know that world leaders will not be asking us for favors in the future?
Make solar panels for the whole world? I believe that's part of the plan. How do you know that the largest transnational corporations are not our customers already?
You see, the problem you have here is that you've based this on your assumptions--including my "super-profitable" career as a trader. I'm not Warren Buffet. Yet.
Also, trying to mischaracterize things I wrote does not help your credibility. Do you remember the "open the kimono" part of my post? That's a reference to showing people your "private parts", and again why would you want us to lose our competitive advantage by showing the world everything before it's ready? So our competitors have a chance to catch up? Who's not a businessman?
Lighten up, man!
PS--We are asking for no money until the equipment is in your neighborhood and ready to install and you've approved your system design, so unless your family loves us so much that they are sending us unsolicited funds beforehand, well, anyway. If you could explain the scam to me a little bit more, I'd be interested in having you explain to us all how anyone benefits from anything when no money is exchanged--I'd really like to hear it. Really.
That's what I was thinking. I'm not so worried losing money, its more the inconvenience of some scenario where you are without ANY power for an extended period (more than a few hours) if the worst happened and someone was powering an entire dwelling with, say 2 of these units. There is no code that says you can't have multiple services entering a structure, they just have to be fused at the same place with a means of disconnect for all of them independently.
If they got big, went under, how long until the power company can absorb everyone as customers again who want to be? And I think there's got to be some local law to ensure that happens prior to the bank pulling out the unit.
For people just augmenting grid power, it could still get to be a bit of a hassle.
Hassle like : You have the thing powering a sump pump circuit and other needed things at certain times of the day. Its 7:30 am, and some dude is banging on your door talking about needing to get on your roof showing you papers from the bank. Now you have to go put junk back the way it was.
I don't think its going to bomb. I'd just be more comfy with clear wording and some guidelines in place to soften the impact of corporate "oh, shits" on the people who get them