Best Company for Solar Lease for Homeowners Association?

I am looking to get solar installed on the roof of our 4 story, 7 unit condo building for the Homeowners Assocation. The HOA uses about 1500 kWh per month, mostly for lighting of our parking garage and stairways, the rest for operation of our elevator. We were using about 2250 kWh per month until William Korthof did a lighting retrofit in Dec, 2012 with T5 fluorescents in place of T12. I figure a solar lease is our best option, since we want someone else to be responsible for maintenance, etc. and we don't have much money to buy the system upfront anyway. Plus, since we are non-profit and don't pay any taxes we wouldn't be able to take advantage of any tax credits.

So, my question is what company would you recommend? The Sierra Club has partnered with Sungevity and say they have checked out their reputation, financial strength, etc. Any thoughts on this or other companies we should investigate? Thanks.

Here in Phoenix, I had two installations on my two houses done with a local company that was a SunPower Elite Dealer:

http://us.sunpowercorp.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm not going to claim any expertise in this area, but the SunPower panels are marketed as the most efficient in the world. It was true at one time, but I'm not sure they still hold the record.

I've been happy with both of my installations here.

Might not hurt to go the above site and search for local SunPower installers and see what they can offer.

shrink said:

Here in Phoenix, I had two installations on my two houses done with a local company that was a SunPower Elite Dealer:

http://us.sunpowercorp.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Thanks. I will check into it. Sungevity won't do an installation because they "only do residential" and our building is "an apartment complex". Seems pretty residential to me, but I guess they mean single owner dwellings only.

Stoaty said:

So, my question is what company would you recommend? The Sierra Club has partnered with Sungevity and say they have checked out their reputation, financial strength, etc. Any thoughts on this or other companies we should investigate? Thanks.

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I'm having Solar City install a 32kW system on my house. Solar City is one of largest solar installation companies out there:

http://www.solarcity.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Real goods solar with sun power. We are very happy with system and follow through. Contact Ryan Pickering at 310 721 2223. Please tell him Kathleen Smith and Connie Vandergriff sent you. We are leasing.

Stoaty said:

Thanks. I will check into it. Sungevity won't do an installation because they "only do residential" and our building is "an apartment complex". Seems pretty residential to me, but I guess they mean single owner dwellings only.

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Condos/"apartment complexes" can be a real liability for contractors so it's actually not surprising. In fact it's common for insurance policies to specifically prohibit working on them. I hadn't thought of that when I first saw your post but hopefully that doesn't mean you'll be stuck with using a contractor that charges a lot more than everyone else. Need to establish that your HOA is real easy to work with/etc.


-Keith

QueenBee said:

Condos/"apartment complexes" can be a real liability for contractors so it's actually not surprising. In fact it's common for insurance policies to specifically prohibit working on them. I hadn't thought of that when I first saw your post but hopefully that doesn't mean you'll be stuck with using a contractor that charges a lot more than everyone else. Need to establish that your HOA is real easy to work with/etc.

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Since I am the treasurer and we have another board member who is frequently home, always follows up on things, etc. hopefully we can do that. We had a major flood in January when a copper pipe that was improperly attached by a previous owner became detached on the 4th floor. Although the pipe was only 1/4 inch, it ran full blast for 2 hours before the problem was discovered. I noticed it at 4:00 AM when water started flowing from my ceiling. All 3 units below the leaking pipe had a lot of water damage. Drywall had to be ripped out, dehumidifiers/fans running 24/7 for a week. Insurance paid at least $150,000 to fix the damages. No problem getting contractors to put bids and do the repair work. Installing solar would be a breeze in comparison. :lol: