TickTock
Well-known member
Long story short, the supplier of my solar panels (OPEN Energy/Applied Solar) has gone bankrupt. Meanwhile the famous Arizona heat has damaged my 11KW array beyond repair. It is a systemic problem - all 320 individual panels have opens below the glass resulting in low or no output. I took one apart to verify and that was a lot of work since they are glued together with lots of Silicon. These are the roof tile style which I paid a premium for. I wouldn't have even managed it without pricey solvent (Dynasolve 220). No way I'm going to do that for all 320 panels (labor cost would be higher than the array). I've spent over $20K out of my pocket for the array and have only gotten $11500 back in electricity since the installation in 2009. I need to replace the entire array (inverter, at least, is OK). So... since I cannot go after the company that sold it to me, is there a way I can at least write off the losses in my income taxes? How does that math work? I valued the array at over the $20K I spent since I expected it to live well beyond my break even point so assuming I can, what would I claim to be my losses?