r/solar

Inherited a solar PPA when we bought our house a few years ago. We were in year 11 of a 20 year lease. Worked great for the first year and a half. Usually electric bills were only about $20/mo. Got one for $100 during a particularly hot month. The PPA is $250/mo so not bad in a 2500sqft house. Then the bills started creeping up. After year 2 we got a reimbursement check because the panels underproduced by a decent amount. One month we got a $600 electric bill and we contacted the solar company and the electric company. The electric company came out and confirmed everything is connected correctly and they are getting correct information from the panels. Tesla refused to come check and said the box we had wasn’t working, even though we could see the production amounts on the app. They took 3 months to send us a new one, and then gave us the same spiel. We didn’t have it connected correctly so they couldn’t see production information, but we could see it on the app. We asked again for them to come out and check. They refused and sent us instructions on how to connect the box.

We have contacted them multiple times over the year with them refusing to do anything every time. 3 years ago I informed them I would no longer be paying for the panels because they aren’t working and they are refusing to come look at them. We check in every so often and get the same thing, box isn’t working. It is, the app gives us production information. The past 3 years the production has not even been half of the contracted amount. They haven’t reimbursed us for it at all (or at least credited it to our past due balance). I calculated based on the lease agreement and they owe us $6000 for the past 3 years of underproduction. They now refuse to talk to us because of the past due balance. The app sent me a message about a critical error. The inverter has an error message saying riso low and the app says some or all of our panels are not working. Tesla is refusing to do anything about it. I asked them to come remove the panels because they are doing nothing. Last month they produced 20kwh and my electric bill was almost $600. Are with stuck with this or is there any way to get out of this? They are refusing to perform maintenance and the panels aren’t even working.

My original SunPower inverter went out recently. Looking to perform a DIY replacement as local solar companies want $2k+ to swap out for a new one .
The current inverter is ABB PVI-3.0-OUTD-S-US-A.
What would be a good option to replace it with?
Also have a separate SunPower system that has micro inverters and a PV55x box.
I will be getting a 10kW Tesla system added on soon with two Powerwall 3’s. The current systems will not feed directly into then Powerwalls as it’s going to be a lease, and rather they will be connected at the panel level. Thanks

Hello everyone. I am trying to help my parents out of a solar loan contract. For reasons stated below, I have most information that I believe is accurate but may not have the entire picture. If you make it through this whole post, I truly appreciate the time you took and any help/suggestions are greatly appreciated. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I am not a big Reddit poster, so if I didn’t do this properly, let me know and I will provide any info I can.

My dad was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 62. However, despite the recent diagnosis, I have observed signs of his cognitive decline for the last 6 years. His neuropsychologist even confirmed that his disease may have even been affecting him 10 years ago. Because of this, my dad has a hard time remembering a lot of things in the last several years and my mom was not very involved (in denial and didn’t know about a lot of the very poor financial choices my dad was making) to know the whole story. We have been able to go through his emails to find some information. Along with the memory issues, the doctor has indicated that his ability to rationalize, his reasoning and judgment are all affected and may have been affected as early as 5 years ago, which we believe has led to some very poor financial decisions he has made.

My dad was early on the solar panel hype and I believe got solar panels in 2008. We got the tax credits and benefits and had a warm pool, yay. However, in 2022 he started shopping around for new solar panels. He eventually went with SunPower. They were able to convince him to also get a solar battery which made the loan about $50,000. SunPower only got my dads signature for the loan.

In May 2023, SunPower wasn’t able to get the install done by the agreed time so they sent my dad an agreement for him to sign asking if he wanted Technology Credit Union to finance the remainder of the loan, which my dad signed. So, TechCU holds the loan now.

In August 2024, SunPower declared bankruptcy and no longer does any servicing or maintenance for the solar panels.

SunPower and TechCU never got my moms signature on anything, it is only my dad.

My dad was an entrepreneur and had been trying to do his own company for years, unsuccessfully. He eventually got a job in 2019 but then was laid off during covid and then did some work for an attorney doing Employee Retention Tax Credits for small businesses and got some commissions payments. However, he was not making enough money for a company to look at his background to sell him a $50,000 solar package. We have also found out that he had been pulling from his retirement early and accrued nearly $200k in fines and paying taxes early. Among these things, he also got a $100k Figure loan which has a horrible interest rate, parents have time share loans with terrible interest rates, and some other debts that need to be resolved.

My parents are in a very bad financial situation based on a lot of decisions my dad has made in the last several years.

If you have made it this far, I am wondering if anyone has had any luck trying to cancel a solar loan agreement (recission) on their own without the help of a firm/attorney who does this? Or does anyone have any advice on whether arguing that my dad lacked capacity to sign loan agreements would be successful based on his recent diagnosis of Alzheimer’s? Or has someone had a similar experience? I am trying to do this on my own without having to pay a firm, because the few firms I have spoken to have not sounded trustworthy and I also can’t wait a year or so to get this resolved because they are sinking.Are there any risks in sending a letter to them and asking to have the loan cancelled?

Literally any advice or suggestions are helpful.

TLDR: does anyone have experience sending a letter to a lender asking to have a solar loan cancelled/discharged/reduced due to financial hardship?

I've had solar for a while now and this finally started bothering me.

The app shows the biggest production numbers around midday, which is also when basically nobody is home.

Then around dinner time, when everything turns on, solar production is already dropping fast.

I knew there'd be some mismatch, but I didn't realize how much it would show up in normal day-to-day use.

For people who've had solar for a few years, did you just get used to this?

I hear folks in the industry say that lithium batteries will be phased out in 5 years. I don’t pretend to be anything more than a neophyte when it comes to power storage systems. Anyone out there care to share their thoughts about the future of lithium batteries and whether an affordable but superior replacement is indeed on the horizon?

I occasionally hear about unethical or bad installers. I wanted to stop and say that there are some great people to work with as well. My job earlier this year went very well, and all commitments were honored.

But its more than that. I decided to roof or pergola over my deck this fall and then add more panels. I wanted to discuss the project with my "solar guy". His first comment was to clarify that I shouldnt do this project if all i wanted was more panels, because it didnt make financial sense. I explained that we wanted the cover and the panels were just a bonus. I think its great that he was looking out for me first and getting business second.

Edit: Since others put their installer in replies, I'm going to give you my installer..... TerraSol in Chadds Ford, PA.

My 10 year old solar system no producing properly.

Anyone have recommendation for repair people in San Diego.

Couple companies I've contacted want 2k to completely diagnose plus cost of repair. We've narrowed it down to possibly bad panels in one or more of the 4 strings.

Thanks

New to solar panels, so would appreciate any advice. I have family in Maryland who was contacted by representatives from their electric company with this offer to install solar panels. I believe it is some form of PPA or lease program.

Cost

The cost of the solar panels per month is the average monthly electricity bill over a set period range. Comes out to be about $130 per month.

After 10 years, they get the right to purchase the panels for $3500.

Benefit

So installing the solar panels would effectively be free since the theoretical generation is more than the typical monthly usage.

In theory, we will have spare electricity to sell back to the electric company at a fraction of what the electric company charges. Some months, we may have some negligible amount of extra income.

Home price may go up a bit.

Unknowns

1. Will property tax go up since home value technically increases during next assessment?

2. Will home insurance go up? Perhaps not during the first 10 years since we have not bought it yet, but I don't know.

3. How good are solar panels after 10 years after we buy it, will it need a lot of costly maintenance?

4. Will selling the home in the next 10 years be a hassle as the solar program has to be canceled or something?

5. Any other things I should consider since I'm a newbie at this?

Hello, been trying to get my solar installed and running since March and it’s just been one issue after another. I highly regret choosing the company I went with.

Long story short, it’s installed, connected, permits approved, etc. now all that needs to be done is our utility company needs to do a meter check and replace if needed for bidirectional functionality. I have been waiting over a month now on this step. My solar company told me the delay was due to the utility conpany having issues with their system and causing delays.

I finally reached out to the utility directly and come to find out they’ve been waiting since June to get the proper paperwork, pictures, inspection certificates from my solar company to get us scheduled for the meter job.

I am livid and just don’t know what to do at this point, I sent all this info to the solar company on Thursday and have not heard back. The contact doesn’t give any guarantees about install windows/conpletion but it does say they would make every effort to get it done as quickly as possible which has definitely not been the case.

Just looking for advice from anyone who works at one of these companies, or an electric utility or has been through something similar. Lawyering up seems like an expensive and long route to take when this project is literally one step away from being completed. Thank you for your help! Happy to provide additional info if wanted, but I’d rather not name the company or personal details until this is over.

Edit: Ameren MO is the utility

Looking for any other vendors to consider as well.