frequently asked questions

If you sell your home the best solution is to transfer any loan or warranty to the new homeowner. Whether you live in Las Vegas or Phoenix, the controlled energy costs that come with residential solar installations is extremely desirable.  

Leasing (or Power Purchase Agreements commonly called a lease) and ownership are the two main options being offered and although not every homeowner has the same needs, ownership is generally the better option.  Learn more here.

If you asked this question in 2019, you'd have mixed information either way.  Today, it's now clear that the type of solar power program that you have will determine how it impacts your home value.  Houses with Leases (or PPA's) do not sell for increased value.  That being said, if the Lease or PPA agreement is at a large discount versus the power company, your home may sell faster as the new buyers would see lower energy costs as an asset.  Houses with solar ownership (financing to own or owned cash) do sell for more money and they sell faster.  The preferred residential solar installation method for most people in Las Vegas or Phoenix is an ownership option.  For more details on solar home value click here. 

Solar panels require little maintenance.  With the right system install, you'll have system monitoring that allows you to view your system production and should there be a drop off, you could reach out to your residential solar installer.  This is why getting a real warranty from a legitimate installer is important.  

One of the many advantages to solar power is that they don't have the moving parts that often accompany technology.  With your residential solar installation, you can expect little to no maintenance.  In Las Vegas and Phoenix, we have so much sun.  All we need to do is let the Sun hit the solar panels, and energy is sent into your home. It's that simple. 

Battery backup systems are not necessary with residential solar installations, but if you want to protect yourself from power outages, a battery would be required.  In Las Vegas, Net Energy Metering is still generous, so battery storage is not as common as it would be in parts of Phoenix where Net Energy Metering is less advantageous. 

Solar installation lenders all work off of the same lending baseline which is set by the Federal Reserve rate.  The current Prime Rate is where solar lenders start from but "dealer fees" can make residential solar loans deceptive.  A smart practice when looking at a residential solar installation is Las Vegas is to ask for a cash price first so that you can compare it to their best finance option.  

Residential Solar Installations can produce energy for 40 years. Technically speaking, most residential solar installs will experience solar panel degradation at about half of a percent per year. If in Las Vegas or Phoenix, it's smarter to utilize monocrystalline solar power, because it performs better in extreme heat.  

This might be the most important question to ask.  The solar industry has been extremely volatile with a disturbing amount of residential solar installers going out of business over the past five years, including larger installation companies like Titan Solar Power and Sunpower.    In markets like Las Vegas, new regulations have been impactful in flushing out the mediocre solar installers.  What we're seeing now is a leaner and more efficient roster of quality solar installers.  

An hour and half’s worth of solar energy that reaches to the surface of the planet has enough power to meet all of humanity’s energy consumption for an entire year. Since the sun is not going away anytime soon, we have the ability and technology to depend on solar energy entirely and end the global use and consumption of fossil fuels.  Phoenix and Las Vegas top the list of some of the best solar power markets as far as sun hours go.  This is why residential solar in the Southwest is growing so fast.  The sun is sending us the juice every single day, we might as well harness it.  

 In 2010, solar energy represented only 0.06% of the global energy mix. Within nine years, solar rose up to 1.11%. Solar also makes up the largest proportion of growth in the renewable energy mix, where it grew from 0.8% in 2010 to 10.3% in 2019. Solar power capacity is rapidly growing at the same time, meaning the amount of electricity it can generate from energy it captures. Global solar power rose by 22% in 2020 as installations have experienced a boom. Together with wind power, renewable output has more than doubled since 2015. 

 While the process of solar power generation does not emit any greenhouse gases, other stages of the life cycle do produce some, but minimal, emissions. This include the manufacture of solar cell and panel materials – primarily made of monocrystalline, polycrystalline, or thin film (“amorphous”) silicon – transportation, installation, maintenance, and decommissioning and dismantlement. Most estimates of life-cycle emissions for photovoltaic (PV) solar cell systems are between 0.07 and 0.18 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour. 

 Power generation from solar PV in 2020 grew by a record 156 TWh to reach 921 TWh, marking 23% growth from 2019, and accounts for 3.1% of global electricity generation. China, one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters, alone was responsible for 75% of the increase in annual solar PV installations from 2019 to 2020.  

 Aside from solar PV cell systems, energy can be generated with solar power plants where panels within an infrastructure can last at least 40 years. Panels can be easily replaced and updated with new and more efficient modules at relatively low costs, ensuring a long lifespan of these power plants.  

 According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), for a solar power plant to provide electricity for 1,000 homes, the facility would require 32 acres of land. In other words, to meet the energy consumption needs of the US, the plant would require 18,734,500 acres to be used for solar plants, which is equivalent to 0.8% of the entire country. Aside from land use, solar thermal power plants require water use and hazardous materials can be dangerous if not disposed of correctly. 

 According to a 2020 report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), solar power is now the cheapest electricity in history. In most major countries, solar technology is also cheaper than coal and gas. 

 According to Rhone Resch, President of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the global PV sector has been growing at an average of over 40% in the last eight years and major advances in automation, manufacturing, and throughput have considerably improved this technology. Most panels today are between 15% and 20% efficient, meaning that they are able to convert 15% to 20% of the amount of sunlight they absorb into electricity. Panels’ efficiency has improved consistently over the past decade, a promising factor and one that contributes to continued cost reduction. Furthermore, their resistance to extreme weather has been drastically improved, bringing their average durability to about three decades with little to no loss in efficiency. 

 Last on our list of solar energy facts is the futuristic, yet very likely possibility to build solar power stations in space. In 2020 European Space Agency (ESA) launched a campaign to collect new innovative ideas for technologies to increase the feasibility of space-based solar power to support the provision of clean energy and is now looking to fund some of these projects. Meanwhile, some prototypes are already underway in some countries.