 | Citizenre Update |
Back in February, traditional solar panel installers got upset when I reported on the claims that Citizenre that it would begin manufacturing solar panels which would be given to homeowners on long term loans, like cable TV boxes, starting in September this year. They scoffed, and said it couldn’t be done.
Well, they were right. Citizenre didn’t start manufacturing solar panels in September. The Citizenre web site indicates that their manufacturing plant still has not been completed. They’re now predicting that their first solar panels will become available in the summer of 2008.
I’m not sure that I buy that claim. My guess is that Citizenre will still be struggling to get its solar panels out this time next year. That said, I still encourage people to consider registering for a Citizenre solar energy system.
Why? Well, there’s no cost for registration, and there’s no obligation. If Citizenre does start manufacturing solar panels next year, you’ll be in a relatively good place in a line that’s getting longer by the day. There are now over 23,000 households waiting for Citizenre solar panels.
The traditional solar panel industry may complain that Citizenre is taking away its customers, but that mostly isn’t the case. The Citizenre plan offers solar panels on loan for no money down, at no additional cost beyond the current energy rate that people are paying. Traditional solar energy companies require huge investments of money at the start. The two have almost entirely different target markets. Most people who are signing up for the Citizenre plan could not afford to buy their own solar panels.
If you can afford to buy solar panels, good for you. Go ahead and do that. However, if you’ve been avoiding solar power because you can’t afford to buy solar panels, then consider Citizenre. If it doesn’t work out, you’ve lost nothing. If it does work out, we’ll all gain quite a bit.
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Yes Citizenre has faced its share of challenges. They are tring to do somthing that has never been done in the past. In my opinion, in the future, this will be the way that photovoltaic panels will be offered for mass distribution. Consider these three industries; cell phones, satelite TV, alarm companies. These are all industries that alow the customer equipment with no upfront charges and make money from the service contract. Even printers and fax machines are to some degree in this space. A low cost machine but high cost ink! Citizenre may or may not be the first to distribute the product in this manor, but not in dispute is that fact that they are currently the only company that is attempting to do so in the residentail market. (companies already to this in the commercial and industrial market. I have written several articles about Citizenre in my blog. For those who wish to read more, they can go to http://www.solarjoules.com. By the way, Citizenre has goals to do far more good than helping residential customers use solar electricity, check out the blog entry posted on October 19th, 2007 by AskAME
Comment by Reggie Rasmussen — 10/19/2007 @ 2:17 pm