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There are 4.5 million homes in the U.S. with solar panels installed. Most customers are happy with it – their electricity bills are virtually gone, and it’s a big help to the planet. But thousands are deeply disappointed with the product they were sold. Their solar panels were overpriced, and they say it’s hard to find someone to fix them when they break.
It turns out that this sometimes-bad customer experience was no accident. It had to do with the way the big national solar companies built their businesses in the first place. To entice people to install expensive solar panels, the companies developed new financing models that lowered customers’ upfront costs. They also deployed armies of salespeople to grow the business. But in the process of pushing more homes to install solar panels, costs to consumers went up, and the focus seemed to fade away on making sure those panels actually worked. All of which left some consumers feeling like they were being ripped off.
On today’s show, we’ll explore how the residential solar business model has turned some people off from solar. We’ll try to figure out where this industry is headed in the future.
This episode was hosted by Alana Semuels and Keith Romer. It was produced by Emma Peaslee, edited by Jenny Lawton, and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Engineering was handled by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez. Alex Goldmark is Money Planet executive producer.
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Music: NPR Source Audio – “Nights Like This,” “Red Line,” and “Trapped Like a Bird”
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