In the next few years one of my goals is to help 1,000 clients go solar.

Most of these will be residential systems that help middle class homeowners slash their electric bill from $200 or $300 down to $10 or $15. When they pay off their panels their electric bill will stay low for decades, the panels we install today will produce energy for (at least) the next 60 or 70 years. SolarWorld panels lose half a percent per year in output. Twenty years from now our panels are still at 90%. That’s pretty good.

In 50 years our panels will still be at 75% power output. I’ll be 93 years old.    

Some of these 1,000 clients will be business owners who own a laundromat, a restaurant or a warehouse. If they have enough room on their roof we can take a $1,000 electric bill down to $10, the business owner will get a 30% tax credit plus accelerated depreciation on the cost of the system. Less energy costs forever, lower taxes for the next five years.

1,000 clients with solar means less coal and natural gas being burnt, less nuclear fuel that needs to be disposed of, less harmful pollution overall.

1,000 installs means more work for the Army / Navy / Marine veterans who work for Tampa Bay Solar, more work for the workers at the SolarWorld panel factory in Oregon, more work for the good people who make the inverters, optimizers, roof mounts and rail systems that we use in every install.

More solid American jobs, right here in our backyard. There are already over 250,000 people working in Green Tech here in the United States, 1,000 completed solar installs accelerates that job growth.  

1,000 clients gets us that much closer to a smarter electric grid that ties in electric cars, energy storage, utility electricity and rooftop solar. A smarter grid will manage multiple sources of energy so efficiently that blackouts and brownouts will be unheard of, a thing of the past.

Many of my 1,000 clients will be retired folks on a fixed income, for these folks solar on the roof NOW is a hedge against future inflation; they are buying panels at today’s prices because no one can predict how much Duke Energy or TECO will hike rates over the next decade!

For my younger clients with small children we know that the panels will be paid off before their kids are done elementary school, for these families they will save $2,000 to $3,000 per year in electricity costs, that money can be used for the kids’ college fund, or to pay off debt.

As more people start to buy plug-in electric cars they will be glad that they put solar on their homes and businesses. Instead of using Exxon Mobil to fuel up their cars they can now charge up at home or work, using the sun as a fuel source instead of gasoline.

In return for selling 1,000 solar installs I’ll make a decent income that will help me pay off my home, put both of my daughters through college, and help me build up some savings for retirement. I think that’s a fair trade for 100,000 doors knocked, 5,000 appointments kept and countless phone calls in between!

Ben Alexander

TampaBaySolar.com

May . 2017