Musk and Me

Deck: 

I signed up for a free quote on line.

Fortnightly Magazine - March 2016
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With all the talk of the "existential threat" to traditional utilities from solar and other disruptive technologies (and the blowback against net metering in various states), I thought I'd check out SolarCity first hand. SolarCity is the largest residential solar company in the U.S. by far (with installations said to exceed the next 70 competitors combined). When Elon Musk isn't running Tesla Motors (and colonizing Mars and storing electricity) he's chairing the SolarCity board.

I signed up for a free quote on line, and immediately got a call from a friendly and knowledgeable representative who I will call Robert. Robert took down my utility bill information, including fixed customer charges (totaling $17/month) and variable charges (totaling $0.13/kwh), and approximate usage information over the last year. He ran a credit check while we talked, and used Google Maps (or equivalent) to actually look at the roof of my house.

Robert told me it would take less than hour to get a proposal together. Sure enough he emailed a link to a proposed agreement that was indeed customized for me (and a simulation of what the solar array would look like from the sky - cool stuff).

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