As has been the case in Australia, solar is proving popular with median-income households in California.
According to PV Solar Report sister site Sunible, 80% of California’s top 25 Solar Cities are inland communities – and they are by no means the most affluent in the in the state.
Median income communities such as Fresno, Clovis, El Cajon and Chico make the list. Fresno, at number three for installs during the first quarter of this year, has a median income of around USD $41,000 – approximately AUD $45,000.
Additionally, the growth is happening while solar rebates and incentives have been reduced to just about nil.
One of the reasons for the uptake of solar in these cities is due to increased accessibility thanks to concepts such as solar-as-a-service whereby a provider owns, maintains, and insures solar panels on a homeowner’s roof. The homeowner pays a fixed rate lower than mains grid rates for the electricity consumed.
Sunible says cities experiencing the most growth since 2008 have seen solar-as-a-service increase on average more than 104% from Q1 2012 to Q1 2013.
“The increase of third-party-owned solar in California’s top cities today verses 2008 shows how crucial that model has been to spreading solar on rooftops,” says Stephen Torres, founder and CEO of Sunible. “It’s really exciting to see that in the last five years, more homeowners of all incomes have been able to power their homes with solar.”
In Australia, the “solar is for the urban rich” myth has also been well and truly busted and a Top Solar Postcodes update from earlier this year reaffirms rooftop solar is being most enthusiastically embraced by those in mortgage-belt suburbs.
Other financing models are proving popular here, such as Energy Matters’ zero deposit, save as you go program. The company says a third of new installations of solar power systems by Energy Matters are occurring under its payment plan – up from a figure of 3% just 12 months ago.
