My New Venture - Solar Leasing in Spain
I admit it, I have dropped the ball lately as far as updating this site and I would not be surprised if some of you are never going to come back.
I apologise, but I have been very busy starting a new venture which is very close to my heart and I am extremely happy and excited to be able to reveal exactly what I have been up to.
I am now a partner in a solar leasing company based here in southern Spain. It’s called PretaSol and we are now starting with a solar leasing program with solar hot water systems at first, but we will include solar PV as the efficiencies increase and the payback period decreases.
We are using evacuated tube technology for both domestic hot water use and pool heating. We will soon be adding air conditioning to our solar thermal offerings. With that in mind, me and Markus are off to Intersolar today in Munich. Intersolar is the worlds largest solar technology fair. Once there we will be able to make new contacts in the industry and source the best available technology to offer our customers.
There are of course many companies offering solar installation services, but where we differ is in our offering of leasing as an alternative to purchasing outright. This is has surely been one of the biggest barriers to entry in the wholesale adoption of solar technology. The homeowner will be able to pay for the system out of the savings on their electric bill. There will be a low down payment — say €500 or €1,000 — and then your monthly fees [to PretaSol] combined with your new electric bill can be less than your old electric bill.
Buying a solar hot water system is similar to going to petrol station and filling your tank with 30 years worth of petrol. Think of how much petrol has gone up in the past 30 years! It will have a large upfront cost, but will result in long-term savings. What if you could lease a solar system and have the savings outweigh the monthly cost?
We are off to the airport now, so I will have to keep this post short. I will write some updates from Munich and also some regular updates into the ups and downs of a solar startup (hopefully mostly ups 
).
This looks definitively interesting as a business idea. I wonder if there are similar offers here.
In any case, keep us posted !
There are similar offers in the US with SolarCity for example, but none in Europe that I am aware of.
I will of course keep you posted on our progress.
K
Back from Munich last night and I write this sitting down for the first time after a days gardening.
Intersolar was amazing and I will post on that later.
K
Yes, it is a great opportunity.
Homeowners should be able to get lower energy bills right from the start of the repayments and then save a whopping 35% after paying it off in 4 or 5 years.
It’s a real no-brainer.
K
I really appreciate you publishing the article on solarfeeds.
K
trying to gather “solar” ideas, as currently plugged into our sweet
old neighbours next door!Don’t tell Sevilliana! Hopefully guys like yourselves will see things take off and this wonderful spanish resource “el sol” will be available to the likes of me “old hippy chick very limited means”! Go guys! Dee ..
I’ve been reading up anout SolarCity and stumbled across your blog - I see no comments since May’09 - how is the startup coming along … interested from Australia
Leave a comment!
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