Starter Kit. Idea 411 of 500. Cluster 21
Rooftop solar leasing for households, paid from the electricity bill
The mechanism, from the book
The sun shines on every roof and the island imports its fuel.
The first step
Knock on 20 doors in one street where the roofs are unshaded and ask each household to show you last month's electricity bill. Write down what they pay, then offer a lease on panels where the monthly fee is set below that figure, with nothing paid up front. The proof is a list of households who sign a letter of intent at that fee.
- Who pays first
- A household with a high monthly electricity bill and no savings for panels, which pays because the lease costs less than the bill it replaces.
- What leaves today
- Every unit of electricity burned from imported fuel sends money abroad; sunlight on a leased roof keeps that payment on the island.
Ask first
- Ceylon Electricity Board. Ask how rooftop panels connect to the grid and what metering applies.
- Sustainable Energy Authority. Ask what installer standards rooftop solar should meet.
Check before you spend
Grid connection approval, the roof's strength, who insures the panels, and a lease contract households understand, before any panel is bought.
Find out these three numbers
- What does each household pay for electricity each month?
- What lease fee will they sign at?
- What does an installed system cost?
A comparison from the book
The fuel import bill. Chapter Fourteen
"The realistic goal for the next few years is to cut the fuel import bill, which saves dollars every single year."
Every roof that makes its own power trims the fuel the island buys with dollars.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.