One of the stumbling blocks to getting solar panels on your house is the up-front costs.

That kind of murky feeling that those shiny slivers of silicon are going to end up costing you more in the long run, not less.

Enter companies like Solar City in New Zealand.

“What if we told you that money does grow - not on trees, but on your roof? With a fixed monthly solar service fee, and no upfront costs, you get the benefits of solar without having to purchase the system.”

I didn’t even know this was a thing.

Solar City even install the system “for free”.

In the pack, you get the panels and also a battery for storing excess-generated electricity. If you’re really rolling in sunshine, you even end up sending some back to the grid for cold hard cash.

This is New Zealand though, not Arizona, let’s not go crazy here.

Indeed, they say that this system will cover up to 2/3 of your home energy needs. The rest comes from the grid, claiming that it’s 100% renewable energy. As the NZ grid is not quite 100% renewable (*yet), this is slightly slimy but I presume it’s some trickery about buying their “part” of the grid’s energy only from the “renewable part”.

I’ve not gone into any in-depth simulations to see how it all works out but it’s definitely a less-scary option than paying for the whole kaboodle up-front.

And it looks like you have a web app that helps you see how you use energy, which could then maybe challenge you to use even less!

All-in-all, this a cool idea and worth a look.

This reads like a paid slot but it sure ain’t.

Ciao!

[Cover photo: from Solar City]