When Jeff
Bezos, founder of Amazon, made this quote, it was my understanding he was
referring to selling books over the internet, a new concept at the time. He was
looking for a reasonably expensive item relative to size and weight. A book
became the obvious thing, and Amazon was born.
A whopping 33% of the U.S. population lives in a
rented apartment, and they are paying the electric company every month for
their power. What if the landlord could supply their tenant’s electricity needs
using solar panels? The landlord could increase the rent from each tenant to
cover the solar installations cost, plus some profit.
I would like
to think Jeff Bezos would agree on two points:
1) There is going
to be a rush to put solar panels on apartment house rooftops. The internet was
the catalyst for Amazon, and Virtual Net Metering, (a
method in which one solar power system sends electricity back to the grid, then
applies the credits from that energy to each of the units in the building),
is the catalyst for solar panels.
2) Environmentally, this is a way to reduce
the carbon footprint of 50 to 100 people
per building
When you put
solar panels on your own personal rooftop it is to save money, and do right by
the environment. When you place solar panels on your apartment building, the
tenants pay you for their electricity thru increased rent, and you are producing
their electricity inexpensively from your panels. This also increases the value
of the building.
The great wealth
shift from the utility companies to the landlords is happening. This transfer
of wealth will take place as the utility company’s stream of revenues starts
shifting to the landlords, the Proverbial Gold Mine. Utility companies need a 20,
30 or 40 year investment payback period, while a “solar landlords” payback is 5 to 7 years.
