Acceleration of renewable energy adaption :

We are all being told how we need to become more Eco Friendly and how to become more Green but often when it comes to the additional financial investment cost that is usually required then to turn Green loses it's appeal.
http://www.mybanktracker.com/bank-news/2011/04/23/the-cost-of-going-green-buying-green-products/
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120424591916201491.html?mod=yahoo_free

As an exmaple the cost of private households installing domestic/alternative electricity generating systems such as Solar panels are often prohibitive and has limited the uptake of of the vast majority of individuals so far. How to change this !
<Idea>
The homeowner has a solar system installed on their property for a nomial charge, in this case Panasonic provides the hardware and the existing utility company continues as the actual Utility/Service provider.   The property owner maintains the regular payments as per usual per month (so for the end user there is minimal if no cost difference at all).

The Utility company, for a period of say ten years, harvests all the additional power generated by the solar system that they have installed on the property owners house. The installed system feeds back into Utility/Service provider (surplus energy to that used by the property owner) this provides an additional revenue stream to the utility provider and additional source of energy creation, in a world of finite resources.

Finally after a specified period the ownership of the solar system moves from the Utility/Service provider to the  property owner, while the company that first installed it either walks away having received revenue for the last 10 years of solar energy generation or provides a new system solution.

This would mean that:
a) An big increase in the number of individual households that could have solar systems installed with minimal cost (possibley F.O.C.).
b) Environmental benefits would be large.
c) Due to the expnasion in the volume of Solar systems the unit price of solar systems would come down with the benefit of economies of scale in production.
d) Contribution to society through the environment and additioanl job creation.

The company installing the system and the indivdual proerty owners could also be enitiled to receive tax breaks or incentives from the government.

The Utility provider would also be able to get competitive  price for the systems because the manufactuers have a more stable demand and devote more resources to the output of the panels.
How Panasonic can tap into this market and become an affiliated supplier is the challenge

Posted by Paul Darch (PME)