Re:Giant batteries and cheap solar power are shoving fossil ...
by thaumasiotes on Saturday July 13, 2019 @02:40AM
(#20426838)
> This is precisely the genius of SolarCity: they were able to use the low interest rates banks would charge them to install solar power on people's houses at a much lower cost of capital than the same banks would have charged the same homeowners without SolarCity's intermediation.
That sounds like a pretty interesting pitch as a business model.
But if I recall correctly, SolarCity failed and had to be bailed out by, um, Tesla. Why? Was the free money just not enough?
Re:Giant batteries and cheap solar power are shoving fossil ...
by cogman10 on Saturday July 13, 2019 @08:48AM
(#20427788)
I'm going to push back a bit. Interest rates can be favorable to a company but not money market fund favorable. That would be a better interest rate than a US treasury note.
PG&E currently has 2.4% bonds out. Better than what you can get, but not lower than a mmf (usually less than a percent).
As a rule of thumb, rates won't sink lower than ten year tnote rates. Nobody will purchase a bond from a company that has a lower rate than a tnote.
This is precisely the genius of SolarCity: they were able to use the low interest rates banks would charge them to install solar power on people's houses at a much lower cost of capital than the same banks would have charged the same homeowners without SolarCity's intermediation.