Solar Energy Show

I bet you don’t know that there is a home improvement investment that you can make that will increase the value of your house more than the investment cost. It’s not remodeling your bathroom (2% return). It’s not landscaping with a designer (break even). It’s not remodeling your kitchen (2% loss). It’s rooftop solar (43% return). Surprise! A recent study by Lawrence Berkeley Labs clearly shows that your home's value will increase much more than a rooftop system costs. “Selling into the Sun: Price Premium Analysis of a Multi-State Dataset of Solar Homes” found that a home’s value will increase based on the size of the rooftop solar system at the rate of $4/watt. So for a typical 5,000 watt system that costs $14,000 after the 30% Investment Tax Credit, a home’s value would go up by $20,000. This is a big deal for anyone considering solar as an investment. But there is one catch: that $4/watt increase in value only applies if the system is owned by the homeowner (unsecured and secured loans, as well as PACE lo