Beware Joe the solar sales bro, and more tips on buying home panels
This column first appeared on Callaway Climate Insights. To read more: Please subscribe.
About five years ago, solar panels started going up in the neighborhood surrounding our weekend getaway in Connecticut. And being the environment-concerned person I am, I decided to look into whether I should join the club. I also was seeing incentives — from governments and companies — meant to encourage us.
So I called a couple of numbers on one of the flyers that had come in our mail. After leaving a message at one of them, I got a call. “This is Joe from So-and-So Solar,” said a jolly voice. “How can I help you?”
First, I wanted to get something out of the way. Not being a fan of the somewhat ugly sight of panels on the sloping front and side roofs of houses, I asked where we could put them on our gently sloping back roof, which has raised sides where mini-arrays could be hidden away.
“Sure, they can go anywhere where the sun shines for several hours a day,” Joe responded, something that had just been made possible when the large tree shading our house had been blown down in a storm.
There followed some more discussion before Joe said: “Hey, why don’t I come over and we can talk more?” And so, the next Saturday he arrived — in a flashy BMW 7 series car, which run from about $120,000 to $180,000! He was about 55, with a bad dye job and what could have been a toupée.
I must admit I was immediately suspicious, but I let him do his spiel — which was full of claims and pushed hard on financing, despite my having said I would pay in full — before saying I would think about it. I then contacted a couple of other companies that turned out to be less hard-sell, and eventually came to the conclusion that because we occupy the house for less than 100 days a year, that the outlay was not worthwhile.
Joe, though, continued to fascinate me. In a way, I admired his brazen salesmanship and his flashiness; on the other hand, it repelled me.
And then I read a feature in Time magazine — headlined “How Solar Sales Bros Threaten the Green Energy Transition” — that enlightened me more. It was full of examples of get-rich-quick solar salespeople — and those who train them — earning figures like $350,000 a year and driving Lamborghinis (Sorry, Joe, but you’ve been outdone).
How do they make such sums and accumulate their autos? In essence, the article says, by lying. One tactic: Saying government will pay for them in full (when it’s just incentives). Or misleading on the amount people will get per watt of electricity. Or claiming they will be independent of the grid (very rare). Or duping customers about buy-backs from utilities.
“Solar is ground zero for consumer fraud right now,” Andrew Milz, a consumer attorney based in Pennsylvania, told the outlet. “The industry is just littered with bad actors trying to put solar on as many roofs as possible as fast as possible.”
My advice: If a Joe-like character turns up at your house, turn him around.
