[RE-wrenches] sales to-date

[Wind-sun.com]

For us, the stimulus has been - and is expected to be in the future - a big 
joke. We were lucky in that we get quite a few local off-grid installs and 
upgrades, because the grid tie market has dropped by over 50% in the past 6 
months or so. While panel prices have dropped, it seems like almost all BOS 
components have gone up, somewhat offsetting the savings.

The one big expense increase we have noticed in the past couple of years or 
so has been the permitting and paperwork process for grid tie systems. And I 
am not expecting the slightly improved credit market to help - just in the 
past 24 hours alone, mortgage interest rates have hit the highest rate since 
December of last year, up from 4.5% to 5.45% in just a week. On a $300K 
home, that difference could have paid for a 7kw PV system.

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Northern Arizona Wind & Sun - Electricity From The Sun Since 1979
Solar Discussion Forum: http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joel Davidson" <joel.davidson at sbcglobal.net>
To: "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>; "RE Marketing for 
home scale RE industry" <re-markets at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 1:07 PM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] sales to-date


> This dialogue provides a barometer that helps business owners measure 
> performance and make plans. Still, I am copying it over to RE-Markets.
>
> Industry consultants predict generally lower sales in 2009. See 
> http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/u.s.-solar-market-so-promising-except-for-2009
>
> However, it looks like established Wrenches have carved out a niche for 
> themselves and/or have sufficient local business. The good news is lower 
> module prices make PV affordable to more people. The bad news is the 
> recession has just about eliminated discretionary major purchases, has put 
> a lot of potential customers out of work, and is creating more competition 
> as unemployed workers try to find jobs or start businesses in the highly 
> publicized but still very small "green" market.