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Ask HN: How can I invest in Solar Power?

4 points by idontwantthis ↗ HN
Does this product exist?

Why do people build solar panels on their roofs instead of investing money in large scale solar projects and then receiving a dividend proportional to the power generation built from their investment?

Shouldn’t I be able to say, fund $10k of solar generation somewhere in the world and receive a check every month for the power I helped produce?

This makes a lot more sense to me than building panels on my roofs instead with all of their extra costs.

11 comments

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bradac56
Check with your public power company they are the only ones that let you buy into a solar farm you will never see that from a private company which is nearly all of the solar/wind mega's.

Putting panels on your roof is not an investment it's power freedom from serge pricing models. It's a home not an investment.

conjecTech
You can buy stock in a solar "yieldco", which is exactly this. It holds the assets of solar farms and pays out the cashflows. There were a lot circa 2018, I believe Brookfield bought up a bunch, so there may be fewer options now.
uberman
Many utilities do pay divadends.
solardev
Look into community solar: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/community-solar-basics

Or virtual power plants.

Or at bigger scales, you can invest in commercial solar companies or engage in carbon trading. It's all a bunch of intertied markets.

idontwantthis
Yeah I guess I should be able to get the same thing from more abstract products. I’m still stuck trying to understand why home solar makes any sense when someone should be able to have a greater carbon impact and make more money for their investment by putting it into major installations.
solardev
Well, there's other benefits to home solar (but I'm biased because I used to work in that industry).

Some people like the idea of owning their own system and offsetting their personal usage. If you get a battery with it, it can help with grid outage situations. You can play arbitrage with time of use billing. You can live off grid.

But yeah, from a pure return on investment perspective, there are easier ways to make money.

brudgers
For most investment vehicles, $10k is not worth interacting with and investors with only $10k is unattractive because of the expectations such investors tend to have in aggregate.

Good luck.

omnizone
Have you thought about building a Solar CRM?
a_tartaruga
TAN ETF is basically this if you think about it
oceanhaiyang
Last I invested in a clean energy ETF prior to covid and luckily sold it. For non-covid related reasons it completely lost 90% of its value. Therefore I think it’s risky.