Haven to install free solar, batteries for thousands of California homes
One longstanding problem with the green transition is that making the switch from where we get our electricity has big upfront investments even after two decades of steeply plummeting solar panel costs. Low-income people typically don’t have the financial wherewithal to install panels and battery back-up to handle outages. Now, after two years of wrangling, California has put $280 million into the state’s old Self-Generation Incentive Program to pay for batteries and, optionally, solar panels for low-income homeowners.
As Julian Spector at Canary Media writes, homeowners can apply directly for this money. But, since this is a rebate program, they would have to pay the necessary tens of thousands of dollars upfront, and then wait several months for SGIP to reimburse them. Plenty of households simply cannot do that.
Enter Haven Energy. The startup, which has already installed backup batteries at hundreds of homes, hopes to enter new territory by providing panels and batteries to thousands of low-income homes. For homeowners, not just no money down, but no money ever. The deal is that Haven gets to own those batteries and use a network of them as grid stabilizers, releasing power when needed, such as at times when renewable generators of electricity aren’t on line. After 10 years, the batteries become the homeowner’s.