Investing In Energy (directly)

Option A – Picking stocks / Investing in potential
Find a publicly traded company who is involved in solar energy. Now say your prayer and hope they make it.

Option B – Investing in applied technology
Discard the hopes, and move on to the actual solar panels that are being sold and installed. Find a company that sells and/or installs solar panels on residential and/or commercial property. Offer to buy the equipment for their customers to lease from you. Now their sales pitch to their prospects can be “We’ll install this for FREE, you just pay a lease payment that results in overall savings. The equipment lease payment is a lower amount than your monthly energy bill savings.” The salesman will like this. The property owner will like this. You will profit.

Consider these solar panels from the property owner’s perspective. Many of these installations pay for themselves. In other words, if you buy solar panels that will last for 20 years (many have a 20+ year warranty) and the energy savings will exceed the equipment cost in 8 years… the solar panels pay for themselves in 8 years, and savings will be enjoyed the remaining 12+ years. The great part is that every new trend goes through stages. Our society is currently in the early stages of solar panel acceptance and use, so that savings potential can be profit for you as an investor if you buy the equipment and lease it to the property owner who is unsure about buying it themselves. Of course this only works when you crunch the numbers and find a solar panel distributor/installer whose system price and warranty create a profit/savings margin.

If you had to choose between hope and a plan, which would it be?