12.2 Solar is a financial product

A friend told us he was hesitating on solar because it costs "tens of thousands of dollars" upfront and he needed to think about it.

His mistake was treating solar like a TV, a car, a consumer purchase. That's why he used the word "spend."

In reality, today's solar system is a financial product yielding 10% to 20%+ per year. Even if you think of it as a TV, it's the TV mounted in a sports bar that pulls in customers and drives more revenue. Even if you think of it as a car, it's a taxi that generates income.

Consumption and investment require completely different mental frames. If you evaluate an investment using consumption-purchase criteria, your conclusion will be wrong every time.

Solar is a financial product. The only relevant decision criteria are yield and risk — not absolute price.