Genius Energy, Solihull

[SolarCity]

During our meeting in 2010, they were pretty clear that what they were bringing to the table was a sales team. If I recall correctly they were involved in finance or something similar at the time.

 

[Gavin A]

Slightly disconcerting to realise on checking their duedil file that our net assets were about the same at the start of 2012, but they made about the same amount that we lost in the next year.

If we'd not had most of our cash reserves tied up in 2 pallets of panasonic panels that we couldn't sell for 4 months............... maybe.

still, busy as ever at the moment so mustn't grumble.

 

[SpitfireW'sale]

Thanks for the replies. FYI They used to sell finance and moved in to PV when every man and his dog did in 2010. I suspect they are playing things so that they are not in contravention of any rules. They are smart people, no doubt about it, so I would be surprised if there is any blatant flout of regulations that would land them in hot water. I would imagine it is clever manipulation/exaggeration of numbers from extra benefits (voltage optimisation, immersun, inflation rates etc) rather than incorrect yield figures that they use.

 

[JulianC]

I will ask if the quotee would mind his quote information going public and see if I can scan it in for perusal in the sun lounge.

And since when has a blatant flouting of any pv related regulations ever landed anyone in hot water? The industry is a joke. Now I'm on the outside looking in I am realising that the decent installers on this forum are the exception rather than the rule.

Jaded? Me? You bet.:banghead:

 

[JulianC]

Here's a bit of info from the quote for your 'amusement'. The quote is for a 3.75kW Solarworld system (using Suntech 245 modules?!?!) - it's dubious as to whether or not it will actually fit on his roof. It's a fairly small, Victorian terraced property with gas central heating. Most of the projected benefits come from some pretty awesome energy savings over the next 25 years unk:

 

[Gavin A]

3.8% RPI
9% fuel price increases continuously for the entire 25 year period.

running the savings for 25 years will boost profits massively esepcially taking into account the 9% a year fuel price rises assumed. Over half of that supposed profit comes from the energy savings assumed in years 20-25.

tbf, I think this was how the solarguide were working their figures a while ago (though only for the first 20 years), we actually complained and took there calculators off our website as a result of this, but I think for a couple of months we actually did use those assumptions ourselves just to match with the solarguide figures.

 

[SpitfireW'sale]

From a quick look - looks like they have assumed 100% usage by the home owner and energy price increases of 10% annually. The 100% usage is obviously very unlikely unless the home owner has a very heavy base load for a specific reason. Energy price increases of 10% is not unheard of but probably not realistic for the next 20 years, year on year. Feed In Tariff if anything looks lower than I would expect at 14.9p for the first year, but then increasing at around 7% per year? Very misleading/innaccurate figures but enough to get them in trouble?

edit - didn't see Gavins reply but similar conclusions!

 

[Worcester]

RECC won't be happy with those figures the ones we used are a lot lower than that and at our audit RECC asked for even lower... Report them to RECC, send them the images and also take a copy of the swf file from their website which shows similar "savings"

 

[Energetic]

I' say report them also, their customer testimonials video is interesting,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZOAwd8A0ig

Free panels and inverter but all the benefits of having them eroded away.

 

[SpitfireW'sale]

It seems someone has taken this up on MSE which is a very influential site for end users. Thought this might be of interest.

genius energy free solar panels - Page 2 - MoneySavingExpert.com Forums

 

[SolarCity]

I notice that some of the posts have been deleted and some of them have been moderated. I've noticed that a lot of negative opinions of Genius mysteriously disappear.