A lot of solar companies are competing for the home solar market. I once read an estimate of fifty million homes for $30,000 per home on average, meaning a $1.5 trillion market.

Since most people can’t spare $30,000 for an investment that could take decades to pay itself back, if ever, these companies are marketing higher end homeowners. They are positioning themselves like BMW or Lexus.

My only source of electrical power at home is solar too, but I spent less than $1,000 on my equipment. I’m positioned more like a bicycle. My goal is to help people need less—that is, to be less needy—and be more resilient and healthy. Since solar requires equipment that isn’t clean, green, or renewable, I’m not promoting more solar panels. I’m promoting less polluting and depleting, which solar, as a part of a plan to wean off of it eventually, can help with, like methadone or suboxone. Also healthier, more meaningful, more joyful, more social living.

I believe there is a huge market for people who can’t afford a system in the tens of thousands of dollars, but who don’t realize they can cut their polluting and depleting power use by improving their lives. Maybe they won’t reach my levels of reduction, at least not until they’ve developed experience maybe unplugging the fridge or wearing sweaters more in the winter and shorts in the summer at home.

In other words, I bet many people would like the equivalent of a Toyota Celica or Honda Accord: basic, affordable, and doing the job if not white glove. If so, they need not just solar equipment, but role modeling and vision that less electrical power and energy will improve life, not sacrifice or deprive.

Toyota became the largest car company in the world. I suspect current power suppliers (no pun intended) see what BMW did when Toyota created Lexus: a downmarket brand can move up, but an upmarket brand loses when it moves downmarket.

That’s where I come in. I’m living off the grid, but I’m not your oddball uncle off in the woods. I’m living in Manhattan, with multiple Ivy degrees and a podcast that hosts world-renowned leaders in politics, business, sports, and culture. I can represent an upscale brand moving downmarket as authentic, genuine, and enjoying living more joyfully sustainably.

Home solar companies: let’s talk!

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