Tesla Corporation has offered residents of six US states to rent solar panels. In Arizona, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New Mexico, renting one module will cost from $50 per month, in California – from $65. The lease term can be any, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) wrote on Monday.

Tesla got into solar panels with its 2016 purchase of SolarCity. At first, the concern sold and leased modules for 10–20 years, but soon retrained for sales. Tesla solar panels are available in all 50 states. The smallest home solar system will be able to generate 10-14 kWh daily in New Jersey and 15-19 kWh in California. Tesla decided to develop its rental business after the capacity of panels sold for residential and commercial premises fell by 38% in 2017.

According to Wood Mackenzie, in 2010–2016. The number of American homeowners installing solar panels on their roofs has grown at an average annual rate of 49%. In 2017, the number fell for the first time since 2000. But sales began to recover in 2018, increasing by 7.5%, and are expected to grow another 4.5% this year. Industry players and analysts blamed the decline in sales on national companies including Tesla, which turned in panels for next to nothing, hurting their bottom lines and prompting some to curtail growth or exit the business entirely, the WSJ writes. In a letter to shareholders for the first quarter of 2019, Tesla acknowledged problems with its solar business, saying the industry's traditional sales methods were too cumbersome and were limiting the potential of the housing market. The company says its “energy products business will grow.”

The decline in US household panel sales was due to the fact that companies selling solar panels began to move away from the practice of aggressive growth, when they traded at a loss in order to gain market share and expand it, according to PwC director of consulting services for energy companies in Russia Dmitry Stapran: “Aggressive marketing and competition have led to a number of companies either going bankrupt or leaving the solar panel business. Following the reduction in advertising costs and the abandonment of aggressive sales, the pace of market growth has slowed down.” He noted that the global market for solar panels is growing steadily and events in the United States are not something extraordinary. “The market was overheated, there was a correction, after which it returned to growth,” Stapran said.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) calls solar generation the fastest growing segment of global energy. Over the past 10 years, the installed capacity of solar power plants has increased 32.5 times to 486 GW in 2018. By 2050, according to IRENA, it will reach 8,500 GW. Moreover, it is distributed and small-scale generation that shows the greatest dynamics. According to Navigant Research, in 2018, about 140 GW of distributed generation was commissioned in the world, and about 110 GW of centralized generation. By 2026, the introduction of distributed generation will triple the new capacity of centralized stations - more than 300 GW. About half will come from solar stations. The global market for distributed generation technologies in 2015 was $65.8 billion, BCC Research estimated that by 2021 it will reach $109.5 billion.

Every year, 2-3 MW of retail solar generation appears in Russia, including installations in private households and small businesses - mainly in agriculture and the woodworking industry, says Anton Usachev, director of the Russian Association of Solar Energy Enterprises: “Low credit rates are necessary for the development of the retail segment for the purchase of such installations, leasing or installment purchase. I believe the demand for rentals and leasing will increase because it’s easier for people to pay.” He gives the example of Australia, where about 2 million households use their own installations, about 30% of these systems are purchased in installments or rented.

The growth of this market in Russia could be facilitated by incentives and the creation of favorable conditions from the state, says Stapran: “The adoption of a law on microgeneration, which will oblige networks to buy excess energy produced at “home” stations with a capacity of no more than 15 kW, would spur market growth.”

Tesla will lease solar panels in the US