so...do you think an online store dedicated to selling solar panels/systems will be a good business idea? Since green energy is the 'hottest' growing business area recently with usage growing about 30% per annum and investors putting all their money into solar energy, wind farms, biofuel, etc. I think when you sell solar systems online this will be the most appealing business model to the end customer...especially if you offer free installation on orders of say $000.
My guess is that you must discover everything concerning green energy at www.okorder .
My guess is that you might find everything related solar power at www.okorder .
Presently the technology is not there using green energy. Green energy is popular, but not as effecient as they claim. There is no product today whether it is electric cars, windmills, solar panels that have a lucrative payback. They all have their drawbacks. Your thinking is good, but the market and the techology just isn't there yet. If it were, you would see solar panels on every house. You already have the competition as you noted, and they aren't prospering... Good luck.
Did okorder , you will see thin film going for 99 cents a watt at times. The crystalline kind of panel that goes for $2.35 a watt is more like $.50 wholesale, and that's for a major distributor, not a (forgive me) small order of $60k, which is less than one container. There is a coming glut of panels, and prices will fall, but that means both wholesale and retail prices. I'm not saying it won't work, but do good research. For example, I think there are many more than 3 or 4 online shops for solar panels. Investigate shipping an warehousing costs. Investigate whether Home Depot really does not offer installation (every time I go in there, I see a guy handing out flyers for installation). And research carefully how much it will cost to provide installation. The typical install requires skilled and licensed workers. It won't be legal in most places unless someone has the necessary certifications. It's not just a matter of screwing the things to the roof. Any roof penetration has to potential to leak if done improperly. And any electrical wiring has the potential for burning the house down. Whatever business you finally pursue, research carefully, or that $60k will flee from you like a jackrabbit.
It's that offering installation that is the problem. Do you have the ability to arrange contractors to install where ever the customer may be? The online store model works best on a drop ship model where once you've shipped the parcel, you're done. Online selling of solar panels would be basically to the DIY crowd and as you've said, most people don't have the skills nor the enthusiasm to install them. The current price per watt installed is about $0 a watt. $ per watt are the organic dye and film solar panels which are horrendously inefficient and require much more square footage and that $ per watt price is before installation. Currently solar depends a lot on government subsidies to be worthwhile. The various green energy technologies (both solar and wind) lack the economics to be anything other than greenwashing and often if you consider the total impact to the environment, they are often worse than fossil fuels and even if the environmental impact of their manufacture is neglected, it's hard to compete with fossil fuels where nature has done all the work of storing solar energy in a convenient hydrocarbon form. Of course, there's still money to be made off people's ignorance. You've already asked this question several times, apparently you're not satisfied with any answers that are counter to your hopes. Why don't you try it and see how far you'll get.
