Letters to the Editor

Resident feels solar power no longer worth the investment

After reading Judy Pendleton’s letter in the PVT, March 25, 2026 issue, once again brought up my frustrations I share with Judy and maybe others who feel we were duped by Valley Electric.

In my case I did study the feasibility of solar here and found it could be a worthy investment, with an average of over 300 sun days annually and at the time Valley Electric was encouraging individual solar projects, helping them and the community by producing more electricity than we used annually. I checked and was told all the overproduced electricity going back into Valley Electric’s system would receive a credit equal to the amounts we were paid to VEA, when we didn’t produce more than we used. So, I cashed in my 401K retirement fund to finance the solar system.

Then a few years back I saw the VEA was discontinuing the “dollar for dollar” payback program and “new solar systems” would not be under the same deal, but it was said all those under the initial program were “grandfathered in”, changing nothing. The one thing I couldn’t research at the time was how long the systems would last because they didn’t have any data then.

I’m not an attorney, but I do have a few attorney friends back East, who schooled me on some other legal issues and most times said “a verbal and or an inferred contract” is just as legal as a written contract in most cases and both parties must agree to dissolve them”.

I don’t know how many of us got caught in this trap, but maybe there is an attorney or two that may know the legal issues involved.

Sadly, I’m deeply involved with some very serious health issues my wife is having and can’t devote the proper interest to do the proper research and the justice it deserves, but I still feel it’s important.

David Jaronik