SAN ANTONIO — Maria Solis signed a loan contract for solar panels five years years ago and still owes around $22,000 to the loan company that financed it. At this same time, the family said they've been struggling to pay their electric bill.
Son-in-law Sylvester Lascano said the family doesn't know if the solar panels are even still functioning correctly. They tried calling the solar contractor who installed the panels, Erus Energy, which is separate from the loan company. They later found out Erus Energy went out of business. Meanwhile they were still paying $139 a month without any idea what they are getting for it.
"They told her when she got these solar panels installed they would help her save energy and supply energy to the house and help her with the bill," Lascano said. "(Now) No one has any information on the solar panels."
At the same time, the family had been missing electric bill payments as they tried to keep up with the loan payments.
The family didn't know what to do and eventually called KENS 5.
KENS 5 contacted the Loan Company, GoodLeap, and a spokesperson said the family would likely need to call another electrician or solar company to check the system if the original installer was not in business. KENS 5 later looked up Erus Energy on BBB.org and confirmed the contractor was out of business.
KENS 5 also contacted CPS Energy to find out if the system had been approved by the utility and if it was currently operational. CPS Energy confirmed the system was operational though they couldn't confirm if it was performing correctly.
Finally, KENS 5 began looking up local solar contractors on the Better Business Bureau website to find a contractor that was local, accredited by the BBB, highly rated, and which had no complaints against them.
Central Texas Solar decided to look at Ms. Solis's solar panel system free of charge.
Field Manager Leo Kapici told KENS 5 the system was working but the family didn't have any way of monitoring how much power it was generating. Normally, he said, customers can log into a web portal to see how their system is performing but the family did not have this available. Kapici further found the system had not been reporting generation data, it a way that could be monitored, for several months. Central Texas Solar is now working with another company, Enphase, to fix the issue and provide a way for the customer to see it how much power the system is generating.
Kapici also told KENS 5 the system likely has components that need to be replaced to work at full capacity.
"If there is something not working we can alert them now that we are taking over the monitoring," Kapici said.
He also said the system as a whole is not large enough to significantly offset the home's electricity bill anyway. Central Texas Solar Director of Operations Crystal Kapici later told KENS 5 the company would try to provide the family additional solar panels free of charge to help with their electric bill.
Crystal Kapici told KENS 5 this is definitely not the first time they've come across a customer whose original solar contractor went out of business.
Lascano said he's just glad the family is finally making some progress after Central Texas Solar came out.
"He came out here and solved a lot of our questions within the time he was out here," Lascano. "We want to know what is going on, if the panels are working, if they are working at full capacity. Basically all that is going to get answered."
Lascano is also glad they called KENS 5.
"It started getting the ball rolling. Getting some questions answered and some problems solved," Lascano said.
If you have a problem like this, we want to help you fix it! In our series, Call KENS, we do our best to solve problems for our viewers. The number to call is 210-470-KENS, or fill out the form on this page.