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by community solar programs is not ex-
traordinary: typically, 30-150 homeown-
ers install systems in an average program
cycle. But the educational impact seems
much greater. Even if only 50 home-
owners ultimately install solar on their
houses, hundreds of others – and per-
haps thousands through word-of-mouth
– have an increased awareness that solar
is affordable, and within reach of the
everyday consumer. The community-
based education that occurs through
these programs is helping to prime the
American public for a solar boom.
The sprouting of community aggre-
gation programs is no surprise, as the
strategy provides significant benefits
for both consumers and installers. The
most obvious benefit is cost. Given
that the top barrier to the adoption of
residential solar is upfront costs, the
opportunity to secure a group discount
is appealing. The organizers of aggre-
gation programs also do significant
groundwork to identify a high-quality
installer among a large field of compa-
nies. For many homeowners interested
in residential solar, the task of choos-
ing the right company may be daunt-
ing. It’s a complicated process to find an
installer that can be trusted, especially
when the homeowner has a limited un-
derstanding of solar technology. Group
purchasing programs filter through all
the information so homeowners can
make the most educated decision.
Community aggregation is also more
efficient for installers, who may spend
significant resources shuttling their
crews back and forth between cities for
individual sales. Through group pur-
chasing, installers can save employee
time and transportation costs by com-
pleting multiple jobs in a concentrated
geographical area.
Power to the people
Group purchasing programs lever-
age the power of community organiz-
ing to educate the public about the
accessibility of solar and catalyze resi-
dential installations. One of the first
community programs was GoSolar
When a critical mass of participants forms in a
community, they identify a local installer through a
request-for-proposal process, and negotiate a
discounted cash price for installations
Marin, founded in 2007 by San Rafael,
California resident Lisa Max. Despite
the similar name, the program has no
relationship with GoSolar Mar Vista.
Max came up with the idea for GoSolar
Marin after getting several installation
estimates for her house, and realizing
how high the upfront costs were. »I was
sure I could get solar for less, so I started
knocking on neighbors’ doors to see if
anyone else wanted to buy solar,« she
recalled. A local reporter, who Max met
at a community meeting, published an
article about her budding program in
the Marin Independent Journal, spark-
ing a buzz in the community. »People
started calling me from around Marin
County,« Max said. »The interest was
far greater than I expected.« She then
called a public meeting attended by 75
interested homeowners, and GoSolar
Marin was born. In addition to going
door-to-door and hosting community
meetings, GoSolar Marin also has a
website where residents can register for
the program.
Max initially ran GoSolar Marin as
a pro-bono service during the group’s
first installation cycle in 2007-2008,
which resulted in approximately 100
residential installations. For the pro-
gram’s second cycle in 2008-2009, it
became a project of local non-profit
organization MarinLink and collected
$12,900 in referral fees from selected
installer Solar City.
GoSolar Mar Vista is a pro-bono ser-
vice provided by community activists
James Brennan and John Ayers. In 2008,
they launched openmarvista.net, a com-
munity website to provide a platform for
local activist causes. Through the site,
they led an online advocacy campaign
for an affordable community solar pro-
gram. Besides their recent launch party,
November 2009 55
»
interested residents can sign up for the
Mar Vista purchasing program through
the website and a series of future com-
munity events they are organizing later
this year. The program is »well on track«
to meet its goal of 35 residential instal-
lations, says Brennan.
The San Francisco-based company
One Block Off the Grid (1Bog), estab-
lished in 2008, has taken the group
purchasing concept to the next level
by organizing collective buying cam-
paigns in numerous cities around the
country. To achieve this larger scale,
the organization hired a field organiz-
ing director from the Obama presi-
dential campaign to build a grassroots
infrastructure and volunteers corps.
1Bog’s strategy has the feel of an activ-
ist campaign: the organization enlists
and trains volunteers to help spread the
word about community aggregation in
their own neighborhoods. They host
house parties, talk to their friends,
canvass neighborhoods, and hand out
1Bog literature. The organizers col-
lect names of interested homeowners
to grow the group. People can also
sign up for a 1Bog campaign on the
organization’s website.
When there is a critical mass of
interest – usually about 100 people –
1Bog issues a request for proposal to
local installers and formally launches
the campaign. As with GoSolar Marin,
media coverage can have a significant
impact on sign-ups: after the New Or-
leans Times Picayune published an ar-
ticle about 1Bog, several hundred New
Orleans homeowners quickly signed
up for the program in that city. 1Bog
campaigns typically have three or four
month sign-up periods. Residents need
not worry if they miss the sign-up dead-
line because the organization plans to