INTRODUCTORY SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY ... - PHOTON Info

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Business run three campaigns a year in each city, assuming the initial campaign is success- ful. Current active programs include the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, New Orleans, Denver, and Sonoma County. 56 SolarCity claims to be the innovator of the community aggregation strategy, first putting it into practice in 2006 in an attempt to im- prove the efficiency of the company’s residential in- stallation business. The company selected communities based on their enthusiasm to go solar. »If we got many requests in the same community, we would meet with some of the more enthusiastic homeowners who were passionate about environmental change, and work with them to propose a community solu- tion,« says SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive. His company offered homeowners dis- counts of 10 to 25 percent off the pre- vailing retail price, depending on the size of the community program. In re- turn, the residents helped to organize neighborhood seminars to educate the community about the benefits of solar Getting jazzed about community solar: at a recent launch event for the group buying program GoSolar Mar Vista, organizer James Brennan educates homeowners about the advantages of aggregate purchasing. Staff from installer SolarCity were on hand to answer questions. launching its SolarLease financing program, which allows homeowners to install residential systems without any upfront costs, and instead make monthly payments. »We had so much demand with the leasing program that we didn’t need to run these community programs anymore,« Rive added. »You can only focus on so many things.« It appears that the group buying programs didn’t pay off for SolarCity, giv- en the significant marketing resources required to generate relatively limited residential sales. In fact, it makes more For a cash purchase of a typical 3 kW system in San Francisco, 1Bog offers homeowners more than $5,000, or 22 percent, off the pre-incentive system price and the advantages of participating in an aggregation program. Following its first community program in Portola Valley, California, which resulted in 90 residential installations, SolarCity went on to complete more than 800 installations – approximately 4.5 MW – in 30 community programs in 2007 and 2008, mainly in California. »The programs were great, but they were a lot of work,« said Rive. The organizing of events and volunteers »required a dedicated focus.« The company eventually stopped organizing its own community programs after sense for non-governmental organizations to run these programs because they can focus efforts on organizing and ask several companies for bids. Ac- cording to Solar City’s Jonathan Bass, the company still »considers community programs on a case-by-case basis,« but only in collaboration with groups like 1Bog that handle the organizing. GoSolar Mar Vista’s Brennan agreed that community programs are resource-in- tensive. He said that he needed to perform extensive groundwork to build relation- ships with community organizations and motivate a neighborhood to act together. GoSolar Mar Vista »I had no idea it would take this long,« he said. Another chal- lenge was the learning curve: Brennan said that he had to spend an enormous amount of time figuring out how the maze of relevant agencies and programs fit together. Vetting the installers including size of discount, service area, number of sales people, and through- put capacity. »We try to choose the installer that offers the best combination of discount, quality, and reliability for our members,« says Burton. 1Bog then negotiates a discounted price with the selected installer for all participating community members. When 1Bog moves into a new city, the organization issues a request for proposals to choose an installer for the campaign. According to 1Bog’s Brad Burton, the organization uses several criteria to evaluate installers, Other community programs like GoSolar Marin and GoSolar Mar Vista use similar criteria for selecting a local installer, but may also include some additional preferences. For its most recent campaign cycle ending earlier this year, GoSolar Marin’s formal evalua- tion criteria in its request for proposal included price, product quality, system monitoring and maintenance capa- bilities, company history, past perfor- mance ratings and references, ability to serve a wide geographic area, availabil- ity of financing or leasing options, and good working conditions for installers. The community group also informally sought installers that used local labor and supported local workforce training programs. GoSolar Marin ultimately chose SolarCity, partly because the company offered several perks that none of the other bidders offered, including energy efficiency audits and online system monitoring. Participants in community programs typically have a choice between a dis- November 2009
counted price on cash purchase and a financing option. 1Bog members choose between cash payments and residential power purchase agreements offered TM through SunRun, which include a low upfront payment and a fixed monthly electricity bill. According to 1Bog, for a cash purchase of a typical 3 kW system in San Francisco, 1Bog offers homeowners more than $5,000, or 22 percent, off the pre-incentive system price (see table). Of course, the final prices vary somewhat depending on the unique characteristics TM of each home and PV system. Under the financing option, SunRun purchases, maintains, and monitors the system. »The 1Bog discount gets fully passed on to the SunRun customer, either off the initial payment or off the fixed monthly rate that customers pay to SunRun for their electricity,« said SunRun’s Lesley TM Beatty in an email to <strong>PHOTON</strong>. The upfront payment is normally $1,000 to TM Breakdown of One Block Off the Grid’s (1Bog) group purchasing discount for a 3 kW system in San Francisco, California $2,000, but »can go lower than that with the 1Bog discount,« depending on how customers choose to apply the discount. SunRun didn’t provide specific pricing figures showing how the 1Bog discount impacts the financing scheme. After including federal and state incentives, GoSolar Marin’s group discount reduced the price tag on a 6.3 kW system from $31,617 to $26,237, or a sav- Without discount With discount Base price $7.76/W (DC) $6.09/W (DC) Gross price $23,280 $18,270 California Solar Initiative rebate ($3,825) ($3,825) Federal tax credit ($5,836.50) ($4,333.50) San Francisco city rebate ($4,000) ($4,000) Payable tax on city rebate $1,120 $1,120 Net price $10,738.50 $7,231.50 Power in numbers: 1Bog offers a $5,000 group buying discount off the pre-incentive system price, or a savings of 22 percent, for a 3 kW residential system in San Francisco, California. The net price savings is 33 percent. November 2009 57 » ings of 17 percent. GoSolar Mar Vista’s deal works somewhat differently: For a 2.44 kW system, there was only a $500 discount off a $24,536 pre-incentive retail price – just a 2 percent savings. But SolarCity’s package includes a free monitoring service for the PV system, which usually costs $1,500. The company also provides a free WiFi antenna, yielding approximately $300 per year Source: 1BOG
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A LONG, STRANGE TRIP SOUTHERN EXPOS
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4 Under the Sun National Renewable
Page 6 and 7: 6 Photo of the month The garden of
Page 8 and 9: May we introduce ourselves? The PHO
Page 10 and 11: 10 Readers‘ letters PHOTON, welco
Page 12 and 13: 12 Readers‘ letters So why are so
Page 14 and 15: 14 Under the Sun History A long, No
Page 16 and 17: 16 Under the Sun The headquarters o
Page 18 and 19: Under the Sun selling book, »A Gui
Page 20 and 21: Under the Sun Academy of Sciences,
Page 22 and 23: Under the Sun made to uniquely fit
Page 24 and 25: Under the Sun to figure out how to
Page 26 and 27: Under the Sun heaters and books to
Page 28 and 29: 28 The 13 Solar Colonies PHOTON inv
Page 30 and 31: Politics to federal income tax. Als
Page 32 and 33: State 32 Politics invest. If histor
Page 34 and 35: 34 Politics San Francisco From mega
Page 36 and 37: 36 Politics (see table below). Acco
Page 38 and 39: Politics cent of permits are over-t
Page 40 and 41: 40 Politics Stimulus package Feel t
Page 42 and 43: 42 Politics guide companies interes
Page 44 and 45: Politics »There was a lot of hoopl
Page 46 and 47: Solyndra, Inc. (2) 46 Business Seri
Page 48 and 49: 48 Business DOE in the spotlight So
Page 50 and 51: 50 Business US Boom, bust, or neith
Page 52 and 53: Business guarantee program, and the
Page 54 and 55: 54 Business Buying programs Solar b
Page 58 and 59: Business in additional savings for
Page 60 and 61: 60 Science & Technology AlsoEnergy
Page 62 and 63: System Photonics S.p.A. 62 Science
Page 64 and 65: Science & Technology In October, Ya
Page 66 and 67: Science & Technology Japan’s Shar
Page 68 and 69: Little product, big comeback An old
Page 70 and 71: Science & Technology Microinverters
Page 72 and 73: Science & Technology Filling a nich
Page 74 and 75: Anne Kreutzmann / photon-pictures.c
Page 76 and 77: 76 Science & Technology Exeltech’
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Page 80 and 81: 80 Architecture November 2009
Page 82 and 83: 82 Architecture November 2009
Page 84 and 85: 84 In Practice Proposals The perfec
Page 86 and 87: 86 In Practice Is your proposal com
Page 88 and 89: 88 In Practice that are predictable
Page 90 and 91: 90 In Practice System: accomplished
Page 92 and 93: In Practice bluntly: »We have this
Page 94 and 95: Elkus’ golden trout pond is the l
Page 96 and 97: Test Laboratory A couple of years a
Page 99 and 100: Events From system inspection to in
Page 101 and 102: November 19-20, 2009 Alternative En
Page 103 and 104: Who should exhibit? • Manufacture
Page 105 and 106: Education & Training Producer-indep
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Internships New internships in the
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Ask the Editors Whether it’s abou
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Industry Registry Here is informati
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Preview The issue 12-2009 appears a
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