We all know the feeling. It’s been sung about, painted about, and written about for centuries. People have paid for it, lived for it, and died for it. It’s hard to describe but you know it when you feel it. It’s being in sun.

That’s right, being outside in the sunshine. It feels like nothing else.  (Except, err, maybe love gets a little close…but it’s really not the same.)

Valentine’s Day means different things to different people. To us it means appreciation – of each other, our world and the sun that powers it. We wish you a very sunny Valentine’s, and heartily suggest you step outside for just a moment, no matter where you are, and bask in the light. Happy Valentine’s Day!

(P.S. We just sung a love song asking our customers to be our valentines. For best viewing experience, please mute your speakers :)

I did a Google spelunk of all the NFL stadiums with solar and here is what I learned:

The Redskins are far and away the winners in the solar stadium game, with 8,000 panels and 2 MW of generating capacity.   Their array, the largest in the league, generates 20% of the team’s energy needs on game days and all of their energy needs on every other day of the year.  The modules cover 841 parking spaces and the stadium has 10 EV charging stations and one enormous Solar Man statue.

While the Jets/Giants are currently in a distant second place with 0.69 MW of solar, they are looking to give the Redskins a run for their sunny.  Errr…money. MetLife Stadium will be adding 1,500 modules to their existing 3,000 and the new panels will form a “solar ring” around the top of their stadium.  The ring lights up AND changes color according to which team is playing.

The Patriots also have sunny days ahead of them.  They will be jumping from 525 kW to 1.6 MW just in time for the 2012-2013 season.  They’re also adding in a wind turbine.  Speaking of which, if you count the wind and biofuel that the Philadelphia Eagles use to power Lincoln Financial Field then you’re looking at a grand total of 8.6 MW of green energy.  They are actually selling power back to the grid and profiting from it!  Estimated savings?  $60 million.

While the Cardinals don’t have any solar modules up, they DO completely offset their energy use on 8 regular season game days and 2 pre-season home games thanks to SRP’s EarthWise energy program.  Collectively that offset is equivalent to the power needed to run 60 homes for an entire year!

For a time-lapse video of what the installation at FedEx Field looked like check out this YouTube video:

One more thing.  If you’re solar advocate AND a Giants fan you might want to consider getting ready for Game Day with a New York Giants solar powered garden gnome.  That’s right.  I said solar powered garden gnome.  What better way to put the sun in your sunflowers?  The day in your day lilies?  The light in your bulbs?  [Yeah, I know that last one was a bit of a stretch].

May the best team win!

With a bold red ribbon taped from one side of her AC point of connection to the conduit going back to the meter, Ja was ready for action.   Just before flipping the back-feeding breaker, she swung her scissors out with a flourish and sliced apart the ribbon (in full OSHA compliant fashion). It was a beautiful moment.  Tears of joy were shed by all in attendance and in the faint distance one could almost hear her appliances breathe sighs of relief over their new cleaner, greener power source.

If you’re anything like me, right about now you’re thinking, “What ceremony is complete without tasty treats?”  Rest assured, there were tasty treats a-plenty.  Ja served up  homemade organic banana-walnut bread to commemorate the moment and it was DELICIOUS.  To be fair, I wasn’t present to verify the degree of deliciousness, but our Field Manager Benjamin M. says it was by far the best banana bread he’s ever had, and Benjamin is a trustworthy type of guy.

You can file this post under: This is why we love our customers.  If you don’t have any additional room in the T section of your file box then go ahead and file it under We have the best customers in the world.

It’s not just Ja that we love —  we love all of our customers.  Let us know if you’re having an energizing ceremony that you’d like us to attend.  If we can make it there then the banana-walnut bread is on us :-)

1. Save a tree – avoid using paper towels.  And while you’re at it, why not plant a tree?  Or two? Or a whole yard full of them?

2. Use space heaters to warm up individual rooms.  Just don’t flop down in front of a searing hot parabolic disc heater with your MacBook in hand.  Trust me on this one.  Some things look better curved, but a laptop is not one of those things :-(

3. Shop at your local green market, buy produce that is in season, and pack it all into your reusable shopping bags.

4. Stop buying bottled water.  A water filter can eliminate up to 300 bottles, saving over $300.

5. Take your wire hangers back to the dry cleaners. Mommy Dearest has our back on this one!

6. If you’re a Sungevity customer, refer a friend!  If you’re not a customer yet then find out how much you would save by going solar.  By the way, did you know that in 2013 unsubsidized solar in San Diego will be at cost parity with power from the grid?

7. Check your tires’ air pressure to save on gas

8. Use biodegradable doggie bags

9. Pass the elevator and take the stairs.  If you’re feeling spritely you can even take them two at a time!

10. Wash your laundry in cold water.  90% of the energy for doing laundry goes into heating the water.  Your clothes will turn out just as clean, and you can buy detergents specially formulated for cold water.

11. Recycle your old sneakers into a new playground at any Nike or Converse store.

12. Drop off packing peanuts at your local UPS, FedEx, or independent packing/shipping store for reuse.

Do you have any tips about going green?  Share them with us right here, on Twitter, or on our Facebook page!

In the spirit of of the season of giving, we want to give you a glimpse at some of the more exciting milestones we hit over the course of this year.  Let the infographic begin!

What was your biggest milestone in 2011?  Share it with us in the comments or on the Sungevity Facebook page.  If you’re a customer you can access your solar milestones on OurSungevity.  Not a customer but interested in a glimpse at our installation tracking and monitoring system?  Click on this OurSungevity link to see what it’s all about.

Happy holidays to from all of us at Sungevity to all of you everywhere.  May your days be merry and bright, and may all your electricity come from the sun’s light!

And we affirmed that all is right with the world.

Office consensus?  The cupcakes were mind-blowing.  The sea salt caramel cupcakes, in particular, were so delectable that a few of us were on the verge of tears.  James & the Giant Cupcake, we will be coming back for more!

A big sprinkle covered thank you to our special friends across the bridge who somehow knew that these were JUST what we needed on a long and cold December afternoon.

If your true love dwells more on the practical side of life (or doesn’t understand the magic that is the 12 days of Christmas) then you might want to drop hints for the following five solar-related gadgets and gizmos:

1.  The Ray Solar Charger.  Ever walked into a meeting late with your laptop that can’t hold a charge, only to find all of the outlets taken?  Quirky’s Ray to the rescue.  It suctions to a desk (or a car window, or any other flat non-porous surface) and provides enough juice to fully charge a cell phone.

2. Lux solar powered jewelry turns sun into swank.  Two hours in the sun equals four hours of dazzling LED “pearls,” which should be enough bling to impress even the grinchiest grinch.

3. A sun table comes in handy when you want to sit outside and Skype or Facetime with your friends , but your computer’s battery icon is lingering in the red zone.  When fully charged, the table provides enough power to fuel a laptop or portable TV for four hours.

4. Feeling the need to share your solar milestones?  How about a SOCIAL solar charger?

The Changers charger lets you share how much electricity you create via your social networks #ElectrifyingInnovation

5. If you’re been 0% naughty and 100% nice this year then you might just get away with asking for a hybrid automower (think Roomba, but bigger, badder, and with blades).  Yes, it’s $3,000, but it’s also “the world’s first fully automatic lawn mower that is partly powered by the sun”.

Those are my top 5 picks for solar gifts this season, so. . .

What was that?

I forgot the best one of all?

YOU’RE RIGHT!  I DID!  The best one of all is the gift of light to a child in need.  Sungevity has paired up with Empowered by Light to fight energy poverty in Zambia.  For just $22 you can join the battle and make a real difference in someone’s life.  You can donate a Pharox solar light here, or if you don’t have a PayPay account you can donate over here.  It might not be as flashy as a partridge in a pear tree, but the gift of light is the gift of education, as the lights allow students to study after dusk.

Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding line, and no way of knowing how near the harbor was. “Light! Give me light!” was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.
Helen Keller

• In 1929 the first flying man-made airship, LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, circumnavigated the world.
• In 1933 Wiley Post made the first solo flight around the world.
• In 1964 Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock became the first woman to successfully fly around the world.
• In 2002 Steve Fossett became the first person to complete an uninterrupted and unrefueled solo circumnavigation of the world in any kind of aircraft (a balloon).
• In 2005, Fossett made the first solo, nonstop, unrefueled circumnavigation of the world in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, a single-engine jet aircraft.

So what’s next?  What could possibly top a solo nonstop and unrefueled circumnavigation?  How about a circumnavigation without any fuel at all?  That’s right.  I said without any fuel at all.

In 2014 Solar Impulse will attempt to fly around the world without any fuel aside from the sunlight that falls from the sky.

The idea for Solar Impulse came from Bertrand Piccard, the first man to travel non-stop around the world in a balloon.  ”We almost failed (because of) lack of fuel,” Piccard said of his epic journey back in 1999.  He decided the next time he flew around the world it would be sans fuel.

The Solar Impulse team has already completed the first solar day-and-night flight in history: 26 hours, 10 minutes, 19 seconds, and 3 world records!  They are determined to demonstrate that progress in transportation is possible using clean energy.  Their first prototype (the one that set those 3 world records) has the wingspan of an Airbus A340, the  weight of a family car, and the power of a scooter.  I don’t know about you, but that sure looks like progress to me.

Just imagine they are able to develop a prototype that could commercialize mass solar flight.  That innovation could dramatically slash the carbon footprint of air travel, which is slated to be an annual 1.5 billion tons of CO2 by 2025.

You can track their progress or ask a question on the Solar Impulse Facebook page.

That’s the question of the moment.

You know what I’m talking about: that box of special trinkets you’ve been adding to since you were a child.

I’m betting there are some classroom photos from elementary school, maybe a lanyard that your BFF made you at 6^th grade camp, a homemade coupon book from a younger sibling, ticket stubs from a Pink Floyd laser light show, a love note from your first significant other, your Boy Scout or Girl Scout sash loaded up with patches, a scorecard from the day the Red Sox overcame their 86 year losing streak and won the World Series, a photo of the woman you gave a Kiva loan to, and maybe even some pressed flowers from a special event like a quince or a wedding.

You know what I bet is NOT in that box of treasures?  That Hungry Hungry Hippos game you BEGGED for.  The Debbie Gibson cassette tape you NEEEEDED.  Your first Pet Rock.  A necktie.  Tickle Me Elmo.

The things that are truly worth treasuring are the things that money can’t buy.  They are memories, experiences, things people made for you, things that fill up your heart, and things that replenish your soul.

I challenge you this holiday season to fill up someone’s treasure box instead of adding to their clutter and the piles of stuff that weigh them down.  This challenge officially begins on November 28^th, which is not just Cyber Monday, but also Green Gift Monday.

The Nature Conservancy created Green Gift Monday in 2010 to raise awareness for green gifting options and to provide ideas like making a charitable donation, purchasing eco-friendly gifts, or making homemade gifts.  You can also give the gift of an experience, which could be anything from season tickets to the opera, membership to a museum, a year’s worth of music via a cloud-based subscription service, or a few sessions with a life coach.

As part of your green gifting you can choose to support Sungevity’s Every Child Has a Light program, which provides solar light to rural schools in Zambia, allowing children to study after sundown.  For just $22 you can buy a light and join the critical fight against energy poverty.

Join the Green Gift Monday movement by signing The Nature Conservancy’s pledge to give green this year and then share some of your own green gift ideas.

Welcome to the Sungevity family, Zonline!

Good looking bunch, eh?

Zonline, which roughly translates to “sunshine online,” is a Dutch solar start-up.  With this partnership Sungevity becomes the first US residential solar company to go overseas.  I think that’s worth a collectively shouted, “SHINE ON!, don’t you?

If you’ve spent any time in the Netherlands you might be curious about why we chose that particular market; Holland certainly isn’t the sunniest place in Europe.  What Holland does have, however, is the continent’s second-highest electricity rates.  Ack!  Additionally, Holland puts our model to test in a country without any solar subsidies.  Did I mention that people from the Netherlands love orange?  That wasn’t necessarily a driving factor behind the partnership, but it sure didn’t hurt :-)

So how did we get to this point?  It’s been a long journey, but here is the story of how it all began: penguin suits, oil giants, and all.

No matter how big a tree you become, you should never forget your roots, be they American, Australian, Scottish, or Dutch. . .