Sungevity Blog / home solar systems

Last night I had the privilege of attending a great event at the Oakland Museum of California “reporting back on the Dream Reborn Conference” in Memphis, TN on April 4th; the 40th Anniversary of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. The theme of the conference was around building a green economy across America strong enough to lift people out of poverty while protecting the planet.

The report back was full of inspiring stories about clean energy companies collaborating with communities around the USA to train and employ people in meaningful careers; rewiring America, retrofitting buildings to be energy efficient and installing solar panels. Sungevity was proud to be one of the corporate sponsors of the event. This great video captures some of the mood of the moment:

I wasn’t in Memphis but I got just as excited at the event in Oakland last night about the huge potential of this movement for meaningful careers and green collar jobs (check out the pic of me speaking below). The subtitle of the event was “Building the Movement in California” for green jobs not jails. There was lots of great information from Green for All, a national campaign pushing Washington to support green workforce development; and the Ella Baker Center.

We have worked with this organization’s Green Collar Jobs Campaign since last year and proudly sit on the Oakland Green Employer Workforce Council, which is helping Oakland (and hopefully Richmond, Berkeley and Emeryville that make up the Clean Tech Corridor) develop training programs for the clean energy industry.

Another awesome organization featured at last nights event is Solar Richmond, whose trainees we hope to have on roofs from this July as part of their program. Long-term we’d like to see a Solar Danville, Solar Fresno and Solar San Bernadino. Ultimately we’d love to be supporting and providing work to people coming through training programs by groups like these across the country. That’s our Dream.

Shine on, dannyk.

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After my post yesterday, I was reminded of one of the questions we get about whether or not solar electric systems work in the US.

What we hear a lot is, “I don’t know if my city/ state/ place doesn’t get enough sunlight”.

The truth is all of the USA gets more than enough sunlight to make solar electricity. We have more than the best: Germany is home to about half of the solar electric systems in th world  (in comparison, the US has very little). This is true despite the fact that Germany has the solar potential of a cloudy northern state like Maine (Maine, no offense).

This has very little to do with whether solar works best there, and a lot to do with the political will in Germany to support the solar industry and some really cool companies, like Solon, who took initiative (and made the cool short video in last post). Sungevity is all about taking initiative to get the solar revolution started here…movies might take us some time but we have this blog…

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I was talking to someone on the weekend about the potential of solar power and reminded of this awesome short film from our friends at Solon (in the interest of full disclosure this German company invested in us).

The conversation always goes the same way, which is:

1. Is there enough solar power to make a difference?
2. Do solar systems survive all kinds of weather?
3. What’s the evidence the technology will last?

The answers are yes, yes, and how about the following: Worldwide, home solar systems power 1 million families’ houses. Or take our communication infrastructure that depends increasingly on solar power - whether it is satellites powered with solar arms or the ubiquitous repeaters and telecommunications towers - and has done now for decades. The reality is that this is a bomber business with a great core technology.

Please spread the link to Hail above to help people understand that fact, but let ‘em know they can get their sunshine online!

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Month one for Sungevity has been full. Our terrific team has achieved a lot - hundreds of interactive quotes sent out to customers to understand their solar options and half a dozen installs. When we look back on this time, the greatest achievement may well have been the first sale of a solar electric system to a customer entirely over the Internet!
Special note: We were a bit surprised when the first customer to buy a system entirely online and without ever talking to us was 85 years old. And there we’d thought we’d be selling to the technorati…turns out the technorati can be fabulous octogenarians.

As busy as we have been, the next month will likely be even busier. We expect more and more people to come to Sungevity.com to receive their free iQuote. If you are reading this, please pass the web site on to a friend who may not yet have heard of the opportunity to get their sunshine online – especially in California. We will be serving Marin to Livermore to San Jose as of mid June.

Our current initiative is to celebrate July 4th as Energy Independence Day…by installing solar! We’ll be out and about in San Ramon on the 4th, helping to get the word out about solar.

Here at Sungevity, we always like to keep the larger picture in mind. We need more than just individuals going solar–we need to get our politicians to support the solar industry as a solution to climate change. Looking at the landscape in the real world, the next month is going to be a big one for solar.
• The US Senate is considering a bill brought forward by the House that would extend the Federal tax credit on solar.
This is a critical incentive to support the industry – if it does not pass we fear that much of the new investment in the space will stop and many of the forecast green jobs will not be created.

Last Wednesday, the House of Representatives approved H.R. 6049, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 by a vote of 263-160. The bill provides a six-year extension for both the commercial and residential Industry Tax Credit. The bill also raises the residential Industry Tax Credit from $2,000 to $4,000 – something that will help continue to make solar affordable for even more homeowners.

The Senate will take this bill up after the Memorial Day recess (they are out of session until June 2). The White House has already issued a Statement on Administration Policy suggesting a veto on H.R. 6049. The Senate will likely make several significant modifications in order to pass the bill and ensure White House acceptance.

Not a lot has happened in the last decade on this front, and Americans are the worse for it. We’re feeling the pain at the gas pump and in our energy bills and we turn on our air conditions to combat the summer heat. The rest of the world has started to cap carbon emissions and promote clean energy. Germany (a country with the solar potential of cloudy Maine) is host to more than 50% of the world’s solar installations…
At this time, the most important thing we can do is let our representatives know that we care and that we are watching their progress. We’ll keep you posted on this issue. Let’s provide solar energy to power that light at the end of this tunnel. Shine on!

Resources:

SEIA http://www.seia.org/breakingnews.php

VoteSolar www.votesolar.org

Green for All http://www.greenforall.org/resources

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Sungevity launches!

It’s been two weeks since our launch, on Earth Day, and we have been busy. Starting with Fortune magazine dubbing us the “Dell of Solar” (which is a bit of a stretch for a little start up) to the blogosphere welcoming us all over - there has been a lot of hype. Sungevity is about making solar accessible and affordable for homeowners and we’re thrilled that so many people are ready to start talking about solar and are actively looking for solar solutions. Sungevity is here to help!

We apologize for taking so long to get this blog up—our techies were a bit busy with their efforts to keep our site up with the traffic from the twenty million views we received during our first days live.

Sungevity has done some amazing things with our technological tool to design and engineer solar systems from afar using satellite and aerial imagery. For example, since our launch, millions have viewed our website and thousands have taken the time to enter their details and see what solar can do for them. Meanwhile, we have been able to turn around over 500 firm iQuotes for home solar, which would take a conventional company in the solar industry literally hundreds of hours of labor time.

This is all in pursuit of our aim to make it fast and easy for people to realize the solar potential of their homes and help homeowners save thousands over the life of a solar electric system. By cutting out the inefficiencies on our end, we’re able to increase the ease and reduce the cost of going solar for our customers. Sungevity hopes to facilitate a massive uptake of solar electric systems across California and, eventually, the US. Our ultimate dream is to make a significant contribution towards climate change, but for now we’re taking these initial baby steps.

Our first order of business is to serve those 500 people who have requested and now received a iQuote in our initial service area of Northern California. If you are reading this blog because you are checking back to the website and wondering where your iQuote is please check your spam filter or give us a call at 877.257.8648.

For those readers who entered their information and are outside of our service territory, we’re working to find solutions to help you go solar, too. We’re in negotiation with potential partners up and down the state of California and beyond (we’ve had calls from interested homeowners from places as far away as Germany, South Africa, Thailand, and Australia) on how to fulfill the clear demand for easy and affordable residential solar systems. We will continue to strive meet that demand and hope to do so in collaboration with you, our customers and friends inside and outside the solar industry.

We measure our early success through you—we’re excited by the hundreds of conversations we’ve seen on blogs and in articles about solar. This is where it starts and how it begins. Please help us spread the word about solar. Do you know someone who would like to save money and save the environment? Solar energy is ready and waiting now to meet our urgent demand for climate change solutions. We’re happy to be a resource and answer your questions about solar. We think Sungevity can bring solar to a new audience, but we need you to help us carry it beyond conversations and onto your roof, and your neighbors’.

Every roof matters to Sungevity.

Shine on,
Danny Kennedy and the Sungevity Team

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