1. For every 1% increase in the number of installations in a single ZIP code, there’s a commensurate 1% decrease in the amount of time until the next solar installation.
2. Having a Neighbor with Solar Panels Increases Your Chances of Going Solar by Over 200%.

Sungevity customers are part of something we call the Sunshine Network, and the folks in that network are spreading the solar revolution, fundamentally changing how we all power our lives.

We want to tell this story at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi)

In case you’re not familiar with SXSW, it’s a festival of music, film, and online interactivity that happens every March in Austin, TX.  The interactive portion of the event has featured innovative trends and concepts like Facebook, Craigslist, Foursquare, Wikipedia, and a mobile (RV) karaoke lounge.  It’s basically a breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies and we want solar to be a part of it.

Here’s how you can help Sungevity in less than a minute.

1. Click here to create a new account (it’s painless, I promise)
2. Once your account is set up, click on our panel or copy and paste this link into your URL bar:  http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/13121
3. Click on the “thumbs up” button right under the title “Marketing Clean Energy to Consumers Online”

BAM! DONE!  Bonus points if you want to leave a comment.

With your support, we will take our story to SXSWi and expand the ever-growing network of Americans choosing the ease, accessibility, and affordability of solar energy.

Every vote counts so if you like what you’re reading, please forward this to your friends and family to help spread the solar revolution.

Shine on!

We’ve been traveling the Eastern Seaboard for a bit over a month now, with our last two weeks spent in New Jersey.  New Jersey was an adventure, to say the least.  We broiled under the steamy hot summer sun, got drenched in torrential downpours, and at one point we were even hailed on.  HAILED ON!  We mastered roundabouts, practiced our  accents (it’s wudder, not water), and learned that the Jersey Shore is way more diverse than MTV would like you to believe.

Huge thanks to WCBS, WPST, WMGQ, WJBR, New Jersey Solar Power, Officer Tyron McAllister, and so many others who helped make our New Jersey experience unforgettable.

The people we met in New Jersey were so diverse that we could never summarize them in just a few pithy sentences, but one thing is certain: people in New Jersey know a LOT about solar.  Out at the truck we were bombarded with questions about SRECs, rebates, tax incentives, financing, roof types, panel efficiency, thin film, inverters, and everything else…well…under the sun.

Like all good things, however, New Jersey had to come to an end.  We ended on a true high note: Tyler Arboretum.  Tyler Arboretum is actually just over the border in PA, but we won’t tell if you don’t.

How could we possibly top magical troll houses?  No way.  It was definitely time to move on.  Destination? Delaware.

Sure, Delaware is small, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t mighty.  A lot of impressive things have some out of Delaware.  Delaware was the first state to ratify the US Constitution, it’s home to the Dover International Speedway, the Victrola was invented in Delaware, and that guy with the really shaggy haircut who won an Academy Award earlier this year hails from Wilmington (congrats on that, Luke Matheny! Does your home have solar panels yet?)

We arrived in Delaware last night, and spent this morning distributing our all-natural ice pops in front of Bike Line (an adorable bicycle shop) in Newark.  We were a bit shaken up by the earthquake (literally), but quickly recovered since we’re all Californian and we know to dash for doorways when the rumbles start.   Tomorrow we will kick-off our day at a farmers market in Wilmington, but in the evening anything is possible, so stay tuned. With just two days in Delaware, we plan on making every hour count!

Did you ever wonder about the economics of going solar and why there aren’t even more solar-powered homes?  The answer might surprise you.  Check out our latest YouTube video starring Andrew Birch, our CEO:

What do you think?  Did you catch that the DOE expects  2/3 of all US homes to be lower cost with solar at some point within the next 4 years?  It might be time for you to start powering your life with sunshine!

You can follow Birchy on Twitter for more of his thoughts on solar economics, solar politics, and the solar landscape in general.  Knowing Birchy, you might also see a few Tweets on kayaking, surfing, windsurfing, or even Scotland, the first place he ever called home.

Still craving more Sungevity? Consider subscribing to our YouTube channel.  There will be videos in the coming months that you won’t want to miss, including some insightful customer testimonials.

Most people know that New Jersey is the most densely populated state.

Most people know the infamous, “next exit” joke.

Most people can even name at least one famous person from New Jersey (Jon Bon Jovi, The Boss, and Snookie come to mind).

What most people DON’T know is that New Jersey is second in the nation in terms of the total number of homes and businesses with solar panels installed  In addition, New Jersey became the second state to install over 100 MW in a single year (2010).  The state that consistently tops New Jersey is California, but they are giving us a solid run for our money.  We’re glad they are, because the average retail price of electricity in NJ is over 16 cents/kWh which is one of the highest rates in the country.  Yikes!  Talk about a state that needs more distributed generation!

In short, New Jersey loves solar.  We, in turn, love New Jersey.  Our Rolling Rooftop Revolution sashayed into New Jersey last week, which was a homecoming of sorts since our lovely solar-powered ice pop truck was born there.  We spent the week showcasing solar and slinging free ice pops all over the Gateway region of the state.  Our events included:

• Cooling down cinema buffs in Hoboken at Movies Under the Stars
• Watching the Newark Bears take on the Quebec Capitales.
• Meeting foodies and small farmers at farmers markets in Morristown and Highland Park
• Co-hosting a block party for new customers in Rockaway

We have one more week in New Jersey, and provided that Mother Nature doesn’t decide to completely rain us out, we will be visiting Princeton, Bradley Beach, Point Pleasant, Asbury Park, Belmar, Cranbury, Cinnaminson, and Livingston just to name a few.

Hand in hand with Garden State homeowners we are making Dirty Jersey a whole lot Cleaner via the power of renewable energy.

And that, my friends, is something worth cracking open a Hibiscus Mint ice pop for!

I ask you now to focus on your cyclops eye (the one between your eyebrows), take a deep breath in, and as you slowly breathe it out, produce a  loud and proud “oooommmmmmmmmmm“.

Properly centered?

Good.

Solar Sales Consultant Matthew King, welcome to your 15 minutes of sunshine!

When I’m not busy advocating a sunshine-powered life at Sungevity, I do my best to power my own life with sunshine. One of my greatest passions outside of work is yoga, and I start off every day with Sun Salutations. Inspired by the ancient yogis of yore who arose from their contorted slumber to bow down toward the sun as it rises in the east, so I rouse myself every morning during the wee hours to make my way to the local yoga shala and perform my obligatory oblations to that orb in the sky that is our solar system’s power source, fueling all known life.

Before coming to Sungevity I spent 9 months living in Guatemala where my time was evenly spent between teaching yoga and working on my own solar start-up, Quetsol S.A., with my business partner and newly named TED Global Fellow Manuel Aguilar. We developed and commercialized micro-scale photovoltaic systems to run indoor lighting and universal cell-phone charging devices to help the 25% of Guatemalans (the poorest of the poor) who don’t have access to electricity and can’t afford to run copper wiring to their villages in order to extend the grid.  After less than a full year of operation, Quetsol has helped thousands of Guatemalans power their lives with sunshine.

When not working, I was living on an off-grid farm and yoga center that I helped build and evolve into a sustainable living demonstration project and yoga school.  At this center we learned, practiced, taught, and implemented concepts from permaculture and biodynamic agriculture, doing everything from harvesting rainwater, homesteading the surrounding landscape, and of course, practicing yoga.

It was those mornings sitting on the docks early before sunrise for meditation that I came to understand the awesome power of the sun as it would hit throw splashes of color onto my eyelids, gently warm my face, and fill me with energy for the day. My time on the yoga farm was the closest I’ve ever come to completely ditching fossil fuels and unsustainable habits, living mostly off of what the land could convert into edible plants via photosynthesis. It was a time of great freedom where I was able to pursue energetic independence via solar power, breathing exercises, physical postures, and meditation.

While it was a bit of bumpy ride reorienting myself to the United States, coming to Sungevity was a natural fit. I joined an incredible group of people working together to propel the mass adoption of a technology revolutionizing the way that we make power, providing independence and abundance to all – and we even have office yoga classes! If we all do our best to make use of the resources that we already have around us and that nature provides freely, like abundant sunshine, then we can create a truly sustainable world that is full of abundance and beauty for all to enjoy.

Namaste.

Click here for a listen.

This Sunday, a team of Sungevity installers joins up with Grid Alternatives on the roof of the Green Youth Arts & Media Center.  GYAMC serves youth impacted by violence and poverty through innovative programs in the arts, media production, and environmental sustainability, preparing them for careers in entertainment or green industries.  Their staff and volunteers are super-fresh and fun (meaning we’re psyched for the after-party).

It’s exciting to seed solar projects all over both hemispheres, but it feels really good to work with idealistic youth in our own fair city.  Their commitment to social and environmental justice is inspiring.

Here at Sungevity we are proud to be included in the 2010 Innovation Awards held by the Social Venture Network. Our fellow 2010 recipients are:

BTTR Ventures, Berkeley, CA

BTTR Ventures grows delicious specialty mushrooms in coffee grounds waste collected from local cafes. Once harvested, the mushrooms are rushed to stores just hours after picking. BBTR Venture’s closed-loop agricultural model has already turned 50,000 pounds of coffee grounds into 7,500 pounds of gourmet mushrooms and even more compost.

Green For All, Oakland, CA

Green For All is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through a clean energy economy. Green For All works in collaboration with the business, government, labor, and grassroots communities to create and implement programs that increase quality jobs and opportunities in green industry – all while holding the most vulnerable people at the center of the agenda.

Hot Bread Kitchen, Brooklyn NY

Hot Bread Kitchen is a nonprofit social enterprise that creates better lives for low-income women and their families by paying women while they learn the skills necessary to launch food businesses and achieve management track positions in bakeries. To help offset costs, Hot Bread Kitchen sells delicious multi-ethnic breads inspired by the bakers and the many countries that they come from using local and organic ingredients when possible.

KOMAZA, San Francisco, CA and Kenya

KOMAZA is a non-profit social enterprise committed to reducing rural poverty in Africa by connecting smallholder farmers with high-value markets. KOMAZA offers high-value trees with financial, training and marketing services to enable poor farmers to incorporate sustainable forestry business into their regular farming cycle. Working in areas affected by desertification, the forestry projects also have measurable environmental impacts.

About Social Venture Network

Social Venture Network inspires a community of business and social leaders to build a just economy and sustainable planet.

We work to achieve this mission by

• Providing forums, information, and initiatives that enable leaders to work together to transform the way the world does business
• Sharing best practices and resources that help companies generate healthy profits and serve the common good
• Supporting a diverse community of leaders who can effect positive social change through business
• Creating a vibrant community that nourishes deep and lasting friendships
• Producing unique conferences that promote the exchange of ideas and encourage the development of relationships and partnerships
• Offering programs that support the spiritual, professional, and personal development of our members

(Source: Social Venture Network)

Sungevity launched its easy and affordable way to go solar in Colorado. If you know people in the Denver or Boulder area who want to tap that state’s wonderful sunshine and political support for solar power in the form of rebates, tell them to go to www.sungevity.com. There they can fill out an easy form then get an interactive and firm quote within 24 hours.

The launch into Colorado with a 20-year version of the Sungevity Solar Lease follows our company’s successful launch in Arizona and continued presence across most of California. We’re bringing simple, affordable solar to suburbia as quickly as we can and hope you can help spread some sunshine by telling your friends in Colorado. Send them to sungevity.com now!

SOLAR ON THE WHITE HOUSE SOON

We were hoping the President would announce his intention to go solar on the 4th of July with a decision to put solar on the First Family’s Home, the White House. We talked to him on Earth Day about the need to send the signal that solar works, saves money for homeowners, and creates jobs and have since had many positive conversations with officials in Washington, DC.

And, we won’t rest until we’ve heard Mr. Obama say “yes we can” put solar on the White House, per the iQuote we sent to the First Family months ago or any other design that makes sense. And to continue to build support for him and Mrs. Obama to do the right thing we’ve been gathering signatures at www.solaronthewhitehouse.com

If you have not already signed our petition please do so here. And if you have you can also help get us more names with your social media contacts – score enough points and you’ll become a solar champ and win prizes. For information on the campaign, and all the great groups that have joined in please check out the website at www.solaronthewhitehouse.com and join the campaign.

Sungevity’s revenues from solar panel installations on residential homes have increased by a factor of 10 over the last six months compared with the first half of 2009 revenues. To keep up with the pace of demand for its solar products and services, Sungevity has more than tripled its team in the last six months, bucking the trend by adding green collar jobs during tough economic times.

“We are encouraged by our results as more and more residents in California and Arizona have made the decision to go solar,” said Danny Kennedy, Founder of Sungevity. “And now we are happy to be taking our sunshine online to the good people of Colorado – opening our third state market all from our sales, design and service center in Oakland. The scalability of our low overhead model is bringing solar to more people for less.”

“We know that the dramatic uptake of Sungevity’s offer is attributable to the no money down solar lease programs we offer and immediate savings on energy bills, not to mention that our customers want to help the environment and feel good about being part of the solution. Sungevity remains the only company to offer customers a firm quote within 24 hours without a site visit – which makes it so easy to see if it’s right for you,” said Danny Kennedy.  ”This really removes the last barrier to mass adoption.  Customers can learn at our website, talk on the phone with a consultant 8AM to 8PM, and sign up online for low-cost electricity – it’s a no brainer.”

Sun is Shining in California
According to the California Solar Initiative, solar leases have mushroomed to over 30% of sales since the beginning of the year, which makes this model of leasing systems for homes the fastest growing segment of the solar market. Six months ago only around 10% of systems sold in California were leased.

Sungevity is the fastest growing solar provider in California, according to the “Solar League Tables” maintained by the California government. The tables measure solar installations by total kilowatts sold and the latest figures list Sungevity in the second spot at 1322 total kilowatts in Q2.

Saving Money and the Planet

The 540 solar systems that Sungevity has sold since the lease program’s inception on March 1st will generate 4,343,000 kWh of clean energy each year. This will save the newest group of Sungevity customers over $1 million per year on utility bills, which equates to a savings of roughly $25 million over the expected life of the solar systems.

The environment also benefits – Sungevity and its customers are removing 130,547,254 pounds of carbon from the atmosphere each year, which is equivalent to taking 212,413,403 cars off the road or planting 386,939 trees each year.

Inviting Leaders to Lead by Example

Sungevity this Spring offered to help the President and Mrs. Obama by installing Solar on the White House for free – see www.solaronthewhitehouse.com – and recently challenged California’s gubernatorial candidates, Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman, to take advantage of no money down solar leases. Both California candidates would save instantly on their energy bills, up to 64% in Whitman’s case, by taking a personal step in supporting California’s clean energy future.

“Our dream at Sungevity is to make solar powered homes a reality in this country for everyone who wants to be a part of this exciting movement. We believe that the number of solar installations will continue to increase dramatically, by 1000% in some areas, over the next several years. We see a future where one day 20 – 40% of US homes will be solar homes,” said Kennedy.

Point. Click. Solar with Sungevity.
Sungevity has designed a unique online sales process to make it easy and affordable for homeowners to go solar. Sungevity’s Solar Lease offer gives most customers savings from the start. For many the electricity bill savings start immediately and increase over time. Sungevity has an easy online “iQuote” process, which enables Sungevity to use satellite images and aerial photography to assess customers’ roofs remotely and accurately determine the homes’ solar potential. This allows the company to furnish thousands of customers with a firm proposal to use solar power with no capital cost within 24 hours.