More than anything else, high cost is the primary roadblock holding homeowners back from going solar. In the last couple of years however, PV costs have dropped dramatically. That, along with new financing options like solar leasing, has made solar available to cost-conscious homeowners across the United States.

Solar advocacy group EcoOutfitters, which helps homeowners and businesses find solar installers and vice versa, recently posted on their website a list of the Top 20 States for Cheap Solar Energy. The list ranks Colorado at the top, and names it as the only state in the U.S. to offer PV installation for less than $6 a watt.

What’s ironic is that solar is at its cheapest in some of the states where conventional energy is at its most expensive. California, Hawaii and many New England states are all known to have some of the highest costs per kilowatt hour for conventional electricity, but many of those states made the list for the cheapest solar offerings.

Pricing on the list is a combination of local costs, competition in the marketplace, and state incentives available to homeowners who switch to solar power. Every one of the states served by SunRun made the list. Can you find yours? If it’s not on the list, don’t despair! SunRun continues to expand its effort to bring solar to homeowners in every state.

August 3, 2010

Our third guest post is from science and environmental writer (and SunRun homeowner), Todd Neff. Learn how he and his neighbors are making a difference in the environment (and easing the strain on their utility grid) with their home solar systems. If you’re interested in contributing a guest post for our blog, send an email to nami@sunrunhome.com.  We welcome all SunRun homeowners and solar enthusiasts!

As a Denver science and environment writer, I was well familiar with the benefits of rooftop solar. For me, those benefits were primarily environmental. Rooftop solar tends to follow the power demand curve – that is, its output is highest on those summer days that stress the power grid the most. Utilities pay top dollar for electrons on these June-July-August afternoons. Despite doing so, overloading from air conditioning demand blows transformers and substations. Neighborhoods and business districts go dark. Further, I’ve covered climate change extensively, and the benefits of substituting photovoltaic power for the coal-fired or even natural-gas-generated variety need little elaboration.

But man, was solar expensive. A neighbor installed a system and spent more than $14,000 up front, despite rebates covering more than half the cost. It’ll pay itself off in 15-20 years, even assuming modest utility rate increases. He owns the silicon and the inverters (he has two—it’s a big, 5.5 kilowatt system). It’s a beautiful system.

But 14 grand is beyond the possible for an obscure writer. I told him: One day I’m going to have solar panels, and I’m going to pour myself a cup of coffee, walk outside, look up at my roof and just bask in the knowledge that the stimulant in my hands was literally heated by the sun.

I was thinking it would take, like, a decade. Well, thanks to SunRun, it was less than a year. REC Solar is an installer representing SunRun in Colorado (I’m not sure if this is an exclusive arrangement). A neighbor came upon SunRun through REC. The neighbor is an entrepreneur with a PhD in biological engineering. He put SunRun through the wringer, trying to make sense of this leasing deal. He told me it checked out. He’s got a 4.4 kilowatt system now.

I had signed with SunRun before his panels were up. The system’s 2.86 kilowatts, limited by roof size and orientation. All morning, this baby’s drinking in Colorado sunshine and cranking out 2-2.5 kilowatts. It’s generating more than a kilowatt until probably 3 p.m., at which point it trickles to a nightlight’s worth of energy at dusk, and finally goes dormant for the night. I pay SunRun an average of 9.5 cents per kilowatt hour — $39 a month for 20 years. I own neither silicon nor inverter. Nor do I want to. It’s essentially a mortgage, but on an asset that generates a valuable commodity while preserving an even more valuable commodity—the environment we live in.

My SunRun neighbor and I are feeding Xcel probably 6 kilowatts during peak morning office air-conditioning hours – this saves the utility money. And, thanks to the state and federal rebates that figured into SunRun’s pricing, I am paying *less* per kilowatt hour for the 60 percent of the electricity I’m sourcing from my roof than I am from the stuff coming from the CO2-belching Comanche, Cherokee and other Xcel Energy coal plants supplying 70 percent of Colorado’s energy. This is not to vilify Xcel, which has become a progressive utility in the past half decade. I need power when the sun goes down, too.

SunRun is a company doing good. It deserves to do well, too, and, by all indications, it is doing well. It has enabled my small environmental contribution, and is somehow managing to make money for both of us while doing so. I firmly believe that leasing is the way solar should be done, and that a few years down the road SunRun will be recognized as a trailblazer in an established industry. So you may as well get on board now.

July 30, 2010

This is the second guest post from a SunRun customer (first by Ted Reynolds of Orange County, California). Check out Glenn Ware’s post below about how he was finally able to switch to solar, thanks to SunRun’s Colorado solar leasing program. If you’re a SunRun customer and interested in contributing a guest post to our blog, please email customers@sunrunhome.com. We’re eager to add new voices to our online solar community and we look forward to hearing from you!

The Greatest Barrier to Going Solar? Upfront Cost.

I had wanted to go solar for a long time. I never thought it would be possible due to costs, but over the past year, I noticed a few of our neighbors in Colorado going solar. I wondered if things were changing in the residential solar industry.

One day, I read an article about President Obama visiting a local solar installer in Colorado, Namaste, to discuss solar jobs and government incentives. I contacted Namaste to learn more about home solar and its costs. Through those conversations, we decided that maybe the time was right for us to switch to solar, to save money and reduce our effect on the environment.

We were getting ready to sign our purchase order when word came out that our utility company, Xcel Energy, was reducing their solar rebates. This rebate change was going to increase our out-of-pocket investment for purchasing our home solar system by $3,000! We were forced to reconsider our decision to go solar because of the higher costs and longer timeline for our return on investment.  Once again, we felt that solar was out of our reach and we would have to stick with our utility company.

The Solution We’d Been Waiting For: Solar Leasing!

A few months later, we heard about a new solar leasing program that was coming to Colorado – the SunRun Power Plan. I started researching the program, but put off making a decision.

That all changed when Xcel raised their rates again and initiated a tiered-rate summer program, which charged more money per kilowatt used above the first 500 kilowatts.  I knew that with our air conditioner running in the summer, our family consumed up to 800 kilowatts. I contacted Namaste again and requested two solar quotes – one qoute for an outright purchase and another through SunRun’s solar leasing program. The quote for a solar system purchase was now $2,000 higher than the quote that I had received previously. This was, once again, due to additional rebate drops from Xcel.

On the other hand, the SunRun solar quote was so appealing and we realized that home solar was now within our reach! SunRun would allow us to upgrade our home to solar for what we were currently paying per month for electricity, with no additional money down. We would be able to go solar without a large upfront payment. In addition, we would lock in our electrical rates for the term of the lease – 20 years. It didn’t take us long to realize that SunRun was exactly what we had been waiting for. We didn’t have to take money out of our savings and started saving from day one. Plus, SunRun maintains the system for us so there are no worries about additional costs down the road.

Our system is now online and we can’t be happier. We are saving money, reducing our impact on the environment and making a statement that we want to be part of the new energy solution rather then part of the current carbon based energy problem.

Last Friday, SunRun Vice President of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, Holly Gordon, spoke at Colorado governor Bill Ritter’s final bill signing ceremony.  She spoke on the governor’s renewable energy efforts over the past 3 1/2 years, as well as House Bill 1267, one of the five bills signed on Friday.  With 5 Democratic and 4 Republican co-sponsors, HB 1267 is a bipartisan bill that will promote the growth of home solar power in Colorado.  With the passing of this bill, third-party providers, such as SunRun, will be able to quickly expand their partnerships with local companies, such as Namaste Solar, REC Solar, and Real Goods Solar.

House Bill 1267, as well as the other four bills the Governor signed on Friday, represent one of the strongest commitments to renewable energy and job creation in the nation.  Governor Ritter is one of the most forward thinking governors, in terms of clean energy, and since he’s taken office in 2007, he has signed 57 clean energy bills.  A few months ago, the governor signed House Bill 1001 – a landmark RPS (renewable portfolio standard) bill that mandated that utilities draw 30% of their energy form renewable energy sources by 2020.  Colorado now has the nation’s highest renewable energy standard and will have 100,000 solar roofs by 2020.

It was due to the strong support of Governor Ritter and his administration that SunRun came to Colorado in 2009.  SunRun removes the major barrier to solar for most homeowners by offering a solar lease, which allows them to get home solar panels for as low as $0.  Since SunRun entered Colorado, we’ve allowed hundreds of homeowners to go solar and have created clean, green local jobs, in return.  A recent industry study estimates that every 6 home solar installations creates 1 new job in the United States, or every 10 home solar installations creates 1 new, local job.  ”The benefits of those jobs trickle down to businesses in local communities when new companies buy new products,” Holly told an Associated Press reporter at the governor’s conference. Check out the video below to watch Holly’s speech.

We here at SunRun are proud to be doing business in Colorado and working with Governor Ritter and his administration.  It was an honor to be asked to participate at this event.  Many thanks to the Governor and his administration for their strong support for House Bill 1267 and commitment to a New Energy Economy.

If you happened to be watching the ABC 7 news in Colorado, you might have caught an interview with Shannon Golightly, a SunRun customer in Westminster, CO, and Dan Yechout from Namaste Solar, one of our superb Colorado solar installation partners.

The Golightlys wanted to get home solar for quite a while, but had been deterred by the $30-$50,000 quotes they received from other solar companies.  With SunRun, the family was finally able to go solar and take control of their high electricity costs.   With more than 40 quality home solar panels installed for free, Shannon is “over the moon” with excitement about her new system.

If you missed yesterday’s coverage, watch the video below!

SunRun’s newest Colorado customers, Bert and Kendra Prospero, were featured in today’s Denver Post as the first Coloradans to hold a home solar lease.

Interested in installing home solar panels, the Prosperos had been deterred by the high upfront cost.  This all changed when they learned of SunRun’s solar lease program, which has allowed the Prosperos to go solar for $1,000.  With a SunRun solar lease, homeowners can skip the costs, avoid the hassles associated with owning solar panels, and cut right to the chase: saving energy and money.

Check out today’s Denver Post article to learn more about the Prospero’s journey into home solar and affordable home solar leasing programs!

Now that SunRun solar leasing is available to homeowners in Colorado, folks in the Centennial State are taking a shine to us.  Governor Ritter  gave SunRun’s Colorado solar service the official welcome, we’re signing up customers throughout the greater Denver area, and we’re just getting started.

Take a look at Channel 7′s coverage of SunRun from the evening news on October 15th below:

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