2011 was a great year for both solar and SunRun. At SunRun we nearly doubled our employee headcount, helped thousands of American families switch to solar more affordably, and expanded to three new states.  As the company of choice for one in every three Californians switching to solar, we are working with policy makers at the federal and state levels to help reduce the costs of solar installations and promote supportive solar policies that save consumers money while helping the planet.  Here’s a quick snapshot of this year’s highlights:

More Solar Homes in More States:
SunRun expanded to three new states this year, increasing our total number of states served to ten. We brought solar power service to Oregon in April, Maryland in July, and New York in November. We also opened new offices in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to better serve our partners, growing team of employees, and families switching to solar on the East Coast.

Industry Advancement:
We started off the year unveiling a report that shows inconsistent local solar permitting and inspection processes add an average of over $2,500 per home solar installation. With streamlined permitting, California alone could generate over $5 billion in additional growth and help support the already expected $30 billion economic gain from natural solar market growth.  We collaborated with the Department of Energy and the White House on this challenge and that work resulted in funding opportunities for local jurisdictions to streamline permitting.  Our very own Lynn Jurich helped announce the funding awardees with Energy Secretary Steven Chu in early December.

On October 17, SunRun and PV Solar Report announced that 3rd-party-owned solar has eclipsed cash purchase as the preferred way to go solar in California, accounting for 59 percent of the California solar market and 51 percent of the national market in Q3 2011. On November 15, SunRun and PV Solar Report announced families in median income zip codes make up the majority of California’s home solar market. As solar prices decrease, the number of residential projects in lower income zip codes continues to go up.

Awards and recognitions:
SunRun’s hard work is getting us noticed! We received a number of prestigious honors this year, including:

• Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) Solar Champion
• 2011 Global Cleantech 100 honoree
• Named as an innovative home energy company by “GE ecomagination Challenge.”
• Lynn Jurich appointed to Startup America Partnership Founding Board
• Edward Fenster and Lynn Jurich named 40 under 40 “Ones to Watch” by FORTUNE

New Faces:
2011 was an incredible hiring year for SunRun. We welcomed 88 news employees and have more coming in every week!  New additions include Vice President of Marketing Bill Stewart, previously the Chief Marketing Officer for Kmart, Vice President of Engineering Miguel Pinilla, and Vice President of Human Resources Beth Steinberg.  We also welcomed thousands of new customers who are starting to show us their faces and the faces of their panels through conversation on our Facebook page.

We look forward to another year of growth, happy customers, and affordable solar for all!

A new national poll by Kelton Research shows that Americans of every political leaning overwhelmingly support the use and development of solar energy. According to the poll, 9 out of 10 Americans think that solar is important. In the political breakdown, at least 80 percent of participants in every party agree that it is important for the US to develop and use solar.

Furthermore, 8 out of 10 Americans support federal incentives directed toward bettering the solar industry.

When asked to select one energy source they would financially support if they were in charge of U.S. energy policy, 39 percent of Americans answered that they would support solar over other options such as natural gas, wind, nuclear and coal.

To dig a little deeper into the results, check out the findings on the infographic below or read the statement from SEIA.

With the recent Solyndra bankruptcy front and center in the news, it’s easy to lose sight of the facts when it comes to solar industry growth. Recently, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) compiled a snapshot of facts that are worth sharing and celebrating:

• The solar industry employs more than 100,000 Americans, more than twice as many as in 2009. They work at more than 5,000 companies, the vast majority being small businesses, in all 50 states.
• The U.S. solar industry grew by 69% in the past year, making it one of the fastest growing sectors in the U.S. economy.
• Since the beginning of 2010, the price of solar panels has dropped by 30%, and costs continue to fall making solar an even more viable choice for residential and business customers.
• The U.S. was a net exporter of solar products in 2010 by $2 billion. We were even a net exporter to China.
• Solar power in the U.S. now exceeds 3,100 megawatts (MW), enough to power more than 630,000 homes.
• Continued industry growth enhances our energy security and diversifies our domestic energy portfolio.

According to SEIA, solar is one of the fastest-growing industries in the U.S. right now. More importantly, it’s affordable for more Americans due to price drops and new business models like SunRun. SunRun is currently growing at over 200 percent and is looking forward to continued growth.

January 20, 2011

The solar industry and the process of installing a home solar system can often be confusing and complicated. To help remedy this, SunRun has taken commonly asked questions and answered them in short and simple videos. We want solar to be easy to understand and enjoyable to learn about. Each week, we will post a new question, so stay tuned to watch the SunRun team draw answers to your questions on our solar Q&A whiteboard.

Check out our first video, hosted by SunRun Account Manager, Jameson Dequinia. He answers the question: How do I get my solar power at night?

December 3, 2010

This week’s solar news roundup will focus on the UN conference on climate change currently being held in Cancun, Mexico.

Beginning on November 29 through to December 10, the 16^th edition of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 16) will bring international leaders together to discuss the future of global climate change. Many difficult topics related to defining an international climate change treaty will be negotiated during the two-week meeting. This challenging goal was acknowledged during opening day by the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christina Figureres:

“We’re not going to solve the whole problem this year, but we can lock in bigger and better agreements every year. Multilateral negotiations such as this one involve not just solving an environmental problem but actually involve the transformation of economic patterns and the economic structure we have lived with for decades.”

The future of the Kyoto Protocol will be discussed and debated heavily during the conference, as much of the Protocol is set to expire year-end 2012. The Kyoto Protocol set varying emissions-reduction standards for both developed and developing countries back in 1997. Non-compliance by the United States, however, has provided other heavily emitting countries such as China to also refuse participation in global emissions-reduction treaties.

The defeat of Proposition 23 will also be a hot topic during the COP16.  The failure of this bill to pass in California during the most recent mid-term elections was a great win for environmental advocates all over the world. Unfortunately Prop 26 did pass, and as a result, a two-thirds vote as opposed to a mere majority vote is required to impose fees and taxes on polluters. Big oil, tobacco, and alcohol corporations are currently benefiting from the passage of this proposition, and cleantech companies such as SunRun are being negatively impacted.

We will keep you updated on any major decisions or climate change agreements that result from the conference.

November 5, 2010

This week, the clean energy world focused on the mid-term elections and the impact of the results on environmental policy.

Let’s start with the good news: the defeat of Proposition 23. We have discussed Prop. 23 in earlier blog posts but, just in case you missed it, Prop. 23 was a California ballot initiative that would have suspended California’s landmark 2006 clean air law to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.  If passed, Prop. 23 would have prolonged U.S. dependence on fossil fuels and would have jeopardized over 500,000 green jobs. Thankfully, Prop. 23 was defeated 60.4% to 39.6%.

Wade Crowfoot, West Coast political director for the Environmental Defense Fund stated, “The defeat of Proposition 23 tells Congress that the largest state in the Union that represents the eighth largest economy in the world is a cornerstone of economic recovery, and that Californians view clean energy as part of the solution.”

Although Californians voted no on Prop. 23, they did pass Proposition 26.  Proposition 26 reclassifies environmental fees in California as taxes and requires a two-thirds legislative vote to approve many state and local fees. In California, state and local governments rely on fees collected by polluters to fund environmental initiatives, such as  education programs and the regulation of oil recycling. Additionally, the law AB 32 may be affected. AB 32 requires California to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and depends on polluter fees to implement and enforce.

As you can see, the results from this year’s mid-term elections are mixed in California. The defeat of Proposition 23 is a huge win for environmental proponents and shows that Californians believe that the clean energy economy is not only growing but is benefiting the state. On the other hand, the passage of Proposition 26 may make it more difficult to implement key environmental initiatives, including California’s climate law.

As for what’s going on in other states, the major utilities in Colorado and Hawaii are getting serious about renewable energy. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission approved a long-term energy resource plan to implement at least 200 megawatts of solar power with energy storage by 2015 and will close two Xcel Energy coal-fired power plants within the state in order to reduce carbon emissions.

In the Aloha state, the Hawaiian Electric Company reached an agreement with the state to increase Hawaii’s renewable energy usage. The agreement seeks to integrate up to 1,100 MW of renewable energy into the grid, with 700 MW implemented over the next five years. Additionally, in order to further cut down carbon emissions, the Hawaiian Electric Company will ban new construction of coal-fired power plants and is committed to shifting from fossil-fuel power plants to renewable energies resources. The agreement is part of a larger state clean energy initiative between Hawaii and the DOE, which aims to have 70% of Hawaii’s power usage come from renewable energy sources by 2030.

Are you a Pacific Gas & Electric customer?  If you live in Northern or Central California, chances are you get your gas and electricity from PG&E.  You might have heard recently that you should get solar right now, before the CSI rebate drops 30%.  What does that mean for you?

The Background

In 2007,  California launched the California Solar Initiative (CSI) which provides solar rebates to homeowners.  The program was designed to last until 2016, although it could run out faster. The amount of money the CSI gives out for solar installations decreases over time, so people who get solar earlier get more money back.

Current PG&E rebates

The initial rebate to homeowners through the CSI was $2.50 per watt.   That amount has declined in steps, and will continue to decline.  The final step of the program gives a rebate of  just $.20 per watt.  Currently, the rebate is at $1.55 per watt, but it’s likely that it will  drop this month to $1.10 per watt.

What the Rebate Drop means to you

A homeowner with an average sized solar system who gets the $1.55 rebate would get about $1500 more from the state of California than that same homeowner would get with the $1.10 rebate.  If solar is something you definitely want to do, you should try to get the better rebate.  That probably means booking your reservation in the next two weeks, although nobody knows exactly when the rebate will drop.  It’s not done on a time-basis, but on a demand basis.  There are a certain number of watts available at the $1.55 level, and when those are taken, the rebate will drop.  Most solar companies believe this will happen somewhere towards the middle or end of this month.

How do I get the rebate?

To get the rebate from California, you’ll need to have a system designed for your home, and to sign a contract with a solar company.  It doesn’t require that your system is built, just that the plans are finalized.  The first step is to contact your solar company and have them give you a cost and savings estimate for your home.

a guest post by Mitchell Thomashow

We’re mired in the depths of winter in Unity, Maine. I’ve lived in Northern New England since 1975 and this is easily the coldest winter I’ve experienced. There have been countless below zero nights, many days when the temperature has barely cracked single numbers, and plenty of snow and wind. I’m not complaining because the cross-country skiing is sublime and I have the great fortune to live in a solar home—The Unity House.

Enter Tedd Benson, the founder of Bensonwood Homes in Walpole, NH. In the 1970′s Tedd revitalized modern timber frame housing and shared his techniques with the industry; most timber frame homes built today are based on Tedd’s best practices. Now Tedd wants to bring this same open source approach to creating housing that is adaptable, sustainable, and affordable.

As the result of the Open Prototype Initiative -a design and construction partnership between Bensonwood Homes and the Open Source Building Alliance – we have The Unity House, a zero-carbon, President’s Residence for Unity College, a small environmental liberal arts college in rural Maine. Our college aspires to be an exemplary sustainable campus. So what better way is there to “walk the talk” than to live what you espouse? We worked with Bensonwood to have The Unity House model frugal sustainability, multiple use space, and ecological awareness. In theory it seemed just wonderful. Five months into the project, after another icy cold night, you might want to know how well it’s performing.

On a sunny day, regardless of the outside temperature, even when it’s below zero, there will be enough passive solar gain to keep the house at close to seventy degrees well into the evening. The solar panels -designed and implemented by Gro Solar of White River Junction, VT- will generate over 5000 watts per hour. During the day we produce more electricity than we consume. The Hallowell heat pump won’t be needed until very late evening or early the next morning. Over a three-day stretch of dry, sunny, frigid days in late January, we generated as much electricity as we used. I can safely say that when the sun is shining in the middle of winter, the Unity House is carbon neutral.

However, when it’s cloudy, things change. We moved into The Unity House in early September. Up until around Thanksgiving we were ahead in our solar accounting—more electricity generated from the solar panels than taken from the grid. Two months later, we’ve fallen behind. However, I am convinced that with the warmer and much longer days of Spring and Summer, the balance will be restored and our solar accounting will prevail.

Solar accounting aside, there is another important aspect of solar living, beyond the environmental and economic virtues. It’s just plain fun. It’s interesting and rewarding to observe how following the path of the sun informs how you live. You know that you are contributing to a more sustainable world and you are living the future in the present moment.

Check out the Bensonwood website (http://bensonwood.com/unity/) to get a sense of all the different models of the Unity House. Notice the tight and elegant design, the use of local and recycled materials, the emphasis on intelligence and craft.

And check out my blog (http://www.ucesrealworld.blogspot.com/) at Unity College, Environmental Studies for the Real World, to understand why ecological awareness and sustainable living are at the heart of how we approach education.

Mitchell Thomashow
President, Unity College

The City of Angels is planning to up its use of solar electricity in a big way in the coming years, both through a ballot measure to increase the use of solar panels to be installed and owned by the city’s utility, and through a bold new initiative which aims to power the city with rooftop solar and solar electricity generated by large-scale plants in the Mojave Desert.

On March 3, Los Angeles will vote on a ballot measure that will allow the DWP to install and own 400 megawatts of rooftop solar panels by 2014. That amount of new generation would make LA the #1 city for solar electricity internationally.

But not everyone thinks the plan is so bright and shiny, since it was conceived largely by a group with strong ties to the union that represents the utility’s workers. The LA Times said in a recent editorial that the ballot measure “stands the priority list for intelligent solar policy on its head. Increased electrical generation capacity and benefit for ratepayers fall to the bottom. They’re replaced by secondary priorities, such as economic stimulus and job security for DWP workers, or even non-priorities (for L.A. residents, anyway), such as near-exclusive IBEW power [International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers] over awarding solar-panel-installation jobs and union support for elected officials.”

As if the ballot measure wasn’t stirring enough controversy, on November 24, “Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled an ambitious long-range plan Monday for securing enough solar power to meet one-tenth of the city’s energy needs by 2020, a move aimed at making L.A. a hub of the solar-energy industry.”

This ambitious plan calls for 1,280 megawatts of new solar generation to be built in and around Los Angeles by 2020. To put this in perspective the total capacity of new solar electricity installations worldwide in 2006 was 1744 megawatts.

According to the LA Times, “DWP General Manager and Chief Executive H. David Nahai said his agency will spend the next 90 days developing a financial analysis of the solar plan, including its effect on ratepayers.”

As the news unfolds, we’ll be back with another post. Stay tuned…

Today most of our electricity and the energy we use to power our vehicles come from someplace far away.

Typically it’s a hole in the ground. We use a lot of energy to dig that hole, pull carbon out of the hole—coal, oil, and natural gas, and transport it to a location where we refine and/or store it. Then some energy gets used to transport this fuel to yet another location where we feed it to a massive furnace, creating the heat we need to make steam to spin an electromagnet—more energy gets lost here too. Finally, we lose yet more energy sending it over a long distance to end users. A lot of energy gets lost making energy in our centralized system.

Decentralized energy generation, like solar panels on a roof, eliminate much of this inefficiency. With rooftop solar, photons get turned into electrons where customers use the energy. That cuts out digging the hole, extracting the fuel, hauling it, storing it, burning it, and sending it home. Sunshine on your roof is an effective way to charge a cell phone or power a hybrid car.

In last week’s Sunday New York Times, Al Gore called for the country to invest $400 billion in a “unified national smart grid” so that electricity generated in the desert can be sent to population centers. Not only is that a lot of money to lose electrons going a long distance, it doesn’t take into account the power of localized, decentralized power generation to cost-effectively deliver clean electricity to customers today.

The North American Electricity Reliability Corporation recently reported that new centralized renewable generation—big wind turbines and desert solar—will stress our current electricity grid. However, local solar generation has the opposite effect. When photons become electrons at the point of consumption, consumers demand less power from the grid, thereby making the grid more reliable.

We don’t have to spend $400 billion (or ≈$1,333 for every American) on a new grid to run our cars off solar. Today SunRun customers can charge their cars using the sun from their roofs for 50% of the cost of burning gasoline.

here are other benefits to decentralized renewable energy generation too. For example, it’s hard for our enemies to attack, which is among the reasons why former Director of the CIA Jim Woolsey called on the country to invest in it following September 11^th.

Local renewable generation, like rooftop solar, is an important part of our national energy strategy and is a complementary part of our nation’s changing generation fleet.

Are you in California and interested in solar for your home? Call us at 877.SUN.MOJO or visit our website to learn more.