This morning, Good Morning America’s Sam Champion and SunRun’s Lynn Jurich discussed how easy and affordable it is to get solar for your home with SunRun.  SunRun buys the panels and pays for installation so you can switch to clean home solar power for little or no cost. SunRun also takes complete care of your home solar system, which includes professional monitoring, maintenance and repair, insurance, and a money-back performance guarantee.  All you have to do is simply pay for your home solar electricity, just like you pay your utility today. But, unlike utilities that can raise your rates at anytime, SunRun lets you lock in today’s rates for the next 18 or 20 years. See if your home is right for solar with a free home solar quote!

Watch the ABC Good Morning America clip on SunRun home solar below!

Homeowners in Massachusetts are increasingly turning to residential solar for environmental reasons, according to the Boston Globe. In the midst of environmental disasters, rising energy costs, and increased talks of climate change, residents are turning to solar energy. And going solar is easier than ever with state and federal tax incentives and companies like SunRun, that make it affordable and easy to switch to solar.

In Washington, the atmosphere was more somber, as Democrats called off efforts to advance a major climate change bill through Senate. According to Senator Harry Reid, proponents of the bill knew they simply did not have enough votes and officials favored moving on, rather than stall the Senate over the bill.  Instead, the Senate has pursued a more limited bill responding to the BP oil spill and tightening standards for energy efficiency.

On a lighter note, the Zephyr, an unmanned solar airplane, has set some outstanding records for longest flight…powered entirely by the sun! For over two weeks, the Zephyr has been flying over Arizona, day and night, thanks to the paper thin solar panels on its wings. The solar plane presents great potential for persistent surveillance and communications.

And over here in California, a team of scientists at the California Institute of Technology and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was awarded $122 million by the U.S. Department of Energy to establish the Sunlight Energy Innovation Hub. This Hub would focus on “artificially simulating photosynthetic processes…to produce innovative sources of energy”, or converting sunlight into fuel.

It’s been a busy week for solar! Let us know if you think we left out a crucial solar news story and we’ll be happy to include it in our solar news roundup.

Adam Shuster's 11-year-old son, Kenny, encouraged him to get home solar to save the planet.

A growing number of Massachusetts residents are going solar, according to an article in today’s Boston Globe. Climate change, along with recent environmental disasters such as the BP oil spill, coupled with rising energy prices are motivating residents to make a choice about where their electricity comes from. According to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, 274 Massachusetts home solar systems were installed in 2007, 494 in 2008, and 847 in 2009! And there’s been a 37% increase nationally in home solar since 2008.

According to the article, “beyond the dollars and kilowatt hours…what is driving many to the solar option is something harder to quantify but perhaps more significant: an awareness that what happens in Louisiana or Iraq has a direct connection to choices they make at home.” For many, home solar means more than generating electricity. By offering affordable home solar options, SunRun has been able to turn this emotional connection and desire to a practical and feasible solution: quality solar installations by top SunRun-certified partners Alteris Renewables and groSolar, locked in electricity rates, and professional monitoring and maintenance.  All for little to no upfront cost.  Doug Herberich, one of the several SunRun homeowners featured in this piece, has been able to cut his electric bills to about 2/3 of what he used to pay, but that’s just an added bonus to the peace of mind that comes with knowing that he’s making a difference.

Take a look at the Boston Globe article to learn more about Massachusetts residents turning to solar and read interviews with several SunRun homeowners!

Scott Gordon, the Vice President of Residential Sales for HelioPower, recently published a detailed blogpost about HOAs and residential solar systems. He explains the ground rules that form the foundation for solar system approval through an HOA:

• The Solar Rights Act of 1978: In California, you are not allowed to prohibit or restrict the installation or use of a solar energy system. In addition, no one, other than a public entity, is allowed to “willfully avoid or [delay]” the installation of a solar energy system.  If you do, you’ll be fined.
• Section 714 of California Civil Code: Municipalities and HOAs can restrict your solar energy system if these restrictions don’t increase its cost by more than $2,000 or decrease its efficiency/performance by more than 20%.

Scott then explains some of the Home Owners Association’s most common tactics:

• Make you move your solar panels where they won’t be visible
• Require the purchase of a type of panel that HOA will find aesthetically pleasing
• Prolong approval at their meetings, so either you’ll give up on a home solar energy system or your rebate will expire before installation.
• Get a third party “independent” solar contractor to review your desgn

And he also includes your possible next steps, if you are confronted with a stubborn HOA management board:

1. Own and lead the fight (HOA management will not listen to your solar contractor)
2. Show your HOA the solar Rights Act
3. Prepare cost and efficiency comparisons between your plans and HOA plans
4. Get photos of other solar installations your installer has done
5. And if you must, bring in some legal help or get creative – one example Scott lists is having neighbors sign a petition supporting your solar energy system design, or getting elected to the board yourself.

The most important thing is to know your rights and make sure your Home Owner’s Association knows them, too! Check out the HelioPower blog for more specifics on how to win the fight for a solar energy system in an HOA community.

SunRun’s co-founders, Ed Fenster and Lynn Jurich, have created a solar webinar video series in which they’ll take your questions about home solar and answer them live. The first solar video in the series – an overview on home solar financing. Our next webinar will be recorded live, featuring call-ins from listeners. Watch Ed and Lynn discuss solar financing, solar leases, and solar power purchase agreements below!

Send us an email to submit questions for future webinars, and please stay tuned for the next airing. We can’t wait to see your questions.

CalFinder’s Residential Solar Power blog is particularly valuable for those interested in keeping up to date with solar news and industry trends. It’s updated frequently and features articles on the latest in energy, environment, and technology, as well as interviews with solar professionals. In fact, CalFinder recently interviewed our Director of Sales, Grayson Morris, about home solar pricing and his job at SunRun. As a director, Grayson’s role is to help his team talk to homeowners about SunRun – each of his team members has an individual conversation with each and every single homeowner who calls or emails SunRun about going solar or wants a SunRun solar quote. In fact, that’s one of his favorite aspects about his job – hearing the great homeowner solar success stories.

You can read the full CalFinder interview on their site, but here’s an excerpt below:

CalFinder: What’s your favorite part about this job?

Grayson: My favorite part is the stories we hear from customers about why they want to go solar and how easy SunRun has made it for them. Frequently, we get calls from people who couldn’t save enough to buy a system outright ($30,000+) and they’re super happy when they discover that SunRun can help them go solar for about the cost of a couple of airplane tickets. When they get the system installed and they’re standing in their yard watching the meter spin backwards, they’ll give us a call and laugh. That’s the fun part.

CalFinder: What’s your role in the process?

Grayson: My role is to guide my team that talks to homeowners across the country about SunRun. Each day, we get calls, e-mails and inquiries from the five states we currently operate in. The folks under me have an individual conversation with every single one of them. We ask them why they are looking into solar, we view their home on-line to make sure their roof can accommodate a solar system, and we provide ballpark figures around the economics of going solar with SunRun. It’s important that we’re talking intelligently about SunRun and that we share a consistent message with homeowners across the country.

CalFinder: How did SunRun get started and where do you see the company headed?

Grayson: SunRun was started by two classmates from the business school at Stanford. They saw that there were a bunch of companies doing this in the commercial sector (solar on Wal-Mart, Costco, Whole Foods, etc.) but no one was helping homeowners go solar. That was 2007. Their first office was in the attic of the co-founder’s home (I worked there that summer). Now we have 60+ people and we’re outgrowing our office space in San Francisco.

It has been a fun journey but we’re just getting started. There’s no reason 1 in 10 homes shouldn’t have a solar system on their rooftop.  A few years from now, you’ll be able to stand in the street of any neighborhood in California and I bet you’ll spot 5 solar systems and several will be SunRun systems. This is the way people will buy the bulk of their electricity going forward. It just makes a lot of sense.

Hi Everybody,
My name is Ted Reynolds, a SunRun customer since June 2010, and I’ve been invited by their folks to blog on my solar experience, specifically my interaction with our solar panel system and how it has affected my lifestyle.

First things first: a little about myself. I am retired, married, and an “empty nester”.  I live in Orange County, Southern California, near the coast. I have an engineering background, love camping, fishing, hiking, my dog (and my wife, of course), reading, my computer and getting my hands in the dirt. I have a couple of favorite sayings: “All eyes and no sight,” by Shakespeare and “Bad luck is the residue of bad planning,” by an author whose name I’ve forgotten. All this, I believe, played into my decision to go solar.

I guess you could call me an environmentalist, but more of a practical kind. My philosophy is that if it is within your means to help, no matter what your age or situation, you have a duty to do so. Going solar, I decided, was the biggest, single impact I could have on the environment with no small effect on our future finances.  I am a practical person and I know large increases in the cost of electricity are coming!

I had looked into solar photovoltaic panels 3 or 4 years ago and decided that they were too expensive. But recently, I realized that rebates/tax credits would drop, electricity prices were increasing, and panel prices decreasing. No sooner had I started mulling this situation over when I received a serendipitous e-mail from Real Goods. I set up an appointment with Real Goods and had a long comprehensive consultation with their representative, David. After learning about the SunRun program, the decision to go ‘solar’ was easy. We finished up with a twenty-four module system, 5.04 kW DC, 4.3 kW AC. At present, it is turning out energy excess to our needs on most days. I am really happy with what I see so far!

SUMMARY FOR MONTH OF JUNE
Energy produced = 626.6 KwHrs.
Energy consumed = 438.6 KwHrs.
Energy credited = 188 KwHrs.

Keeping records like this has made me really aware of how much energy we are using – I will try to conserve more and find out ways to cut our consumption.

Cheers,
Ted

Don’t forget to check out Ted’s blog, where he keeps records of his energy generation and meter readings.

Homeowners at the Preserve will pay a fixed rate of $42 per month for their solar power for the next 20 years.  They will save anywhere from $50-$100 month compared to homebuyers who opt out of solar panels.  SunRun will take complete care of every system, including maintenance, monitoring and insurance. Homeowners will move into a state-of-the-art home, complete with a solar roof designed and installed by PetersenDean.  It can’t get much easier and affordable to switch to solar than this.

Toll Brothers is leading the way in providing new homebuyers with things that are important to them – a more sustainable, affordable luxury home. It’s encouraging to see that a leading home developer such as Toll Brothers recognizes the advantage of clean solar electricity in building more affordable homes. Whether you’re looking to go solar in an existing home or in the market for a new home, SunRun offers a clean and affordable alternative to your utility.  If the enthusiastic early reaction to The Preserve is any indication, we hope to do a lot more of these homes with our partners in the future!

If one thing is clear from these recent investments, it is that SunRun is transforming the market for home solar.  As SunRun CEO, Ed Fenster said, SunRun is giving homeowners who are looking for a better alternative to their utility, a “real choice – clean solar energy that doesn’t cost a lot, and gives them control over what they’ll be paying in the future.”  Home solar no longer has to be complicated or costly.  SunRun solar leases and solar power purchase agreements make switching to solar affordable and easy.  We understand that solar has to be simple for it to become mainstream.  This is why our goal is to take all the positive aspects about traditional electricity from your utility — convenience and service — and improve upon it by making the electricity clean and eliminating the unpredictable rate increases.

Energy consumption has been on the rise with our modern lifestyles and the consequences are already showing.  We’re straining the electric grid and destroying our natural environment.  It’s become evident that the home electricity market is not only ready for change, but dependent on it as well.  SunRun now has over 4,500 customers with 400% growth in the last year.  We already know that homeowners want solar – and we’ll be using this funding to make our produce even more affordable and easier to switch.  We plan to open the market to hundreds of thousands of homeowners across the nation who hadn’t previously considered clean electricity as feasible in the next year.  As these investments have shown, the time for solar is now and SunRun is the right company to get you there.

This July 4th, declare your independence from your utility, rising utility prices, and dirty electricity. Now, you have a choice. SunRun home solar is the best alternative to your utility today. Not only is home solar clean, but you’ll also be able to lock in your current electricity rates for the future. And best of all, it’s easy to switch – with SunRun, you can upgrade to solar power for little to no cost and your rates will be fixed for the next 18 years. No more unpredictable utility rate hikes.

It’s gotten even easier this summer to declare your freedom and bring clean solar power into your home, with SunRun – sign up with SunRun by July 5th and we’ll give you $610 cash back once you’re up and running. There’s no need to mail in any forms or take any other action. Just sit back, watch the fireworks, and you’ll have $610 cash back in your pocket.

Energy Independence means different things to different people, whether its freedom from rising electricity costs or dirty energy. The recent BP oil spill in the Gulf has been the most recent reminder of our nation’s need to free ourselves from the grip of fossil fuels. Running a country on dirty energy comes with costs outside of our electricity bills, including the loss of human lives, destruction of our environment, and devastation of our local economies. One SunRun homeowner likes the idea of being energy independent in his house because it’s about “saving money and leveraging the sun.” Another homeowner believes that we have to “get ourselves free from importing energy into our country.” And many simply believe that they are being “raked over the coals by the utility.”

What do you think? What does going solar mean to you? Let us know by leaving us a comment!