eSignatures served sunny side up in San Diego

Update: We’ve had a few readers wondering when we’d be available in San Diego. At this time, we’re looking at installation partners and working to assure quality across the board for all Sungevity-powered solar installations. We hope to be set to go in San Diego by year’s end.

Shine on!

I thought you’d like to see what we have been up to in support of our mission to bring solar to scale:

That’s my reason for not blogging last week: we were in San Diego for – Solar Power International, the biggest industry convention in America. It was awesome to see how far this business has come and how fast it is growing. The Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, opened the event – you can see him speak here and lots of other sessions are also online.

To give you a small sense of how the industry is growing (and in spite of the broader economic downturn) there were 18,000 people at this event compared to 12,000 a year ago. And two years ago, when the event was held in San Jose, and there were about 6,000 participants. So even though the growth of the solar sector is only usually cited as being 30% annually it seems to attract even more great people per annum to its ranks as it thrives.

But what is this video about eSignatures?

Sungevity took the opportunity of the gathering of our solar peers to call for a single, simple step to be taken to streamline our business. Just as we work for our customers to make solar easy and more affordable, we sought to work with everyone in San Diego to reduce some of the painful paperwork we deal with every day. We called for on utilities and the Public Utilities Commissions, which govern solar installations in each state to reduce the red tape and accept digital filing of all the forms we fill out.

It sounds mundane but there can be up to 70 pages of forms to process for each solar job. Many contractors told us they take 20 hours or more to fill out the required forms and then take more hours to collect the wet ink signatures required currently. That’s hundreds if not thousands of dollars of cost. And then when the paperwork – literally paper – is posted in to the program administrators for rebates and interconnection it is re-processed, which is incredibly inefficient.

So we suggested to the solar powers-that-be in this business accept electronic signatures as a small step towards the eventual digital filing of all the forms needed to complete a solar installation. We aim to save everyone time, money and paper. The video comes to you thanks to the amazing people at RandomTV who streamed footage of our ask and activity straight to the web from the San Diego Convention Center on Tuesday, October 14th.

Cool new TV technology in support of using online technology to streamline installation of the best technology – solar! Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. Shine on, dannyk.

ITC passes, the solar industry celebrates!

There is a silver lining for the current cloud over our financial system: in the “bailout bill” that was passed last Friday there was some excellent news for the solar industry. The legislation extended solar tax credits for 8 years, and more importantly, it eliminated the $2,000 cap on residential installations, allowing homeowners to get a real 30% credit off the cost of solar.

As was reported from Fortune to the San Francisco Chronicle, this is going to create a boom in the solar business.  The reason is simple – it pays to go solar! If you are a prospective customer, now is a great time to sign up for a solar system – call and we’ll walk you through it.

For Sungevity customers who have signed up for a system D (approximately 5.6 kW, our fourth largest residential solar electric system), they would be more than $2,000 ahead if they now buy a system E (approximately 7 kW, our largest home solar system). On average, the return on investment that our customers see is going to be above 20% for many homes.

The tax credit extension is great news for our customers, because the economics of going solar are even better. With a warranty-backed solar system that will save you tens of thousands of dollars over 25 years, there is no better investment in 2008. Shine on!

Solar installation partnership

It has been an incredible six months since our launch–we’ve sold nearly one hundred solar systems and provided quotes to over fifteen hundred customers interested in solar. In order to meet this fantastic demand, we have enlisted an installation partner to help us get solar systems installed in a timely fashion.

Our partner, Shamrock Renewables, has installed over seven hundred residential and small commercial solar systems in California and brings over thirty year’s experience in the construction management business.

The warranty and contract terms with Sungevity will remain unchanged. Heath Galloway, Sungevity’s Manager of Field Operations, will oversee every job, both those installed by a Sungevity crew and those installed by a Shamrock crew.

We are pleased to be able to provide excellent customer service and a more rapid installation timeline.  Teaming up with Shamrock Renewables will allow us to install systems before the end of the year and get you on the road to your solar-powered future.

Onward and upward…

Shine on,

The Sungevity Team

Solar at West Coast Green

Amidst a week of not so sunny news and anxiety, we’d like to reflect on some of the positives we’re seeing from Sungevity central:

To start, a number of Sungevity team members were out and about last weekend, showing our efficient process for home solar installation and working the wonderful West Coast Green in San Jose. We had a great time and met lots of interesting people working hard to incorporate sustainability into building design. Aside from seeing Al Gore explain how we can get off fossil fuels in a decade, rewire America, and create a lot of great jobs, we were excited to see how many like-minded people are out there doing great things. To learn more about what went on at West Coast Green check out this blog from a visitor who picked us one of the top companies there.

Elsewhere around the Bay there were lots of exciting events being organized for the National Day of Action for Green Jobs Now. As previously posted on this blog, we’re big supporters of green collar job creation. If you want to be a supporter too, but didn’t get a chance to sign the petition there’s still time to sign the “I’m Ready for Green Jobs Now” petition to Congress and the presidential candidates.

On a related note, a new book by one of the leaders of this movement, Van Jones, is available this week and I reckon anyone interested should buy a copy. It is a great read that how one solution can fix our two biggest problems – financial recession and climate change.

If nothing else, it could cheer you up…if 5,000 copies are sold by next Tuesday, we can make The Green Collar Economy the first environmental bestseller by an African American author, and further elevate the green jobs movement in the political debate.

Shine on,

The Sungevity Team