Sungevity raises $15 million to grow Internet-based rooftop solar leasing

Growing Consumer Solar Adoption and Popular Lease 10X Sungevity’s Sales -Now Nation’s Fastest Growing Residential Solar Company

OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 15, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Sungevity, the nation’s fastest growing provider of residential solar installations, today announced that it has raised an additional $15 million toward its Series C funding round led by existing investors including Greener Capital and Firelake Capital along with new investor Brightpath Capital Partners, an Oakland impact investment fund. Sungevity has now raised more than $25 million; this money will support its mission to spread affordable solar to homeowners across the nation next year.

“Continued support from existing and new investors is a testament to the success of Sungevity’s unique and highly efficient internet business model,” said board member A. George “Skip” Battle, who also serves on the boards of Netflix, LinkedIn and OpenTable. “Broader resources will allow this company to serve an exploding market for solar leases, enabling more U.S. homeowners to get the benefits of solar without having to front the full cost of their systems.”

According to a new report by IDC Energy Insights, the rate of North American solar installations is expected to double in 2011 and companies that provide solar leasing and power purchase agreements (PPAs) to residential and commercial property owners are expected to increase their market share to over 50%.

Sungevity grew the number of kilowatts sold more than ten-fold in 2010 as it rolled out a popular solar lease and customer interest skyrocketed. Sungevity’s market position in the residential solar grew from 0.4% of the Californian market to 2.9% – an industry leading leap. This makes it the fastest growing solar company in the US, with far less capital invested than many competitors. To accommodate this growth, Sungevity has more than tripled its staff in 2010, while creating scores of indirect jobs for its network of solar installers across the West.

“We’ve made it easy and affordable for the average homeowner to switch to solar with our unique online sales process and best-in-breed solar lease,” said Danny Kennedy, Founder of Sungevity. “We’re in a unique position because we are the only company to offer a firm quote within 24 hours without a site visit. We’re now removing the last barriers to mass adoption of solar electricity across the US.”

2010 – A Year of Expansion and National Impact

Off to a fast start this year, Sungevity expanded into a number of new markets including Southern California, Arizona, and Colorado. In total they have helped more than 1000 households go solar. In October alone, the company booked more than 1 megawatt of leases and interconnected 500kw to the grid.

Sungevity was the voice behind the Globama campaign to put Solar on the White House — which garnered national attention and also influenced international leaders — including the Maldives’ President Mohamed Nasheed. He invited Sungevity to install solar on his nation’s ‘white house.’

Sungevity was recently featured in a cover story in USA Today as a prime case of smart companies using business intelligence to disrupt categories with its unique Remote Solar Design capability and in dozens of other articles for leading the fight against Prop 23 in California’s election.

Saving Money and the Planet

So far this year Sungevity has sold or leased more than 4.7 MW of solar. The systems installed this year will have the following benefits EACH YEAR they are in operation (the warranted life of these systems is 25 years):

– 4824 tons of CO2 offset

– 15.7 million car miles offset

– 28.6 thousand trees planted

About 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.

Magic 8 Ball predicts big decade for solar

I was all set to do a 2010 solar recap blog, but our good friends at Vote Solar beat me to it.  So instead, I’ve consulted my son’s Magic 8 Ball and will now share with you, the privileged readers of this blog, my predictions for the next decade, as confirmed by the infallible Magic 8 Ball:

Will California’s new net metering program prompt thousands of homeowners to install new super-sized solar arrays? Most likely.

Will California solar homeowners who sell their homes be super-psyched when they realize their solar systems increased the value of their homes by 5%? It is certain.

Will President Obama install solar panels on the roof of the White House? Outlook good.

Will the next round of climate talks lead to a binding treaty to keep the planet’s temperature from rising more than 2° celcius? Cannot tell you now.

Will the Western Climate Initiatve’s carbon trading program take effect on schedule in 2012 and will it be such a smashing success that the rest of the world will fall down racing to emulate it? Signs point to yes.

Will the world come to an end on December 12, 2012 per the Mayan calendar? Very doubtful.

Will July 4, 2013 be  declared “Energy Independence Day” by the executive order of the newly inaugurated president? It is certain.

Will carbon sequestration breakthroughs make “clean coal” a realistic solution to climate change? My sources say no way.

Will Denver shutter all of its coal-fired power plants by 2017? It is decidedly so.

Will oil prices remain stable (below $100/barrel)? My sources say fat chance.

Will thousands of people buy electric vehicles and charge them up with solar and wind power? Signs point to yes.

Will my son remember to turn the light off in his room by 2015? Outlook is dim.

Will oil companies think twice before messing with California’s climate change and clean energy laws? It is certain.

Will WikiLeaks release top secret documents revealing the fossil fuel industry’s strategy of making huge campaign contributions to candidates in exchange for political access and influence? Errr…

Will at least ten more states adopt renewable energy portfolio standards requiring utilities to get at least a third of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020? Cannot predict now.

Will the Dark Side (fossil fool lobbyists) see the (LED) light and surrender to The Force of Renewable Energy? Yes.

Will The Force be with Congress, helping it realize that, ultimately, the alternative to sustainable energy is no energy? Most definitely.

Will the Sungevity Solar Lease be available to every homeowner in the galaxy? Concentrate and ask again.

Will the Sungevity Solar Lease be available to every homeowner in the galaxy? Let it be so.

Here’s to a surprisingly magical decade…

–Erica Etelson

Sungevity celebrates 2010!

Sungevity founder Danny Kennedy (in orange argyle) announces winners of orange-outfit contest (right)



Sungevity has come a long way in the past year, and our 2010 holiday party was a high-spirited celebration of the growth of our company and our industry.  We spent the evening at the Chabot Space & Science Center, racing solar-powered lego cars, learning about ancient Mayan astronomers and toasting to a fantastic year.  Thanks to everyone who helped make 2010 a banner year for solar!

Santa’s in the House (and the Senate)

Our holiday wish came true–Congress voted to extend the Treasury Grant Program (which was set to expire this year) through 2012. This means that, for at least two more years, investors and businesses will have a big tax incentive to go solar, and we can look forward to tens of thousands of new job and the displacement of 4.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases (the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road for a year).

As more and more Americans become aware of the benefits of solar power, we’re optimistic that, by 2012, Congress will see fit to renew the TGP indefinitely. In the meantime, we’re the grateful green sheep of the energy family — happy to be tossed a few crumbs and prepared to thrive on them and oust the family favorites (coal and gas).

We at Sungevity wish you a sunny holiday aglow with solar-powered LED holidays lights. If you’re not yet a home solar maven, we look forward to converting you in 2011–with the money you’ll save, Christmas 2011 will be festive indeed!

–Erica Etelson

The sol in solstice

It’s the shortest day of the year here in the northern hemisphere.  The winter solstice may not be the best day to try to watch your electric meter spin backwards, but it is an opportunity to reflect on the power of the sun even as our hemisphere tilts away from it.

“Solstice” means “sun stands still.”  Since as long ago as anyone can unearth, people have marked the winter and summer solstices.  It’s probably no accident that Christmas falls four days after the winter solstice–early Christians disputed the birth date of Jesus and ultimately settled on December 25 to coincide with (or replace) the Roman pagan solstice celebration. You know that halo around Jesus’s head–what does it look like?  And how about the word “Yule”–probably derived from “wheel,” a Norse symbol depicting the sun’s rays.

Just about every culture reveres the sun by way of some kind of ritual worship.  The Mayans built temples perfectly aligned with the sun’s rays and developed the first solar calendar on the basis of their careful solar observations.  Modern northern Californians mark the season by fleeing, if they can, to the south.  In our hi-tech age, it’s easy to lose our sense of awe for the sun and to forget that we rely on it for a lot more than powering our TVs.

Happy solstice, everyone!

–Erica Etelson

The end of coal

We’ve been hard on King Coal here on the Sungevity blog this week. So today I’m going to say something very positive about coal that most people don’t realize–it’s running out.

By now, most of us have heard of “peak oil” and are aware that fossil fuels like oil and natural gas are finite resources. But we tend to think of coal as infinitely abundant, as though it comprised Earth’s very mantle. In fact, as author Richard Heinberg makes abundantly clear in his scary new book Blackout, “peak coal” could be upon us as early as 2025.

Heinberg’s conclusions are based on reports by the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Academy of Sciences.  With half of our electricity coming from coal, the prospect of a global coal shortage is pretty grim.  The geological reality of peak coal demands not only that we ramp up our transition to renewable sources of electricity, but that we ditch “clean coal” R&D–we’re many years away (at best) from figuring out how to safely and effectively sequester huge amounts of carbon from coal-fired power plants. By the time we figure it out (if ever), coal will have phased itself out, but not before it’s caused irreversible climate chaos.  “Clean coal” is a dangerous distraction.

You can watch a short trailer for Richard Heinberg’s book here.

–Erica Etelson

Sungevity Raises $15 Million to Grow Internet-Based Rooftop Solar Leasing

Some news from Sungevity! Via VentureBeat:

Solar financing startup Sungevity has raised $15 million in a third round of financing to put more solar panels on rooftops by leasing or selling the systems to homeowners.

The company has now raised a total of $25 million, and Sungevity CEO Danny Kennedy said the company will use the capital to expand. Using a hot solar model, Sungevity offers solar leases that allow homeowners to put panels on their roofs for little to no money down. They then pay a monthly lease plus the cost of electricity generated, a combination that Sungevity says can beat traditional electricity rates. The company currently offers the leases in California, Arizona and Colorado, and will expand using the new round of cash.

“We’re looking to go to many states next year and basically get a national foot print. We’re really looking at the northeast,” said Kennedy, speaking from Washington, D.C., where he said he was doing market research.

Solar seems to be attracting a nice level of interest from venture capitalists lately, endangered subsidies or not. Thin-film cadmium telluride solar panel manufacturer Abound Solar yesterday closed on $510 million in funding to expand its manufacturing capacity. According to Greentech Media, Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers have invested in Clean Energy Finance, a software-as-a-service firm that makes a tool for solar installers that speeds up and streamlines bidding, rebates and sales proposals.

Sungevity is a smaller potato compared to its larger and buzzier counterparts, the Elon Musk-backed SolarCity and the Sequoia-backed SunRun (both of which are said to be potential IPOs in 2011). While both SunRun and Sungevity say there’s enough room in the solar leasing market to accommodate the competition, Kennedy pointed out that his company has been able to show good growth with less capital than what’s been raised by others in the field, in part because of its centralized, Internet-based model that operates largely out of the company’s base in Oakland, Calif. The company grew its market share in top solar market California from 0.4 percent to 2.9 percent last year, and says its kilowatts sold have gone up 10 times since last year for a total of 4.7 megawatts.

The company’s pitch is that it’s the Netflix of home solar — that is, it’s all about tapping into convenience through the Internet. Sungevity uses an Internet-based model that pulls in satellite images from sites like Bing to assess homes and give residents quotes within 24 hours of their request. The company is planning to roll out more consumer-side software and streamline the paperwork process using the web; customers can currently electronically sign their leases online. Another differentiator: Sungevity offers 10-year plans for power purchase agreements and leases, which is significantly shorter than the standard 20- or 25-year plans in the solar industry.

It’s playing in a field that is set to grow from about 80,000 houses with solar to 2.4 percent of the U.S. housing market by 2020, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, though Kennedy told me at GreenBeat 2010 that he thinks those numbers are low. In a statement, the company cited a new report by IDC Energy Insights that said the rate of North American solar installations is expected to double in 2011, and residential solar leasing companies are expected to increase their market share to over 50%.

Investors in this round include Greener Capital, Firelake Capital and Brightpath Capital Partners.

Clean coal

Installation #2 in our Bash Coal Fest, courtesy of ThisIsReality.org:

Denver beheads ole’ King Coal

I was all set for a week of blogs on my favorite theme–why fossil fuels suck–when I learned that the Colorado Public Utilities Commission voted to shutter ALL of of Denver’s coal-burning power plants by 2017.   The move will cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 86%.  Nitrogen oxide (aka “smog” and “soot”) causes and worsens all kinds of respiratory ailments and causes the formation of acid rain which contaminates water bodies. Among the list of health impacts of nitrogen oxide is “premature death”–need I say more?

That’s the good news for Denver residents. That and the fact that the switchover will only cost ratepayers about $1.40 a month.  The bad news is that the power plants are switching over to (drumroll please)….solar? No.  Wind?  No?  Wave energy? (Obviously not). Nuclear?  (sigh of relief…No).  And the winner is….natural gas.

Natural gas is touted as a clean energy source.  But truth be told, natural gas is about as clean as my living room after a 3-way toddler playdate. 90% of new natural gas wells utilize “fracking”, which involves injecting insane amounts of water plus a cocktail of toxic chemicals into impermeable rock to free up the natural gas. The chemicals and gas leak into waterways and aquifers and are very difficult for wastewater treatment plants to process.  In Pennsylvania, the Fracking State, residents watch as their wells spontaneously combust and brown water pours from their taps. In one neighborhood, analysis of the water revealed that residents were basically drinking methane.  (Check out this article in Vanity Fair for more on the horrors of fracking).  With conventional natural gas supplies running out, the future is fracking.

Even conventional natural gas extraction is far from clean and green — it has to be drilled (often in wilderness areas), processed, and transported. Along the way, some of it leaks out, releasing methane, a potent greenhouse gas.  Conventional natural gas production may look green compared to fracking and coal mining, but it’s still a dirty business indeed.

Denver residents don’t need to wait until 2017 to ditch coal. They can start leasing solar panels today, and say good riddance to Ole’ King Coal and his gassy entourage.

–Erica Etelson

FITs and starts

How would you like it if your utility paid you a fair price for all the extra solar energy your rooftop system produced?  Would you be inclined to, say, supersize your system and generate solar power for your neigbhors?  Of course you would!  And that’s why solar advocates have been pushing for years to require utilities to implement Feed-in-Tariffs that would do just that–encourage people to buy more solar than they need and sell the excess back to the utility.

Like many great environmental policy ideas, the Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) is the victim of a disabling blend of political inertia and misinformation.  As this blog has lamented before, FIT critics argue, “Sure, the FIT is great for solar power investors but lousy for everyone else who will have to pay higher utility bills.”

The unfairness argument is sorta true:  Ratepayers without solar will have to pay a little more each month, but the operative word here is “little.”   A report just out about Ontario’s new FIT program (which, by the way, is expected to create 70,000 new jobs) concludes that the average ratepayer will be saddled with an added monthly charge that is less than the cost of one glazed donut (with sprinkles).

Now, maybe baked goods in Canada are pricier than I realize, but I’m guessing the Canuck FIT premium is about the same as the added FIT cost predicted for the proposed FIT program in Los Angeles–48 cents!  Are we really quibbling over 48 cents?  Are we really entertaining the notion that creating thousands of green jobs and curbing climate change isn’t worth 48 cents?  Really?

Kudos to Ontario for making big solar strides…we hope to see FITs rolling out all over North America in the years ahead.

–Erica Etelson