EarthTalk
Solar@Work: Solar affordability for small businesses
October 2011
Solar@Work: Solar affordability for small businesses
October 2011
The City of San Francisco has launched Solar@Work, a new program that offers solar energy systems to businesses in the Bay Area through an innovative group purchase model. The new program makes it possible, for the first time, for small and mid-sized businesses and commercial property owners to pay less for solar power than they pay for electricity from the grid without local rebates. This can allow some business owners to save hundreds of thousands of dollars over the lifetimes of these solar power systems. As the first major commercial group purchase of solar power in the United States, Solar@Work will bring together interested participants to buy more than 2 megawatts (MW) of solar power by the end of the year.
The Solar@Work model was developed by the San Francisco Department of the Environment (S.F. Environment), in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Optony. S.F. Environment found that the main barriers keeping San Francisco businesses and commercial property owners from purchasing solar energy were upfront costs and lack of access to affordable financing. With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar America Cities program and support from U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, S.F. Environment proposed the Solar@Work “aggregation” approach, which combines multiple participants into one solar purchasing group, along with a standardized solar equipment lease. To help make this a reality, the program’s stakeholder group negotiated with solar vendors who could address the unique needs of businesses and property owners in San Francisco and selected SolarCity as the winning vendor.
SolarCity, a national solar integrator with more than 15,000 projects completed or underway, is headquartered in the Bay Area and is an approved installer with the San Francisco GoSolarSF program. SolarCity expects to hire more than 400 new workers in the second half of 2011, including 100 in the Bay Area. “We believe Solar@Work will provide the most affordable solar options available to small and medium-sized businesses in San Francisco,” said Erik Fogelberg, SolarCity’s director of commercial projects. “SolarCity is honored to have been selected for this important project.”
“The city has the ambitious goal of meeting its electricity needs with 100 percent renewable energy, so we need to do everything we can to make sure our local and regional building owners have the ability to install renewables with minimal up-front investments,” said Melanie Nutter, director of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment. “Solar@Work represents a major evolution in the available funding options and will result in a cleaner, healthier environment while creating new jobs across the Bay Area.”
“Programs like Solar@Work will boost our economic competitiveness, create American jobs, and help reach the president’s goal of doubling our clean energy in the next 25 years,” said Ramamoorthy Ramesh, program manager for the SunShot Initiative.
World Resources Institute, with technical assistance from NREL and Optony, used a collaborative solar procurement model to create a suite of highly competitive financing options with SolarCity, including an operating lease that can eliminate the up front cost of going solar.
Solar@Work is expected to create more than 2 MW of solar power capacity through installations in San Francisco and the surrounding areas. As a group discount model, the more businesses that sign up, the lower the prices will be for the entire buying group. All participants will receive a significant prenegotiated discount, and the largest reductions will be available if the group purchases more than 3 MW by the end of 2011.
Several options for installing solar power are available to businesses and commercial property owners through Solar@Work: cash purchase, solar lease, capital loan, as well as others. Participants may not be eligible for all options; however, the program will help match the buyers with appropriate financing.
“This program was rigorously designed and implemented to create a market-leading solution that has support from the solar industry, government and most importantly the potential buyers of solar systems. We look forward to increased adoption of solar power through this innovative model around the USA,” said Ben Foster, vice-president of Optony.
The Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative is targeted at one of today’s major challenges: making clean solar energy cost-competitive without subsidies in all market sectors. Solar@Work supports the SunShot goals as a scalable model for replication nationwide.
Registration for Solar@Work is available through Oct. 14, 2011. For more information, visit www.wri.org/solar-at-work.
The Solar@Work model was developed by the San Francisco Department of the Environment (S.F. Environment), in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Optony. S.F. Environment found that the main barriers keeping San Francisco businesses and commercial property owners from purchasing solar energy were upfront costs and lack of access to affordable financing. With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar America Cities program and support from U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, S.F. Environment proposed the Solar@Work “aggregation” approach, which combines multiple participants into one solar purchasing group, along with a standardized solar equipment lease. To help make this a reality, the program’s stakeholder group negotiated with solar vendors who could address the unique needs of businesses and property owners in San Francisco and selected SolarCity as the winning vendor.
SolarCity, a national solar integrator with more than 15,000 projects completed or underway, is headquartered in the Bay Area and is an approved installer with the San Francisco GoSolarSF program. SolarCity expects to hire more than 400 new workers in the second half of 2011, including 100 in the Bay Area. “We believe Solar@Work will provide the most affordable solar options available to small and medium-sized businesses in San Francisco,” said Erik Fogelberg, SolarCity’s director of commercial projects. “SolarCity is honored to have been selected for this important project.”
“The city has the ambitious goal of meeting its electricity needs with 100 percent renewable energy, so we need to do everything we can to make sure our local and regional building owners have the ability to install renewables with minimal up-front investments,” said Melanie Nutter, director of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment. “Solar@Work represents a major evolution in the available funding options and will result in a cleaner, healthier environment while creating new jobs across the Bay Area.”
“Programs like Solar@Work will boost our economic competitiveness, create American jobs, and help reach the president’s goal of doubling our clean energy in the next 25 years,” said Ramamoorthy Ramesh, program manager for the SunShot Initiative.
World Resources Institute, with technical assistance from NREL and Optony, used a collaborative solar procurement model to create a suite of highly competitive financing options with SolarCity, including an operating lease that can eliminate the up front cost of going solar.
Solar@Work is expected to create more than 2 MW of solar power capacity through installations in San Francisco and the surrounding areas. As a group discount model, the more businesses that sign up, the lower the prices will be for the entire buying group. All participants will receive a significant prenegotiated discount, and the largest reductions will be available if the group purchases more than 3 MW by the end of 2011.
Several options for installing solar power are available to businesses and commercial property owners through Solar@Work: cash purchase, solar lease, capital loan, as well as others. Participants may not be eligible for all options; however, the program will help match the buyers with appropriate financing.
“This program was rigorously designed and implemented to create a market-leading solution that has support from the solar industry, government and most importantly the potential buyers of solar systems. We look forward to increased adoption of solar power through this innovative model around the USA,” said Ben Foster, vice-president of Optony.
The Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative is targeted at one of today’s major challenges: making clean solar energy cost-competitive without subsidies in all market sectors. Solar@Work supports the SunShot goals as a scalable model for replication nationwide.
Registration for Solar@Work is available through Oct. 14, 2011. For more information, visit www.wri.org/solar-at-work.
