SolarCity Community Solar Program Draws 500 installs, 2 MW Of Electricity

By Staff Writers
Foster City (SPX) Sept 25, 2007
SolarCity announced that the company's customers have adopted two megawatts of solar electricity in the past 10 months through SolarCity's unique Community Solar Programs. These purchases have come from more than 500 families in 19 cities and towns. In less than a year, SolarCity has sold two megawatts of power through communities across California, including: Portola Valley, Woodside, Mountain View, San Jose, Santa Monica and Menlo Park. An additional seven programs are running in Rocklin/Loomis, Malibu, Beverlywood, Stanford, Berkeley/Rockridge, Los Altos/Los Altos Hills, and Clovis.

SolarCity's community solar program is a revolutionary approach to creating financial incentives for neighborhoods that go solar as a group. Through economies of scale and the efficiencies realized in centralizing equipment and employees, SolarCity has proven it can offer discounts of 20 to 30 percent below the market price of solar systems, and complete installations quickly, if communities meet program goals.

The Mountain View community solar program, originally targeting 175kW of solar power, catalyzed the adoption of more than 353kW between February and April 2007 with more than 100 participating households. Including systems purchased from SolarCity since April 30, Mountain View residents have bought 500kW of solar systems. This has increased the city's installed base of solar PV by 150%.

Once installed, SolarCity's proprietary SolarGuard monitoring system will allow residents to track their individual and community energy production, and compare to other participating cities and towns, while allowing SolarCity a means to assure long-term system performance. Already, nearly all the Mountain View systems sold during the community program are now online. In Portola Valley, where SolarCity began the community solar program and sold 78 systems, most are operational as well.

"Community programs are an effective way to enable a community to spread the adoption of solar and make a significant impact," said SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive. "SolarCity will continue this successful model in other neighborhoods with even more ambitious goals. Every individual in every one of these communities can take pride in the difference their contribution is making as part of something big."

The two megawatts of total solar power purchased by community program members is equal to planting 128 acres of trees and will save the group substantially on energy bills over the 30-year lives of the systems.

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SOLAR DAILY

Alamosa Solar Facility Begins Generating Energy

Alamosa, CO (SPX) Sept 25, 2007
SunEdison has announced that the Alamosa Photovoltaic Solar Plant in Alamosa, Colo., began generating 44 percent of its capacity, about 3.6 megawatts (MW) direct current (DC) on August 31, 2007 for Xcel Energy. The first phase of the project broke ground in April 2007. When completed by December 31, 2007, the Alamosa Photovoltaic Solar Plant, one of the largest photovoltaic installations in the U.S., will have an immediate and measurable impact on the environment and energy production.

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