1 Block Off the Grid Rolling Out California’s Largest Community Solar Initiative
San Francisco-based 1 Block Off the Grid (1BOG) announced today that it is teaming up with Real Goods Solar for a 100-home solar campaign in the city. 1 Block Off the Grid is an initiative that promotes residential renewable energy systems through education, private finance, and community purchase programs.
Essentially, the organization uses the power of community as a bargaining chip to make solar more accessible to homeowners.
With this initial solar campaign, 1BOG was able to negotiate up to 48% off 2 kW solar systems from the market price for its participants. According to 1BOG Founder and Managing Partner Sylvia Ventura, 2 kW is the average size of a home-based solar system in San Francisco.
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Now that 1BOG has partnered with Real Goods Solar for solar panel installations, members can begin to reap the benefits of community-based solar. “There’s a much shorter payback period with the 1BOG rebate,” said Ventura.
And 1BOG isn’t stopping with San Francisco. The company already has 40 people signed up in Washington, DC, 15 people signed up in Las Vegas, and a number of people signed up in Portland, Oregon. Ultimately 1BOG hopes to expand into 12 cities. “We definitely have a lot of work ahead of us,” said Ventura. “But right now our priority is to complete the San Francisco campaign—to have a proof of concept.”
If the first campaign works out, sign me up for the second.
>> Calculate the solar potential of your California home with Renewzle’s solar power calculator and San Francisco Solar Power page.
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What if installed solar panels were part of the building code? I assume having insulation is. Right now you would need to reduce your house size about 10% to cover the cost of solar (1Kw/1000 square-feet of house). It would be part of the amortized cost and you would have a lower energy bill each month. Lower some places than others of course. Instead of a 2200 ft^2 house you’d get 2000 ft^2.
Doc,
The worst part is your investment of $840 would gain you $42 a year interest if you bought a 5% CD. Your electrical savings, on that same $840 invested in the panel at 0.10/KW, would only be $31.70 for the year. Not only would you not get back your investment in 26 years you would actually lose $10.30 a year in income besides. I watched a video of how solar panels are made by hand. The process needs to be automated and streamlined to make t more economically appealing. A 15KW system needs to sell for under $10000. Thats the price point to target. At that price point solar voltaic will sell.
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this is an awesome initiative
[...] so they still get a cut when their customers use less. As a result, you see huge solar projects and initiatives rolling out of states like [...]
I think …. the invoking of solar power in a home is not only about financial return. Electric prices are rising and the providers need to realize that there is another solution besides them for our energy needs. Above someone stated that a 2000 watt system was not enough, I disagree! 2kw at peak sun means (minimum of 5 hours sun) 1kw/hr from 9-11 2kw from 11-4 1kw from 4-6 (14kw to 9kw per day) which is approximately 420000 watts per month or 420kw per month. I utilize 650 (pretty conservative but I use an electric water heater). All in all solar power is the future, teaming up to buy it in bulk is VERY smart and cutting edge. I wish that I could find someone willing to split up a 100 acre purchase in south texas! Go green or die!
[...] we last wrote about 1 Block Off the Grid’s(1BOG) community solar initiative in San Francisco, many of you [...]