Combining Clean Energy with Green Building

May 19th, 2010 by Zachary Shahan

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It is an intuitive combination, and most individuals who get into or install clean energy on their home or business probably also pay good attention to energy efficiency in the building. However, you don’t often see a company focused on both issues.

US solar installation and financing company SolarCity is crossing that invisible line as it has just purchased green building firm Building Solutions.

SolarCity plans to integrate Building Solutions’ energy efficiency solutions with its existing system of providing residential and commercial customers with solar energy at lower-than-grid costs using special financing agreements.

“We’ve been in the business of enabling customers to save money by generating clean energy, and now we can help customers save more money by using less energy,” said Peter Rive, co-founder and chief operating officer of SolarCity.

Additionally, the company is looking to integrate its solar cell monitoring and management software with Building Solutions’ energy efficiency software to provide users with an innovative system for showing users how much energy the generate and save.

The company is expecting to get a boost from new or spreading government programs related to their cause like the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act (or “cash for caulkers“) and PACE financing.

“[Our] integrated software platform, combined with the momentum from emerging financing mechanisms such as PACE, will enable us to make energy efficiency services far more affordable and accessible,” said Rive.

I expect to see more of this combination in the future.

Image Credit: afagen via flickr/CC license

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Tags: Building Solutions, green building, SolarCity

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.