Originally published on the ECOreport.
England isn’t known to be a sunny country, and neither is Germany. Both nations are leaders of Europe’s renewable development and hosts to the partnership between Europe’s largest utility and one of the leading US solar companies, Sungevity. Now, E.ON’s collaboration with Sungevity enters a third country: GO Solar has launched in the UK.
The Go Solar Program
The Go Solar program will be piloted in the Midland counties of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire, as well northern cities like Manchester and Liverpool.
“We have a positive view about the UK market. While the latest government announcements around a review of subsidies leads to some short-term uncertainty for the UK solar market, we believe in the inevitable growth of the residential market in the long run as the price of solar continues to decline and retail electricity prices keep rising,” said Jan Slaghekke, Chief Global Officer, Sungevity, Inc.
There have not been issues with rooftop solar. Homeowners appear to want it, and there were over 125,000 installs in the UK last year.
As with previous roll-outs, Sungevity is unveiling a new component with its Go Solar program: a 20-year ‘SunSure’ guarantee which reassures customers that if their solar panel system doesn’t produce at least 95% of the electricity quoted, they’ll receive a payment to help cover the shortfall over the 20 years.
This is not a totally unique offer, as SunEdison also has a guarantee, but that is connected to a lease.
SunSure is available to all of Sungevity’s customers, regardless of whether they choose to buy or lease.
The Go Solar program will incorporate Sungevity’s iQuote technology, which uses satellite and aerial imagery to provide customers with an accurate system design and quote. This eliminates the need for contractors to visit their home.
Customers will also have the easily accessible online model that enables customers to monitor the performance of their systems 24 hours a day.
Sungevity’s partnership with E.ON
Sungevity’s partnership with E.ON’s began in 2014, when the European utility participated in a $70 million investment round for Sungevity. Their first collaboration was in the Netherlands. They opened a new market in Germany this Spring.
Susana Quintana-Plaza, Senior Vice President Technology & Innovation at E.ON., described their partnership as “an exciting opportunity for E.ON to enter the residential PV market with a unique solution. It very much fits our strategic aims in terms of customer focus and the potential for home-based renewables.”
It also demonstrates the utility’s commitment to what E.ON CEO Johannes Teyssen recently described as “the energy world of the future, characterized by renewables, intelligent networks and tailor-made customer-oriented energy solutions.”
Photo Credit: Warwick by Charlie Dave, via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)
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