Category Archives: Sungevity
Sungevity is proving that going solar is easy, a good investment, and a viable way to reduce carbon emissions.Sungevity specializes in installing home solar electric systems. Wecurrently install solar throughout the Bay Area, and with over 150sales last year, Sungevity was the leading installer in San Franciscoin 2008. Articles l Homepage
FITs and starts
How would you like it if your utility paid you a fair price for allthe extra solar energy your rooftop system produced? Would you beinclined to, say, supersize your system and generate solar power foryour neigbhors? Of course you would! And that’s why solar advocateshave been pushing for years to require utilities to implementFeed-in-Tariffs that [...]
Solar on the Green House
It’s been a big week for Sungevity. First, a team of installers landed inthe Maldives to install solar on President Nasheed’s residence. Then,the White House announced that it would go solar after all, after months of badgering by Sungevity and 350.org. Last but not least, Sungevityis focusing on the homefront, helping a great organization in ourhometown [...]
The Weight of the Law
Yesterday, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) passed aregulation requiring utilities to get a third of their power fromrenewable sources by 2020. CARB stepped in because the legislaturefailed to enact a law that would have increased the renewable portfoliostandard (RPS) from 20% to 33% . Renewable energy advocates are callingfor the governor to convene a [...]
Green Your School!
Bay Area Parents: It’s not too late to register for the Growing Greener School Grounds Conference taking place this weekend in San Francisco. Meet other parents whowant to add features like gardens, rainwater harvesting and chickens to their kids’ schools. Learn about resources that can help you transform asphalt into apple trees and astro-turf into [...]
Another reason to hate Prop 23
??Our good friends at Vote Solar just let us in on a not-so-wonderful little news flash: If Prop 23 (which is on the ballot in California this November) passes, thestate’s renewable energy mandate will drop from a respectable 33% by2020 to a dismal 20%. That’s because Prop 23 would repeal AB32,California’s landmark climate change law, [...]
Do You Hate Dirty Energy?
Here at Sungevity , we try to stay on the sunny side. But there’snothing positive to say about Prop 23, a cynical Texas oil companyattempt to overturn California’s landmark clean energy/climate changelegislation. Texas oil refiners Valero and Tesoro are pouring millions into Prop23. Their motive is clear: Keep California addicted to oil bykilling policies that would promote clean [...]
Will The Green Jobs Effort Be A Failure?
At least, according to one conservative talk radio host. Yesterday, I was tuning around on the radio when I heard an interestingconversation. The talk show host, we’ll just call him Denis, because,that is his name, and a caller were lamenting the about the green jobseffort. The gist of the conversation was this; in ten years, [...]
Sungevity Does Solarthon!
Recently a Sungevity team participated in Solarthon 2010. Nine solar systemswere installed in a low-income, affordable-housing development in West Oakland. Sungevity was a corporate sponsor along with First Solar,Google, PG&E, Sales Force, and a few others.
The Numbers: Solar Energy Savings
One of our customers, Bruce Pollard of Sicklerville, NJ, sent us a great email which laid out his costs and savings wheninstalling a 4.5 kW solar electric system with groSolar. Here are thenumbers: It was just a little over a year ago that groSolarfinished the installation of the 4.5kw Solar Project on our house. Ithought [...]
Carports and Parking Lots: A Paved Paradise
Joni Mitchell take heed…there’s a silver lining to parking lots after all. Turns out they’re a great place to put solar panels. Anycarport or parking lot can be transformed into a solar paradise thatgenerates power for nearby buildings, provides shade for the cars andmitigates the nasty “heat island’ effect that all that asphalt generates in urban [...]
Solar Chemistry 101
The sun is a useful star. When it comes to powering our homesand creating the foundation for life on this planet, the sun can’t bebeat. Now, scientists are discovering another awesome little trick thesun can perform—simply throw a few million microbes into the mixand…presto, solar energy can be converted into chemicals. The process,called electrosynthesis, mimics [...]
Big Guns in the Wild West
Wild Bill Hickok and Sheriff Bullock prepare to install solar on roof of Gem Saloon With Copenhagen already a fading memory and federal climatelegislation officially dead, I had to dig pretty deep to find groundsfor optimism. Here it is: The Western Climate Initiative (WCI) isforging ahead with its plan to create a carbon trading programacross seven states [...]