How much solar is out there? Not much, according to Andrew Birch, CEO of solar installer/software developer Sungevity.

Only around 130,000 homes in the U.S. have been outfitted with solar systems, he said during a panel discussion at Intersolar this week. The U.S. has 65 million residences. That puts the solar penetration down at around 0.02 percent.

But hope springs eternal. Consumers do seem to understand and likesolar leases, which let them get into solar with low or nonexistentup-front costs. 95 percent of Sungevity’s customers are opting forleases. Other fun stats:

–3X. Consumers are three times more likely to respond to a lead from afriend than an ad or direct solicitation, said Birch. Hence, Sungevityinvests heavily in social network marketing. Last year it hired Patrick Crain from LinkedIn as part of the social networking effort.

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