Community Purchasing Programs

Community purchasing programs are likely to become very popular in the coming years and will make it even more cost effective for East Bay communities to go solar. Community purchasing programs pool a neighborhood’s purchases of solar photovoltaics, thermal arrays, and energy efficiency improvements. Buying in bulk, a group can save 20% or more on the individually owned installations. Participating residents can effectively manage these programs at the neighborhood level. Community purchasing programs are a mechanism for pooling a neighborhood’s purchases of solar PVs and thermal arrays. Coupled with federal and state rebates, this can considerably lower the out-of-pocket cost of solar arrays to such an extent that they are cheaper than purchasing electricity or gas from the utility.

Alliance member 1bog.org launched a community purchasing program in the East Bay in April, 2009.  1bog enables residents to install solar panels at a group discount and offers excellent financing.  For as little as $1000 down, 1bog customers can have a PV system installed and then pay off the system over 18 years--the monthly payment is usually about the same as the electric portion of the customer's PG&E bill, so there's no financial downside. (Financing is handled by 1bog partner SunRun). 1bog also partners with Sustainable Spaces to offer discounts on home energy efficiency products and retrofits such as tankless and solar-thermal water heaters, duct sealing and insulation.  1bog is bringing solar and energy efficiency products down to the affordability tipping point, and its model could lead to widespread distributed solar power generation in the Bay Area and nationally.  For anyone who has wanted solar but couldn't afford it, the bogman is a real game changer.

Another local community purchasing program is the Downtown San Jose Solar Project, which contracts with REC Solar to install PV and with SunRun to provide financing.

Larger bulk purchasing efforts administered by a Community Choice Energy program could achieve additional efficiencies and cost savings. Coupled with the federal tax deductions and state rebates, community purchasing programs can significantly lower the out-of-pocket cost of solar panels.