Solar Sharing Networks
Discussion
1. by Andrew Burger:
"Shared solar, which enables multiple end-users to share the benefits and costs of on- and off-site solar PV systems, holds out the promise of opening up a path that could lead to 100 percent market penetration, according to recently released research from the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
For a variety of reasons – lack of rooftop access, insufficient solar energy exposure or space – nearly half (49 percent) of U.S. households and 48 percent of businesses are currently unable to “host a PV system of adequate size or virtually net meter an entire system themselves,” according to NREL’s report.
According to NREL’s research report:
“Shared solar could represent 32 to 49 percent of the distributed PV market in 2020, growing cumulative PV deployment in 2015-2020 by 5.5 to 11.0 gigawatts and representing $8.2 billion to $16.3 billion of cumulative investment.”
Clarifying regulations and streamlining procedures associated with installing shared solar energy systems would spur development of new business models and shared solar deployments, such as those being promoted by private-sector startups such as Yeloha, community solar project developers and others, the report authors highlight.
Yeloha’s keen to provide access to shared solar systems for apartment and building owners as well as renters. Its Israeli parent company, Generaytor Inc., recently raised $3.5 million in Series A funding from venture capital investors to get its solar sharing network off the ground.
Yeloha is looking to attract “sun hosts” with suitable properties by offering them free PV installations. “Sun partners” share in the renewable electricity produced by the hosts’ PV systems. Whether hosting or sharing, Yehola solar-sharing network participants will wind up saving money, the startup says.
In addition to free installations, Yeloha hosts’ utility bills will be reduced as a result of the electricity generated by the PV systems, receiving a credit from their electric utility of between 25 and 30 percent of the energy produced. “Sun partners” can continue to share in the electricity produced and utility bill savings as long as they remain in the same utility service area.
Having initially launched the service in Massachusetts, Yeloha is looking forward to expanding across select U.S. states where virtual net metering is in place. “Most people will not go solar; it’s too complicated or expensive,” Wall Street Journal’s Yulia Chernova reported on April 8. Amit Rosner, co-founder of Generaytor and Yeloha, “believes that today’s solar market serves only a very narrow type of customer: those who have a home, don’t plan to move soon, can afford to buy a system or have good-enough credit to lease one, and whose roofs are well-suited for solar,” Chernova continued.
Yeloha is working to raise another $3 million for the limited liability company that will own and operate the PV systems installed at “sun host” sites. That would enable the startup to install about 100 PV systems, which “points to potential limits on how quickly Yeloha’s network could expand,” Chernova added." (http://www.triplepundit.com/2015/05/airbnb-solar-israeli-transplant-launches-solar-sharing-network/)
2. BY DAVID WHITFORD:
"Homeowners consume more than one-third of the electricity generated in the United States, making the residential sector a powerful lever for boosting solar power overall. But here's the problem: Surveys suggest that as much as 80 percent of us who would like to install solar panels on our roofs can't do it, for any number of reasons. Maybe we don't have a roof with good southern exposure. Maybe we do but there are trees in the way, or our roof needs replacing. Maybe we don't own the house, we're renters, so it's not our decision to make. Maybe we live in an apartment building. Or maybe none of the above, we're good to go, except that we don't happen to have 10 or 15 grand lying around to pay for installation, or else our credit's not good enough to qualify for financing or a long-term power purchase agreement. Heck, maybe we just don't like the way solar panels look. No wonder you see so many naked rooftops.
How to crack the residential market and spur growth? A lot of cool companies have been working on that problem for a long time. One of the first, San Francisco's One Block Off the Grid (it's Pure Energies now, a subsidiary of NRG Energy), leveraged social networks to whip up interest and bargain with installers on behalf of whole neighborhoods. CloudSolar, a Boston startup that just completed a successful Indiegogo campaign, wants to "offer panel ownership to everyone in the United States," says co-founder Michael Sun (really)--by selling panels to individual investors, building solar farms (in fields and on commercial rooftops), delivering electricity to the grid, and returning 80 percent of the proceeds to the panel owners over the 25-year life of the system." (http://www.inc.com/david-whitford/built-from-passion-yeloha.html)