SolarCity

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SolarCity
Type Public
Traded as NASDAQ: SCTY
Founded 2006
Key people Lyndon Rive, CEO
Peter Rive, COO
Elon Musk, Chairman[1]
Employees 1600 (2012)
Website www.solarcity.com
Original SolarCity headquarters in Foster City, CA

SolarCity is an American provider of energy services to homeowners, businesses and government/non-profit organizations. Among its primary services, the company designs, finances and installs solar energy systems, performs energy efficiency audits and retrofits and builds charging stations for electric vehicles. The company has more than 1,600 employees.[2]

Contents

History [edit]

SolarCity was founded in July 2006 by brothers Peter and Lyndon Rive, based on a suggestion for a solar company concept from Elon Musk. SolarCity has been the leading provider of residential solar power in California since 2007, its first full year of operation, according to the database kept by the California Solar Initiative.,[3] and was the #1 residential solar installer in the U.S. in 2011, according to Greentech Media Research.[4]

Locations [edit]

SolarCity is headquartered in San Mateo, California, but the company uses a distributed service model in which it provides installation from local operations centers. SolarCity has additional locations in Berkeley, Foster City, Culver City (Los Angeles), Santa Ana (Orange County), Pomona, Fresno, Sacramento, Bakersfield, Lancaster and San Diego, California; Phoenix (2 locations) and Tucson, Arizona; Denver and Parker, Colorado; Hartford, Connecticut; Mililani, Hawaii; Silver Spring and Jessup, Maryland; Marlborough, Massachusetts; Cranbury, New Jersey; Albany, New York; Portland, Oregon; Dallas, Texas; Broomall,Pennsylvania; and Washington DC.[5][6][7]

Business offerings [edit]

Solar leasing [edit]

In 2008 SolarCity introduced a new solar lease option for homeowners that significantly reduces or eliminates the upfront cost of installing solar power.[8] SolarCity's solar lease can allow some homeowners to pay less each month by adopting solar power than they previously paid for electricity from the utility company.[9][10]

Commercial solar [edit]

SolarCity began more actively providing solar services to business, government, and non-profit customers in 2008. In May of that year, the company completed what was, at the time, the largest commercial solar installation in San Jose on the North Campus of eBay. That July, SolarCity completed what was then the largest commercial solar installation in San Francisco, for British Motors, consisting of 1,606 solar photovoltaic panels.[11][12] SolarCity introduced new financing options for businesses in 2009[13] and has built multiple solar projects for other large organizations including Walmart,[14][15] Intel,[16] and the U.S. military.[17] On March 21, 2013 SolarCity announced that it would open a new location in Nevada in cooperation with state government. [18]

Electric vehicle chargers [edit]

See also: Charging station

SolarCity entered the electric car charging business by buying the SolSource Energy business of Clean Fuel Connections, Inc., which was reported to be finalized in 2009[19] and has also announced a partnership with Rabobank to make electric car charging available for free to owners of Tesla Motors' vehicles traveling on U.S. Route 101 in California between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Other cars that can make use of the same charging technology are welcome.[20] In 2011, the company announced it would install electric car chargers that could charge a wide range of EVs in all of its service territories.[21][22]

Energy efficiency evaluations and retrofits [edit]

In 2010, SolarCity acquired Building Solutions, a software-enabled home energy audit firm, and began to offer energy efficiency evaluations and upgrades such as air and duct sealing, efficient heating/cooling and lighting to its list of services.[23] SolarCity worked with Admiral's Bank of Boston in March 2012 to make a new loan available to finance energy efficiency improvements [24] and expanded its energy efficiency services to the east coast.[25]

SolarStrong project [edit]

SolarStrong is SolarCity's five-year plan to build more than $1 billion in solar photovoltaic projects for privatized military housing communities across the United States, announced in late 2011.[26] SolarCity plans to work with the country's leading privatized military housing developers to install, own and operate rooftop solar installations and provide solar electricity at a lower cost than utility power. SolarStrong is ultimately expected to create up to 300 megawatts of solar generation capacity that could provide power to as many as 120,000 military housing units, which would make it the largest residential photovoltaic project in American history if completed. In November 2011, SolarCity and Bank of America Merrill Lynch announced that they have agreed to terms on initial debt financing for SolarStrong.[27]

Project finance and the Google Fund [edit]

SolarCity partners with banks and large corporations to create project finance funds to finance its lease and PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) options. SolarCity's financing partners have included Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citi, Morgan Stanley, National Bank of Arizona and U.S. Bancorp, among others.[28][full citation needed] Among SolarCity's more well-known financing partnerships was a $280 million fund created with Google to finance residential solar installations in June 2011. The Google fund was the largest fund of its kind in the U.S., and Google's largest investment in clean energy.[29]

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ http://www.solarcity.com/media-center/elon-musk.aspx
  2. ^ http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_20260913/san-mateo-based-solarcity-offer-home-energy-loan
  3. ^ Kanellos, Michael. "Elon Musk on rockets, sports cars, and solar power - CNET News". News.cnet.com. Retrieved 2011-10-15. 
  4. ^ http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/who-reigns-supreme-in-residential-solar/
  5. ^ Sackett, Heather. Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_18053967 |url= missing title (help). 
  6. ^ "SolarCity opens New Jersey operations center". 2012-02-23. 
  7. ^ Solarcity Time Magazine
  8. ^ "Solar power for less than your cable bill | Environment Forum". Blogs.reuters.com. 2008-04-24. Retrieved 2011-10-15. 
  9. ^ Earnest, John (2008-09-27). "> News > North County - Leasing a solar-power system". SignOnSanDiego.com. Retrieved 2011-10-15. 
  10. ^ Sistek, Hanna (2008-07-18). "SolarCity provides SF power below grid price | Green Tech - CNET News". News.cnet.com. Retrieved 2011-10-15. 
  11. ^ SolarCity Completes Largest Commercial Solar Installation in San Francisco for British Motors
  12. ^ [1]
  13. ^ http://www.solarserver.com/solar-magazine/solar-news/current/solarcity-increases-the-scope-of-its-ppa-program-gartner-expects-commercial-solar-ppa-market-to-account-for-26-of-the-solar-ppa-market-in-2009.html
  14. ^ Francisco, San (2011-09-21). "SolarCity to put solar on 60 more California Wal-Mart stores". 
  15. ^ "SolarCity to install solar panel & battery combo for Walmarts". Aug 7, 2012. 
  16. ^ http://www.solarenergy.net/News/1271002-intel-to-install-6-acre-solar-installation-in-ca.aspx
  17. ^ http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/11/airforce_solar_neighborhood_112209w/
  18. ^ http://www.4-traders.com/SOLARCITY-CORP-12159481/news/SolarCity-Corp-SolarCity-to-Expand-to-Nevada-16565941/
  19. ^ http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/solarcity-installs-electric-car-chargers-along-cal-highway/SolarCity
  20. ^ "SolarCity Installs Electric Car Chargers Along Cal Highway". Greentech Media. 2009-09-22. Retrieved 2011-10-15. 
  21. ^ VentureBeat. "Solar-leasing startup SolarCity sells subsidized electric car chargers."
  22. ^ CNET. "SolarCity to offer solar-powered EV chargers."
  23. ^ "Solar City Adds Energy Efficiency to Solar Finance, Design and Monitoring". Greentech Media. 2010-10-14. Retrieved 2011-10-15. 
  24. ^ http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/SolarCity-Partners-Charges-into-Home-Efficiency-with-Admirals-Bank-/
  25. ^ Time. 2012-03-28 http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2012/03/28/how-solarcity-makes-energy-efficiency-easy/ |url= missing title (help). 
  26. ^ Cardwell, Diane (2011-11-30). "SolarCity Wins Financing for Military Housing Plan". The New York Times. 
  27. ^ "SolarCity and Bank of America Merrill Lynch Move Forward With Project SolarStrong, Expected to Build More Than $1 Billion in Solar Projects". Marketwatch. 30 November 2011. 
  28. ^ http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2012/solarcity
  29. ^ "Google invests $280 million in SolarCity". CNN. 2011-06-14. 

External links [edit]

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