SunRun Solar Financing
Ranked #13,181 in Healthy Living, #208,000 overall
Affordable Home Solar Conversions
SunRun home solar financing is a very doable option for someone who would like to convert their home to solar power, but might balk at having to pony up as much as $60,000 for a home solar system.
What is special about SunRun--and what makes them affordable for the average homeowner--is that instead of simply selling you a solar power system, they take responsibility for the design, installation and maintenance of one for your home, and only charge you for the power the system produces--at a very reasonable fixed rate that is locked in for the life of your contract. Depending on where you live, your contract, or "customer agreement" as SunRun calls it, is good for either 18 or 20 years.
Essentially, instead of buying a home solar system, you are renting one. This method of converting your home to solar power offers several advantages:
Stability: President Lynn Jurich, and CEO Edward Fenster founded the company in 2007, when they were classmates at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. These two are not a couple of hippie dreamers. In fact they are both extremely capable business people. Lynn Jurich was named one of America's ten most powerful women entrepreneurs by Fortune Magazine in 2009, and Edward Fenster has held several powerful corporate positions including working for the Blackstone Group, where he "completed more than $10 billion in private equity and merger and acquisitions transactions." Suffice it to say that they seem in no danger of running their company into the ground, or out on their obligations to their customers.
Reliability: SunRun has now equipped over 3,000 homes with solar panels. They contract out the actual installation of the systems, but they only work with competent, approved installers. This a big plus. According to Nevada-based solar installation instructor Heather Andrews Bias:
"With solar quickly becoming en vogue and many home contractors looking to cash in, I'm finding that many small installers have little or no electrical background, zero hands-on training before their first professional installation, and in some cases, less than 10 hours of instruction before they're sent out to put together a rooftop power generating system."
Security: SunRun also provides insurance covering theft and damage which means that you won't need to add your home solar system to your homeowner's insurance, so your premiums won't go up.
The biggest stumbling block to becoming a SunRun customer is your place of abode. First of all, you have to be a homeowner. Secondly, you have to live in one of the five states in which SunRun currently operates: California, Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts or New Jersey.
What is special about SunRun--and what makes them affordable for the average homeowner--is that instead of simply selling you a solar power system, they take responsibility for the design, installation and maintenance of one for your home, and only charge you for the power the system produces--at a very reasonable fixed rate that is locked in for the life of your contract. Depending on where you live, your contract, or "customer agreement" as SunRun calls it, is good for either 18 or 20 years.
Essentially, instead of buying a home solar system, you are renting one. This method of converting your home to solar power offers several advantages:
- Low initial cost
- No need to maintain the system yourself
- No need to deal with the red tape of filing for solar rebates and tax credits
- Immediate savings on your electric bill
- Transferability of the customer agreement to a potential buyer makes your solar system an attractive selling point should you decide to move
Stability: President Lynn Jurich, and CEO Edward Fenster founded the company in 2007, when they were classmates at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. These two are not a couple of hippie dreamers. In fact they are both extremely capable business people. Lynn Jurich was named one of America's ten most powerful women entrepreneurs by Fortune Magazine in 2009, and Edward Fenster has held several powerful corporate positions including working for the Blackstone Group, where he "completed more than $10 billion in private equity and merger and acquisitions transactions." Suffice it to say that they seem in no danger of running their company into the ground, or out on their obligations to their customers.
Reliability: SunRun has now equipped over 3,000 homes with solar panels. They contract out the actual installation of the systems, but they only work with competent, approved installers. This a big plus. According to Nevada-based solar installation instructor Heather Andrews Bias:
"With solar quickly becoming en vogue and many home contractors looking to cash in, I'm finding that many small installers have little or no electrical background, zero hands-on training before their first professional installation, and in some cases, less than 10 hours of instruction before they're sent out to put together a rooftop power generating system."
Security: SunRun also provides insurance covering theft and damage which means that you won't need to add your home solar system to your homeowner's insurance, so your premiums won't go up.
The biggest stumbling block to becoming a SunRun customer is your place of abode. First of all, you have to be a homeowner. Secondly, you have to live in one of the five states in which SunRun currently operates: California, Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts or New Jersey.
SunRun Related Videos
Interviews with Lynn Jurich and News Reports on SunRun
curated content from YouTube
Support Your Community
"By choosing a SunRun home solar plan, you support local solar installers, who in turn add green jobs and re-invest in your local community."
SunRun Solar Plans
SunRun offers two ways to finance your home solar system
The "SunRun Power Plan," requires the lowest initial investment ($0~$1,500), but it means that you have to pay SunRun for the electricity your system produces every month, just as with a regular utility bill. You will still be connected to the grid--SunRun's systems typically replace 50%~70% of a home's electricity needs with solar--but will be able to save up to 15% on your electricity bill. Considering that the owner of an average-sized three-bedroom house can expect to save $22,000 over the lifetime of their customer agreement, the Sun Power Plan offers a very attractive return on investment.If you opt for "SunRun Total Solar," you have to pay upfront for the electricity your system is expected to use over the life of your customer agreement. You get a bulk discount, so this plan works out to be the cheapest in the end. For a three-bedroom house, you'd expect to pay $10,500 in upfront costs, but reap a $33,000 savings by the end of your customer agreement. The SunRun Total Solar plan gives you the largest overall savings and means no monthly payments to SunRun.
Whichever plan you decide to go with, SunRun takes care of the design, installation, maintenance and repair of your system for the full term of your customer agreement--either 18 or 20 years, depending on where you live.
Solar Offers Great ROI
"The expected long-term return on your investment in home solar is greater than what you'd earn on a comparable investment in stocks or a CD savings account."
Do You Use Solar Power?
Loading poll. Please Wait...
Gain Energy Independence
"Installing solar panels makes you less dependent on foreign energy sources and dirty energy from your power company."
SolarPowerRocks.com
"We are doing our damndest to change the perceptions of legislators, decisionmakers, homeowners, and business-owners alike to get more solar technology on roofs."
“The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.”
Solar Panels on the Web
(The above quote is from Ralph Nader.)
- Sunrun Raises $60 Million to Boost Solar Installations
- The provider of residential solar-power systems said today that it raised $60 million in funding, led by Madrone Capital Partners LP, to invest in software development that can make projects more efficient and less costly. Sunrun buys solar panels, ...
- Solar Developer Sunrun Raises $60 Million
- By Cassandra Sweet SAN FRANCISCO ? US rooftop solar-power developer Sunrun Inc. said Wednesday it has raised $60 million in venture capital funding. Madrone Capital Partners led the funding round, which included Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital and ...
- Sunrun Closes $60M Equity Investment
- Sunrun invented solar power service in 2007 as a way for homeowners to go solar without high upfront costs. Sunrun owns, insures, monitors and maintains the solar panels on a homeowner's roof, while families pay a low rate for clean energy and fix ...
- Cleantech investment slows but many backers remain hopeful
- Or is interest shifting "downstream" from companies building power plants, electric cars and solar panels to companies focused on getting energy data into the hands of consumers and solar panels on roofs? "People are shying away from cleantech, ...
Sustainablog
News and information about environmental and economic sustainability, green business, and environmental politics
Link List
- Solar Power Maintainer .Net
- Solar Power.Net has tons of info about where to buy the best solar battery maintainers at the best price.
- Ooma Telo.Net
- The Ooma Telo is a free home phone service that uses the power of the internet to let you make crystal clear calls anywhere in the United States and Canada free of charge as long as you have a high speed internet connection.
- GreenTech Solar from GreenTech Media
- "Greentech Media is an integrated online media company designed to deliver the highest-quality content in the industry, whether it is research, news or critical networking events."
- Green Chip Stocks
- "Green Chip Stocks represent the most important stocks traded today, for one simple reason - these are the stocks that will be the catalyst for the first real social-impacting profit trend of the 21st century."
- SolarPowerRocks.com
- Solar Power Rocks is a website dedicated to getting solar technology on the roofs of homes--sooner rather than later.
This module only appears with actual data when viewed on a live lens. The favorite and lensroll options will appear on a live lens if the viewer is a member of Squidoo and logged in.
Solar Panels on Twitter
The Latest Tweets
A word of caution before you sink any money into "cheap" solar panels: there are a lot of renewable power scams out there. I would be especially leery of somebody trying to flog an e-book that purports to tell you how you can build your own solar panels for a very low price. It's true that you can build solar panels for an affordable price if you don't mind doing a little D.I.Y., but inexpensive solar panels don't generate much power, and information on how to put them together is available online for free--you don't have to pay for it.
by California_Dreamin
I was born in Tacoma, Washington, way back in 1960 and grew up in Santa Barbara California. Nowadays, I run a language school and live with my beautiful... more »
- 22 featured lenses
- Winner of 9 trophies!
- Top lens » Santa Barbara California
Feeling creative?
Create a Lens!
Greentech Solar
From Greentech Media
Green Chip Stocks
the 21st Century's Greatest Investment Opportunity
Check Out These Great Lenses
