THE SOLAR GROUPON

A “Solar Groupon” for Small and Mid-sized Businesses
Erica Gies, july 13, 2011 (Forbes)

"…Existing solar financing solutions for homeowners and corporations have been too small and too big, respectively. But now there’s something that fits them just right…Solar@Work, a new program…[from] San Francisco’s Department of the Environment…will offer solar systems to Bay Area business via a group purchase or aggregation model…"

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"This overcomes historic barriers for small and mid-sized businesses that aren’t issues for big businesses…[A] 200 kilowatt installation is similar to the work…[for] a 2 megawatt system…[T]wenty 100 kilowatt systems using standardized documents, and…one solar installer and one financial partner, in effect…[is] a 2 megawatt installation project, which is interesting to the financial partner, to the installer, and to the independent small businesses who are getting the benefits as if they were doing one large system…"