SolarCity, the company founded by Elon Musk (who also created Tesla Motors, Paypal) has just received $280 million from Google. The investment is one of the largest in solar power worldwide, and aims to help 7,000 to 9,000 homeowners in the 10 states where SolarCity operates install solar panels onto their rooftops.
The solar panels are leased to the homeowners, who pay a monthly fee for having them installed but who also gain from the electricity savings. You can also pay in full for the system, if you don’t want to be bound by a leasing program, but that’s the most expensive option.
If you lease SolarCity’s panels, they’ll take care of the installation and maintenance over the lifetime of the lease, so you’ll basically do nothing except enjoying the benefits.
One of Google own engineers, Michael Flaster, has already installed the SolarCity panels on his home in Menlo Park, CA, since March. Watch Google’s video below to see him, Rick Needham, Director of Green Business Operation at Google and Lyndon Rive, SolarCity CEO testify about the advantages of such a program.
[via cleantechnica]
This story just caught my eye the other day in a old newspaper and I couldn’t almost believe it. What a huge step for a company like Google to invest in renewable energy. It sounds like this is only out West but hopefully will expand to the east coast and or my state will start to use virginia alternative energy and virginia renewable energy more effectively and companies like this start up. Great read!!!