RENEWABLOG

The Sears of Home Solar

Although its brand has seen better days, when I was young, we'd buy our household appliances at Sears, Roebuck, usually on a store charge card. Simple, easy and everywhere, Sears originally won over farmers by providing lower cost supplies than the local general stores. We've seen Wal-Mart and other large retailers swallow local businesses, but in residential solar, it appears there is a better way.

While residential solar is still a heavily siloed market with large and small installers fighting for leads, it's been fascinating to watch the industry shift over the last few years--from BP Solar teaming up with Home Depot to SunRun's annoucement this week that it's extending its offer outside California to Massachusetts and Arizona (total disclosure: SunRun is a Schwartz client). Rather than compete with local solar installers, SunRun partners with the best local companies to design and install systems for SunRun homeowners, who then pay SunRun for the solar electricity at a price lower than that of their local utility.

Greentech Media recently pondered if the solar industry will model itself after the PC industry, with companies such as Sungevity banking on homeowners looking to buy solar from the comfort of their computers (no site visit required!). With only 14 states currently offering incentives strong enough to grow the residential market, we won't see a national consumer solar brand emerge for some time, but I'm looking forward to the day when shopping for solar is as simple as buying a refrigerator (it will be more fun too).

Posted by Whitney Phaneuf on April 23, 2009 at 11:00 AM
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