Bay Area, Calif. – March 22, 2010 – One Block Off The Grid (1BOG), the nation’s largest solar group purchase company, today announced a new green jobs partnership to coincide with the launch of the latest 1BOG Bay Area solar group discount campaign. Now, homeowners in San Francisco’s North Bay, East Bay and South Bay can join the 1BOG community for free advice about solar installations and receive solar at the group discount rate of $5.24 per watt. 1BOG selected solar installer groSolar to service the community and will work with local nonprofits Napa Valley Solar Partnership and Solar Richmond to support the training of local green collar workers for this campaign.

In a special private-public sector partnership, 1BOG and the federal stimulus-funded Napa Valley Solar Partnership are collaborating for the first time to develop vocational skills and create jobs for underprivileged Napa County residents. Low-income youth enrolled with the Napa Valley Solar Partnership receive 10 weeks of solar training and hands-on grassroots marketing and outreach experience for a range of skills that can be applied to sales, marketing and administration job applications.

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San Francisco, Calif. – March 22, 2010 – One Block Off the Grid (1BOG), the nation’s largest solar group purchase company, today announced the launch of its latest San Francisco solar campaign, which will offer homeowners in the city of San Francisco impartial advice and a group discount rate of $5.39 per watt on home solar panel installation. After a rigorous evaluation of local solar installers, 1BOG selected San Francisco-based Luminalt as campaign partner to service the 1BOG solar community for the city of San Francisco.

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Homeowners Now Eligible for 1BOG’s Lowest Price for Solar and Impartial Advice

San Francisco, Calif. – February 17, 2010 – One Block Off the Grid (1BOG), the nation’s largest solar group purchase company, today announced the launch of San Antonio’s first solar group purchasing campaign and 1BOG’s first ever campaign in Texas. Homeowners throughout the entire city of San Antonio can now sign up for free to join 1BOG’s San Antonio solar campaign for the group discount rate of only $4.80 per DC watt, the lowest solar price ever offered to any 1BOG community. After a rigorous evaluation of solar installation companies, 1BOG selected solar installer Standard Renewable Energy (SRE) as its campaign partner to service the San Antonio 1BOG community.

Now, San Antonio homeowners who want to go solar but don’t know where to start can sign up online for free to receive impartial advice from a 1BOG solar advisor. Then, homeowners in the 1BOG community are eligible for the pre-negotiated 1BOG group discount rate from SRE. In addition, homeowners can use 1BOG’s Online Solar Estimate Tool to receive real-time information about the cost and payback of a solar investment for a specific home.

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The gang checking out our new bank account balance.

We are thrilled to announce today that VC firm NEA has invested $5 million in 1BOG! The money will support our continued growth and expansion across the US, bringing solar onto the roofs of as many Americans as possible!

NEA has also invested in household names such as Groupon, Salesforce and Tivo, as well as Bloom Energy, oPower and Suniva on the cleantech side.

Here’s the press release. Also, lots of great publications have covered the news including San Jose Mercury News, Techcrunch and CNET. Thanks to all who helped make this possible!

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 25 – One Block Off the Grid (1BOG), the nation’s largest solar consumer advocate, today announced the launch of the company’s first East Coast solar group purchasing campaign. Homeowners throughout the northern part of New Jersey can now sign up for free to join 1BOG’s Northern New Jersey solar campaign and buy residential solar energy at a group discount rate of only $5.45 per watt. This is a 16% reduction over standard rates for solar in the region for 2009(i). After a thorough evaluation of local installation companies, 1BOG selected Rockaway, NJ-based solar installer The Solar Center as campaign partner to service the Northern New Jersey 1BOG community. Read the rest of this entry »