If you’ve been thinking about solar, CPA Kenton Smith’s recent article in the Journal of Accountancy tells us that the best time to buy is…now! Government incentives and lowering prices have made home solar an even better investment in the last few years. Here’s why:

1. Solar is getting cheaper!

“The cost of solar components has been dropping, and electricity prices will likely go up,” Swift explains. “Taken together, these developments make installing a solar electric or solar water heating system much more appealing than in the past.” Read the rest of this entry »

Check out yesterday’s NBC San Diego segment about 1BOG and Heliopower’s joint 1BOG San Diego campaign! Sign up for free to join 1BOG’s San Diego solar group purchase campaign.

Great news, 1BOGers! Today we announced the first ever group purchase of solar on the east coast. We chose New Jersey for its great state and utility rebates. The incentives are so good that our CEO Dave Llorens commented, “I want to move to Jersey and buy homes, just to put solar on them.”

For this campaign, we wrangled the stellar rate of $5.45 per watt. That’s 16% cheaper than 2009 rates in the area! Our installer partner is The Solar Center, a local company based in Rockaway, and we’re glad to work together to help spread solar to many more homes in the garden state.

Tell your friends in northern New Jersey they can sign up until April 25th, 2010. As usual, sign up is free, and gives you the group rate and lots of useful solar info. The campaign includes Sussex, Passaic, Bergen, Hudson, Essex, Morris, Warren, Hunterdon, Somerset, Union and Middlesex counties.

Take a look at our press release announcing the news, this article: Company to help Bergen County residents with solar installations that appeared New Year’s Day in The Bergen Record, or this story: Rockaway company partners up to help Morris residents explore solar power in The Daily Record that came out today. To find out more, visit our Solar New Jersey homepage, or attend our free webinar with more details on Thursday, February 18 at 7pm: http://solarnorthjersey.1bog.org/webinar.

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 »

Last week, 1BOG’s Dave Llorens was interviewed on FOXBusiness.com LIVE to discuss how going green saves money, as well as the upcoming launch of the 1BOG North Jersey campaign. Watch the video below!

Sam Weinberger participated in 1BOG’s San Francisco April ‘09 Campaign. Read on to hear about his experience going solar!

“I’d been thinking about going solar for over a year when I signed up to be part of One Block Off the Grid’s San Francisco community in April 2009. My roof was not shaded with trees and my electricity bills were high as I work from home. I had done some of my own research, spent hours interviewing local installers and collecting quotes and proposals, but each of those installers was selling their own specific product and I still had general questions that were unanswered.

I put the whole solar idea on the back burner until I read an article about 1BOG in the San Francisco Chronicle. I signed up online and within a few days got a call from a 1BOG solar adviser who was able to answer all of the questions that had gone unanswered by the installers I had met with previously. They told me exactly what to expect and even gave me a list of questions to ask the solar installer company they partnered with, Real Goods Solar. Read the rest of this entry »

Check out this video of 1BOG’s Dave Llorens, who visited his native New Orleans for the Pepsi Refresh Project, which doles out millions of dollars in grants each month to fund great ideas that have a positive impact on communities. Grants are submitted by consumers, then voted on by the community.

With $50,000, Dave Llorens helped five blocks of New Orleans’ homeowners go solar. What could you do? Go to www.RefreshEverything.com to get your ideas in!

Happy New Year from 1BOG!  We are anticipating an exciting second year bringing solar to homeowners around the country.  We have installed 550 solar systems so far and in 2010 our resolution is double this number.

Solar has already been in the news in the New Year:

• President Obama dedicating funds to create clean tech jobs.  Green jobs are  something 1BOG is looking to focus on in the New Year.  We launched a pilot program with Solar Richmond last month and we’re looking forward to helping to create more green jobs.

• In the wake of the Copenhagen Climate Talks, discussion has been spurred on what the next steps are for the US in terms of energy conservation. 1BOG hopes for more solar and more green jobs!

• Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) funding is around the corner for more homeowners around the US.  This will give 1BOG members even more financing options for greening their homes.  Stay tuned for more information on 1BOG and PACE in the coming weeks.

Part of our 2010 growth also means starting 1BOG communities in new markets.  Northern New Jersey will be the first East Coast region to join the 1BOG community later this month, as Jim O’Neill recently featured in his “Solar Need Not Be Costly” story that appeared in The Record on January 1, 2010. New Jersey ranks second in the country for solar installations and we’re excited to see how 1BOG works on the East Coast.  Down the road we have more exciting city launches so check back if you’re waiting for one in your town!

To stay up to date with all of 1BOG’s 2010 announcements and to see if we’ll be coming to your city next, join our 280,000+ Twitter followers:  http://twitter.com/1bog

It’s been a big year for solar! 1BOG has 16,288 members, has expanded to 9 cities across the country, and 535 homes have already installed solar energy with us.

We couldn’t run group purchases without the group, so thank you for being part of our community and this movement which is growing across the country. So far we have run solar campaigns in 9 cities, and we’ll be expanding 1BOG campaigns to San Antonio, Honolulu and North New Jersey in early 2010.

Wishing you a happy and healthy new year, and a giant thank you for being a part of 1BOG. Stay tuned for what next year has in store!

Cheers,
The 1BOG Team

Last week, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced that he would be introducing new renewable energy projects in San Francisco through the San Francisco Sustainable Financing Program (now called GreenFinanceSF).  Legislation like this has typically only addressed solar installations in the past, but GreenFinanceSF will also cover energy and water efficiency.

“San Francisco Sustainable Financing will help residential and commercial property owners finance the next wave of renewable energy development in San Francisco,” said Mayor Newsom. “This innovative program will not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it will also fuel the continued expansion of green jobs in San Francisco.”

This is certainly good news for the San Francisco 1BOG community as it provides more financing options for going solar. Read the rest of this entry »