Bulk purchasing of solar power
Just as you can get great deals by buying products in bulk at Cosco (or by buying cases of fine wine rather than shelling out cash for each bottle), you can get a much better deal on solar power by being part of a community purchasing in bulk rather than buying panels on your own. By approaching solar installers with a large group of homeowners in an area who want to go solar, 1BOG is able to negotiate giant discounts.
How much is the discount?
Through bulk purchasing, 1BOG is typically able to get homeowners discounts of 15%. That’s a significant number given the cost of investing in solar panels. Solar systems can cost around $9-10 per watt, making a 3-kilowatt system $27,000-$30,000. You can usually cut that down considerably through rebates from your utility or the government (check out your local info here), or through other incentives like the federal solar tax credit. The discount from bulk purchasing takes the cost down even further. If you save $1 per watt through the discount, that could be a savings of $3000.
How can installers afford to give such big discounts?
1BOG takes the time to make sure that everyone signed up for a particular campaign is a good candidate for solar power. The installer no longer has to spend time going through that part of the process, leaving them free to concentrate on the installations themselves. They also don’t need to spend money on marketing trying to find customers (something that tends to be a large expense for installers). By bringing a big group of people in a community directly to an installer, it makes everything more efficient for the installer, so they’re able to save money in that way too, and pass that savings on to you. For example, if a group of homeowners all live in the same area, the installer may be able to get permits for all of them at the same time. If they finish working on one house early in the day, they can easily go to another nearby. All of these things add up to serious savings for both installers and customers.
