East Bay Solar Neighborhoods is a non-profit community resource that helps homeowners explore the benefits of rooftop solar power. Our neighborhood solar workshops and rich set of online tools provide the practical and financial understanding homeowners need when considering solar as a home improvement option and a financial investment.
East Bay Solar Neighborhoods is working to balance the interests of the diverse and sometimes opposing interests of homeowners, solar businesses, local governments and other non-profit organizations, like environmental advocates and those promoting solar-related job opportunities.
Homeowners
Despite our name, EBSN's programs and services are designed to support the needs of rate-payers throughout the PG&E service area.
Information And Context
We provide homeowners with the practical understanding they need when considering solar for their homes. This information includes...
- How photovoltaics convert sunlight into electricity
- The major components of a roof-mounted system
- The merits and tradeoffs of the various types of solar modules
- A basic understanding of sunlight as a resource, the capacity of a PV system to convert sunlight into electricity, and the production potential of a system over time
- How a rooftop system connects to a home's electrical system
- A general understanding of the various factors that can affect the practical and financial suitability of PV on their roof
- An awareness of current market conditions to help homeowners develop a realistic set of expectations about gross and net costs, financing choices and lifetime return on investment
This information is available to homeowners through a variety of outlets that include, neighborhood solar workshops, larger scale workshops hosted by city governments, the EBSN web site, and through balanced, informative articles written by EBSN staff and outside writers.
Community
EBSN recognizes that community often plays an important role in the process people go through when deciding whether to go solar. Our solar workshops are hosted by "neighborhood solar champions" who often draw upon their knowledge of people's interests, finances and politics when putting together their guest lists. EBSN's online forums provide a venue for discussions provide morale and practical support throughout the process.
Tools And Processes
EBSN continues to develop tools and processes that support the needs of homeowners as they explore the benefits of rooftop solar for their homes.
Our web-based Solar Assistant guides homeowners through the various stages of collecting prior utility usage data, inviting two or three installers to submit competitive bids, and side-by-side comparison of the lifetime finances of bids in various rate plan and finance plan scenarios.
The Solar Coach is a feature on the EBSN site that guides solar champions through the process of hosting solar workshops for friends and neighbors. This tool helps people choose a venue and a date, draw up a list of invitees, send out invitations, manage R.S.V.P.'s, and send out follow-up emails and thank you cards.
Solar Businesses
Easy Bay Solar Neighborhoods' programs differ in several significant ways from other neighborhood solar programs around the country. In particular, other programs commonly funnel the sale of all rooftop systems to a single pre-approved or recommended vendor. Other programs involves a bulk purchase of equipment the installation of which is contracted out to a installation contractor, thereby cutting solar retailers out of the transaction completely. EBSN recognizes the valuable contribution retails play in servicing the needs of the expanding residential and small-scale commercial sectors of the solar industry. Rather providing a huge growth opportunity for a single solar provider, the solar industry is better served when a diverse set of solar businesses are able to compete for homeowners' business.
EBSN's programs are designed in recognition that the cost of installed capacity is falling consistently and dramatically and that the volume of new residental installations is increasing by 50% or more each year. Homeowners are most likely to benefit from solar in this environment when they learn about solar from independent sources and when they’re able to compare bids from multiple vendors and choose the financing option that best suits their financial priorities. Most solar providers are also most likely to benefit in this environment when they are allowed to compete in a level market devoid of sole-source agreements.
Government Agencies
We're interested in frequent dialogue with local and regional government agencies in support of developments related to a diverse set of issues including; the use of renewable energy, distributed power generation and storage, electric transportation infrastructure, jobs and housing costs.
