By Chance Currington, Sunlight Solar Energy, Inc.  chance.currington@sunlightsolar.com

Chance Currington conducting workshop at NW Solar Expo 2011

At the 2011 NW Solar Expo we were thrilled to announce our partnership with SunRun, Inc.  http://www.sunrunhome.com/.  Sunlight Solar is one of five solar contractors who now offer financing through SunRun in Oregon. Our partnership with SunRun and the SunRun Total Solar program is a breakthrough for residential solar power in Oregon and a complete shift in the way we buy solar power. Customers will find that using SunRun to finance their systems will not only decrease paperwork and redtape, but it will also increase the value of their system by adding system monitoring and an industry-leading warranty.

SunRun is a national solar power company that specializes in making solar affordable for everyone by vastly lowering the out-of-pocket cost for a residential solar power system while also providing a long-term operations and maintenance agreement that includes a 20-year 100% performance, equipment, and labor warranty.  They are able to do this in Oregon by accepting the Energy Trust of Oregon incentive as well as the 30% federal tax credit.

Since SunRun is a corporation, they can depreciate the equipment and pass the discount on to you.  For the 20-year agreement, SunRun will maintain ownership of the solar equipment on your roof and you will reap all of the benefits of having solar power without the cost or hassle of ownership.  This is also referred to as a residential PPA (power purchase agreement) or a solar power finance program. Essentially you are pre-paying for 20 years of electricity and hedging against future rate increases from Portland General (PGE) or Pacific Power (PPL).

This program is available for any Oregon resident whose electricity is provided by PGE or Pacific Power.

Can I buy the equipment?

Of course, however, with SunRun you can buy electricity from a clean renewable source, and at a lower cost than you would pay for the same power from your utility.  You will never have to worry about the equipment as it is insured by SunRun and has a 20-year 100% warranty.

What are my options at the end of the 20-year agreement?

At the end of 20 years you will have three options:

  • Renew with SunRun at a guaranteed 10% less than the utility’s baseline at that time
  • Buy the equipment at Fair Market Value (determined by 3rd party)
  • Remove the equipment at no cost to you

What if SunRun were to go out of business?

If SunRun were to go out of business you are completely protected. An escrow account is created to completely protect your system today and for the entirety of the agreement.

Sunlight Solar is a Solar Professional member of Solar Oregon: www.sunlightsolar.com.

Solar Oregon

Mac’s Comments:  A big thank you to my first guest blogger, Chance Currington, of Sunlight Solar. I hope your relationship with SunRun is a huge success.  Anything that will get rooftop solar installed sooner than later is a good thing in my book!

I visited SunRun’s downtown San Francisco headquarters last October at the invitation of Annie Swift, SunRun’s acquisition marketing manager.  She told me they were interested in learning more about our “solarize” initiatives and wanted to evaluate whether there might opportunities for us to work together. I jumped at the opportunity and met with Annie in SunRun’s downtown offices. Upon my arrival, I couldn’t help but notice the rather large call center buzzing with activity with the ample space allocated for expansion [which Annie said was coming soon]. 

I knew SunRun had their eye on Oregon because I had pinged both SunRun and Sungevity prior to my October visit.  Sungevity told me flat out that they had “no interest in Oregon or the Pac NW”, but SunRun invited me to a meeting – if for no other reason than to get info about what was going on in our area.  Digging into SunRun’s business model, I discovered that they are well-established, have deep funding, and existing relationships with solar players 1 Block Off the Grid www.1bog.com and Cooler Planet http://solar.coolerplanet.com/ . 

SunRun currently partners with the five Oregon solar companies to provide local expertise and high quality design and installation.  

  • Imagine Energy
  • REC
  • RS Energy
  • Sunlight Solar Energy
  • Sunwize