Solar Group Buy Program Helps San Jose City to Go Greener

Thanks to the San Jose Employee Solar Group Buy program, now a group of employees and retirees from the city of San Jose will soon use greener solar energy to power their homes. The innovative group solar program, first of its kind in the U.S is an outcome of a fruitful partnership between the San Jose’s Solar America City program and San Jose Credit Union. A group of 130 city employees and retirees will avail the solar and thermal systems at a reduced cost.

The San Jose’s Solar America City program and the San Jose Credit Union partnership will provide the required technical knowledge to the group members irrespective of their place of living and help them to avail the benefits of volume purchase and low interest. The partnership will also encourage large scale buying by home group communities to realize green vision goals of the city. The group solar program was able to bargain and achieve the lowest prices for its group solar purchases of both photovoltaic and solar thermal systems. The group price cuts in addition to the Californian solar incentives and federal tax- credits enabled substantial savings for the purchasers.

SunPower Corporation and SunWater Solar were chosen for the program through an aggressive bid process and selected by an autonomous seven member voluntary selection committee to provide the equipments and install them. The companies are planning to start the installation by September 2010 and complete it by February 2011. The program will cover approximately 130 homes and provide over 300 kW of installed solar electric capacity all over the Bay Area.