For example, in the Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Desert Hot Springs and Coachella area, you could now get all your electricity free for the next 25-40 years for $10,000! That’s about $90,000 lower than you would have paid your utility for 25 years.

One Block off the Grid’s completely unique model of group buying combined with the financing of their partnering banker SunRun (which offers one of the few solar financing options to remain viable in the downturn) has made group purchasing the cheapest way for going solar ever.

The solar company 1BOG selected for this neighborhood; HelioPower is able to install that neighborhood for $5.49 a watt—the lowest rate 1BOG has ever negotiated for their group discount.

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This week The Bogman heads to Phoenix to offer 1 Block off the Grid solar discounts for neighbors who go solar together. And what better city to go to! Phoenix was super hard-hit by the housing crisis. It has had 54% drops in property values, some of the worst in the nation.

So this may not seem like just the perfect time for solar Phoenix (including including Glendale, Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa) to go solar. But, there’s one thing that Phoenix residents should know: Solar raises property values!

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Sonoma County at this point has the largest municipal financing program for solar and energy efficiency, modeled after the Berkeley First program, but run by the city themselves instead of a program administrator. The program allocated $100M and they’ve burned through about $20M of it in a very short period of time, since this is peoples’ favorite flavor of financing for solar.

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I had expected that the people who haven’t learned much about solar would be the more difficult to reach. Instead, I am finding that some of the people who have gone to the trouble to get an estimate are the worst candidates for solar.

They tell me that a solar salesperson has told them that solar just doesn’t pencil out for them. What!!!?

Now, it’s true that solar saves more for people with higher bills. But solar is cheaper, even if you have the tiniest bill. For example:

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Move — to Louisiana:

According to SolarPowerRocks! Louisiana has a state tax credit of 50% for solar roof installations, the most generous state subsidy for solar — Combined with the 30% Federal tax credit for solar that we all get now; (you knew about that, right?) so in Louisiana you can put a solar roof up, paying only 20% of the cost: (30% + 50% = 80% off).

The way this credit is designed it will benefit modest homeowners the most. If you need a $25,000 system, you get the full 50%. If you need a larger system you get less than 50%, because it maxes out at $12,500.

So, if you have ten plasma tvs and a pool pump and run the A/C day and night, you won’t get as much help with running all that…but

Details:

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Solar group purchasing program 1 Block Off the Grid (1BOG) just launched a new campaign in New Orleans.

1BOG works by grouping customers together into a sort of buying club. Then, after a rigorous selection process, they choose a solar installer who will provide the biggest discount and the best quality. The more people that sign up, the better the discount for anyone buying solar through the program.

If you aren’t familiar with 1 Block Off the Grid, what they do may be best explained by New York Times Magazine:

…in a cultural moment when many individuals aren’t feeling all that rugged, perhaps it makes sense that a company called 1BOG has put collective buying at the center of its business model. The name is derived from the phrase “one block off the grid,” a reference to the goal of rounding up groups of homeowners willing to install solar-power systems on their houses — removing the rough equivalent of one block from a city’s electrical grid.

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The English language has a wonderful way of evolving with major or minor events in the economic, social and political history of man. Following the release of words like “Mompreneur” and “Ecopreneur”, the latest buzzword that is floating around the business and economic sphere is “Obamapreneur.” While it is clear that all “Preneur” roads lead to a noble business mission but what the heck is an Obamapreneur?

President Obama is clearly the man of the moment and although running a business is not officially part of his resume, entrepreneurs are closely examining the way he has run his campaign, and now the country, to model their business strategy after his.  Barry Libert and Rick Faulk, authors of “Barack, Inc: Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign” point out three lesson to entrepreneurs based upon what they have seen in President Obama’s campaign:

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After representing 20% of all solar installs in San Francisco in Q4 2008, 1Block Off the Grid (1BOG) is now bringing major solar community purchasing discounts to Los Angeles, CA.

1BOG began building its solar community in San Francisco (as depicted in the takeover of the map above). The original pilot campaign brought in 184 San Francisco residents who signed up for solar discounts from RealGoods, and 42 of them followed through to buy a system—double the normal adoption rate. The latest 1BOG campaign in the Bay Area has already brought in 1,070 sign ups, a 6x increase over the pilot. SolarCity has been selected as the installer for this round.

Definition, 1BOG: a nationwide, community-based program that organizes residents locally and negotiates group discounts with solar installers, using a comprehensive vendor selection process.

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When we last wrote about 1 Block Off the Grid’s(1BOG) community solar initiative in San Francisco, many of you wondered why similar programs don’t exist across the United States. Well, good news for those of you in Boston, New Orleans, Seattle, Miami, Washington, and 15 other US cities—1BOG is coming.

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Essentially, the organization uses the power of community as a bargaining chip to make solar more accessible to homeowners.

With this initial solar campaign, 1BOG was able to negotiate up to 48% off 2 kW solar systems from the market price for its participants. According to 1BOG Founder and Managing Partner Sylvia Ventura, 2 kW is the average size of a home-based solar system in San Francisco.

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