"Electric-car drivers trading gas for solar power" by Dee-Ann Durbin | Associated Press October 29, 2014
DETROIT — Owners of electric vehicles have already gone gas-free. Now, a growing number are powering their cars with sunlight.
Solar panels installed on the roof of a home or garage can easily generate enough electricity to power an electric or gas-electric hybrid vehicle. The panels aren’t cheap, and neither are the cars, but advocates say the investment pays off over time, and is worth it for the thrill of fossil-fuel-free driving.
$hit-shoveling propaganda always makes me stall.
No one knows exactly how many electric cars are being powered by solar energy, but....
Why not? No business group monitoring sales or anything?
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"Solar energy discounts become employee perk" by Diane Cardwell | New York Times October 23, 2014
NEW YORK — Expanding the notion of corporate benefits beyond discounted health club memberships and low insurance rates, a group of major companies is set to offer employees access to cheaper solar power systems for the home.
Under an arrangement announced Wednesday, employees of the companies — Cisco Systems, 3M, Kimberly-Clark, and National Geographic — will be able to buy or lease solar systems for their homes at rates substantially lower than the US average, executives said.
Need some Kleenex?
The program, offered through Geostellar, a cost comparison site for solar panels, will be available to more than 100,000 employees and will include options for their friends and families in the United States and parts of Canada.
Originally conceived by campaigners at the World Wildlife Fund, the program, called the Solar Community Initiative, aims to use the bulk purchasing power of employees to allow for discounts on home systems.
“Our objective was to make this as simple and cheap as possible,” said Keya Chatterjee, senior director for renewable energy at the World Wildlife Fund.
After receiving deep discounts through a group program for its own employees last year, officials at the environmental group approached a few of their corporate partners, she said.
I know it sounds good, and maybe it is; however, I simply no longer believe or trust what my lying, distorting, agenda-pushing paper has to say. Sorry.
For Geostellar, which built a virtual marketplace from satellite imagery and big data, it offers a new route to attracting customers, which is still one of the more stubbornly high costs of operating a solar business.
Other solar companies have established corporate partnerships to funnel customers to them. SolarCity, for instance, recently revealed it was renewing a deal with Honda that provides SolarCity systems to the automaker’s customers at a lower price.
“It’s over 100,000 people who are all prequalified because they have good jobs,” said David Levine, chief executive of Geostellar. “They’re going to pass the credit.”
Once again then, benefits accrue to the already-haves.
For the companies, the arrangement offers a way to attract and retain a workforce that is increasingly attuned to the environment and to the steps employers take to preserve it.
It is a natural extension of the sustainability efforts already underway, executives said, whether cutting carbon emissions by installing solar panels at their facilities, offering preferential parking and charging stations for electric vehicles, or introducing Meatless Mondays at the cafeteria.
Yes, corporations do care about the planet.
Related: “Winter is Here.”
Yeah, about that carbon....
“I get the e-mails: ‘Why aren’t we recycling this,’ or ‘why don’t we have 45,000 more electric vehicle charging stations,??’” said Ali Ahmed, who manages energy and sustainability at Cisco. “So we had a really good feeling that our employees would engage and latch onto this kind of discount.”
That interest is already evident, the companies said. Three Cisco executives have already decided to install solar systems in their homes through Geostellar, Levine said.
Oh, I thought it was like an employee thing. $illy me.
At 3M, employees lined up at a kiosk at lunchtime to learn more about the program, said Gayle Schuler, vice president of global sustainability at the company.
Pricing and savings will vary depending on such factors as the pitch of a roof, the levels of sunlight, or the sophistication of the equipment.
But the average base cost of a system will be $3 per watt of the system’s capacity — roughly 17 percent lower than Geostellar’s regular price and almost 34 percent lower than the average cost in the United States last year of $4.53.
The program is available both for leasing or buying solar systems. Homeowners paying an average of $147 a month for electricity would instead pay an average of $97 a month over 12 years if they financed the entire system, after which the payments would go to zero, Levine said.
It all sounds good, except for the affordability for most. Then again, that's not of or for whom this paper is written.
Geostellar, which received an Energy Department grant aimed at lowering solar costs, has an automated system that allows homeowners to type in their address and see options and estimates of potential savings before connecting with installers and lenders if they decide to proceed.
The discounted rate will be available to employees at the partner companies indefinitely.
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Related: Solar Stimuloot Went to Goldman Sachs
Also see: Facebook, Apple pay for egg freezing, sperm donors
Then the light went out.
