Calif. Firm Wants to Help LI Homeowners Go Solar

May 5, 2010

By TOM INCANTALUPO

A California company that matches homeowners with solar electric power installers – benefiting both parties, it claims – is readying a marketing push into Long Island where, it believes, high electric rates and savvy consumers make for a ripe market.

Calling itself 1BOG.org, for “one block off the grid,” as in a residential block off the electric grid, the privately held company claims to be unique. It says it has arranged for more than 700 solar installations in cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Phoenix, and in northern New Jersey, and will begin marketing in southern New Jersey and Long Island.

But two veterans of Long Island’s solar industry reacted with a yawn.

The company’s 31-year-old founder and chief executive, David Llorens, says it focuses on places where electric rates are high so that the payoff for the investment in solar equipment is quicker. “The economics here are good for homeowners,” he said this week on a visit to Long Island.

He says 1BOG plans to begin soliciting and vetting Long Island installers in June and, ultimately, will choose one. Consumers benefit by what amounts to group purchasing from the chosen installer in each region, he says, and pay an average of 15 percent less than normal. Installers pay 1BOG a fixed fee per watt, which it does not disclose.

1BOG claims a typical system costs $26,250 before LIPA rebates and federal and state tax credits, $7,688 after, and would save a Long Islander $1,500 a year and pay for itself in five years.

However, one of Long Island’s most experienced solar power entrepreneurs, Gary Minnick of Go Solar Inc. in Riverhead, and Sail Van Nostrand, chairman of the Long Island Solar Energy Industries Association and owner of a solar engineering company in Northport, said 1BOG sounds like just another of many companies that offer to sell them leads. Neither had heard of 1BOG, however. “The problem with these companies is they generate leads, but the people call us up anyway,” said Minnick, “so why would I bother with them?”

Llorens argues that his company, founded in San Francisco in 2008, saves installers marketing costs, and that twice as many of his leads result in orders for equipment and installations.

LIPA says more than 2,400 Long Islanders now produce electricity with solar equipment. Minnick says there are 70 or 80 Long Island installers. 1BOG’s Long Island information line is 516-209-3979. Prospective customers can sign up for information at solarLongIsland.1BOG.org.