Solar buying group moves into LA

By | June 14, 2010, 4:58am PDT

Summary: One Block Off the Grid (1BOG), a San Francisco-based group that negotiates group collective rates for installing solar technology through pre-approved installers, has moved into the Los Angeles area. Here’s what this means: IF you’re thinking about installing solar technology, AND you do it through 1BOG, you can get a 15 percent discount off typical rates [...]

One Block Off the Grid (1BOG), a San Francisco-based group that negotiates group collective rates for installing solar technology through pre-approved installers, has moved into the Los Angeles area.

Here’s what this means: IF you’re thinking about installing solar technology, AND you do it through 1BOG, you can get a 15 percent discount off typical rates for the region. The deal covers Los Angeles Country, Ventura County, Orange County and the Inland Empire. The installers are REC Solar in Los Angeles and Ventura County, and HelioPower for Orange County and the Inland Empire.

I don’t know much about either of these installers, since I live in New Jersey. But apparently HelioPower has handled more than 1,000 installations since 2001, and it has utility-scale experience. REC Solar is described as one of the nation’s largest solar installation companies with presence in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii and Oregon.

The arrangement is available for the next three months, until Sept. 14, 2010.

1BOG started in San Francisco as a vehicle to help local resident negotiate better rates for installing solar technology. The group now has “campaigns” going on in 12 markets across the United States.

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Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

Disclosure

Heather Clancy

Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I am also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I am covering in my blog.

Biography

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News, where she was a featured speaker about everything from software as a service to IT security to mobile computing.

Heather started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll.

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