Solar Site Design Competes in US Department of Energy Program, Represents Cutting Edge of Solar Revolution
(PRWEB) May 11, 2015 -- Solar Site Design, a collaborative, cloud-based platform that connects highly-qualified solar project referrals to leading solar companies to drive down customer acquisition costs, will compete in the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Catalyst program May 14, in San Francisco. SunShot Catalyst is an open innovation program that aims to catalyze the rapid creation and development of products and solutions that address near-term challenges in the U.S. solar marketplace and make it easier for American innovators to launch cutting-edge solar companies.
According to the U.S. Solar Market Insight Report Q2 2014 (http://www.seia.org/research-resources/solar-market-insight-report-2014-q2), there is now 15.9 gigawatts of solar power installed in the United States. That’s enough to power the equivalent of 3.2 million average American homes. Solar energy use doubled in 2014, and continues to grow. On April 3, 2015, the White House announced its continued commitment to growing jobs in the solar energy sector (https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/04/03/fact-sheet-administration-announces-actions-drive-growth-solar-energy-an). To meet the demand, and to scale the cost of growing the solar energy grid and converting consumers to solar, innovative solutions are needed in every aspect of solar energy.
Solar Site Design reduces the cost of customer acquisition by recruiting and training the next generation of independent solar referral agents – making it easier and cheaper for solar developers to acquire highly qualified residential and commercial customers in their local market. Solar soft costs like lead generation, sales, installation and system design can represent up to 60 percent of a solar project. Utilizing its software and proprietary business processes, the Solar Site Design platform allows anyone to become a solar originator or sales referral agent. It provides a simple, cloud-based tool that quickly and easily captures home and business details and shares this data directly via the cloud with leading solar developers who then provide a complete solar proposal. Solar Site Design is a free tool available on both Android and iOS, as well as on the web at http://www.SolarSiteDesign.com.
“The next few years will be revolutionary for solar energy in the U.S.,” said Jason Loyet, Solar Site Design founder. “Demand is increasing, public policy is becoming more supportive and carbon-based fossil fuels are being regulated more and more as the public calls for cleaner energy solutions. At the same time, solar equipment costs are continuing their historic decreases. And that’s where Solar Site Design comes in, to reduce what remains the most challenging portion of the cost structure in the solar equation – soft costs and customer acquisition. We are activating the next generation of solar originators and referral agents.”
The Solar Site Design platform is also redefining what it means to be a solar sales agent. It takes what used to be a technical sales approach focused on designing feasibility plans, access to engineering resources, knowledge of incentives and rebates, and brings a new solar sales toolkit to a new group of professionals. This will enable significant growth in the solar jobs industry.
“To scale the needs of the solar industry, we needed to change our concept of how solar systems get to consumers. We do that by utilizing people who - by the nature of their jobs - are already at a home or business. These routine daily interactions with trusted service providers provide an ideal opportunity to educate the homeowner on the benefits of adding solar to their property,” said Solar Site Design CEO Mike Cassity.
“Our platform empowers these trusted home services professionals, such as: home inspectors, builders, electrical contractors and realtors, to become solar sales agents while conducting their normal day-to-day jobs,” Cassity said. “With the Solar Site Design platform, it’s as easy as asking a homeowner ‘have you ever considered adding solar to your home?’ Within a few minutes, the home services professional can gather all of the details needed to provide a feasibility study and proposal from a leading solar developer. That’s it. It makes adding a solar system as easy as choosing a new paint color.”
The home services professional receives a commission for each new home converted to solar, which motivates and helps grow solar adoption and creates new jobs.
“We started this business two years ago because we are dedicated to social change around energy choices,” Loyet said. “We truly believe we can be a part of the solution, clean solar energy can grow and lower our dependence on other forms of energy. We want to help reach the next generation of cost conscious energy consumers who want a choice.”
The SunShot Initiative drives research, manufacturing and market solutions to make the abundant solar energy resources in the United States more affordable and accessible for Americans. Since its inception, SunShot has helped hundreds of innovators bring mature solar solutions to the marketplace. Catalyst’s prize challenge framework introduces the business community to the vast array of tools, capabilities, data assets and additional resources developed by the Energy Department and the national laboratories. SunShot Catalyst is designed to help companies accelerate, offering new products and services in the solar marketplace. To win, teams participate in a Demo Day, where they will be evaluated by a panel of judges. Solar Site Design is one of the companies who will be competing in Demo Day. The top five winning teams will receive up to $100,000.
Solar Site Design is a privately-owned business based in Nashville, Tenn. It has participated in both a clean tech accelerator and a social enterprise accelerator, hosted and produced by Village Capital/Venture Well and the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. The company has raised Angel funding from Fortnum Capital, InCrowd Capital, Impact Assets, Radicle Capital and Village Capital.
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About Solar Site Design
Solar Site Design is a collaborative, cloud-based platform that connects highly-qualified solar project referrals to leading solar companies to drive down customer acquisition costs. Our proprietary business process is designed to reduce the solar industry’s customer acquisition costs by up to 50%. To learn more, please visit http://www.solarsitedesign.com.
About the SunShot Initiative
The U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort that aggressively drives innovation to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of the decade. Through SunShot, the Energy Department supports efforts by private companies, universities, and national laboratories to drive down the cost of solar electricity to $0.06 per kilowatt-hour. Learn more at energy.gov/sunshot.
Melissa Wyllie, Found Feather Communications, http://www.foundfeather.com, +1 6155168120, [email protected]
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