A Solar Panel on Every Roof

Energy
In this political season, you may have thought that the new solar power start-up, Citizenre, was trying to one-up the lofty promises of the candidates. Undoubtedly, it's the perennial candidate with impressive eloquence that has well surpassed it's record of qualifying lofty goals with hard facts.

Citizenre promises to match your current energy bill by providing you with free PV installation to satisify your home energy needs. This flashy company advertises itself as truly a no sacrifice green movement and counts new customers rising daily http://www.citizenre.com/web/index.php.

But its' promise to install 100,000 homes with solar power/year, starting in the near future, has caused a stir in the solar community. Since the United States currently has about this number of homes with PV cells, the commotion is no big surprise. What's even more profound, Citizenre promises no installation fees - only a monthly fee that will not surpass your current energy bill.

Stephen Lacey at RenewableEnergyWorld.com has been moderating the debate and a new podcast with CEO and disgruntled ex-employee interviews last week illustrated the chasm between marketing blitz and proven technology http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=47453.

First off, no money has yet exchanged hands although the company states that it has thousands of customers. These are, in reality, only individuals who have expressed interest.

To make itself financially viable, Citizenre promises to cut the $40K average of current installations in half. This will be accompolished by vertical integration -they plan to build the world's largest PV cell plant, capable of producing 500 Mw/ year in PV cells. Although, as a side note, the financing hasn't been found yet.

The innovative franchising structure aims to make every green enthusiast a potential 'ecopreneur' by making them part of the business strategy. Citizenre further aims to cut costs by halving the time necessary for installation, which is contended as impossible by many in the business.

The overall effect is that expectations, even among the most faithful Citizens, may be burst and instead of a home PV plant on every roof, there may be many empty roofs covering the lids of steaming renewable energy enthusiasts who preemptively celebrated the coming of clean, home generated power.

Citizenre has it's marketing right. Many simply wish that it's attractive promise could have began blasting after it's production and distribution channels were operational.