Press Release

Stanford Community Goes Solar, Collectively

Leading solar installer SolarCity announced the completion and overwhelming success of its Stanford community solar program -- its first collective solar purchasing program tailored exclusively to the needs of a community other than a municipality.

Forty-one faculty, staff and other Stanford-affiliated families joined the company's group-based purchase program, which raised 193 total kilowatts of solar power, exceeding the community's goal of 175kW. As a result of the solar power bulk purchase, the Stanford community will save 20 percent on the market rate for solar installation and offset at least 3.85 million pounds of carbon over the next 30 years.

'I see this program as an important contribution to Stanford University's new Initiative on the Environment and Sustainability,' said Mary Lou Zoback, a resident who helped lead the community program. 'That so many on-campus homeowners made this clean energy investment for their own homes, demonstrates their desire to lead in carbon reduction measures by example.'

SolarCity has operated more than a dozen previous community programs in cities and towns across California, and the program's ability to leverage group purchasing to drive down the cost of renewable energy has greatly affected residential solar pricing in the state.
With the Stanford community solar program, SolarCity has proven that the same model for solar adoption can be effectively applied to other affinity groups as well.

'The Stanford program proves that all kinds of communities can make a big difference when they use their collective power,' said Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity. 'The tremendous outcome of this program is a strong encouragement for us to continue inviting communities of all kinds to go solar together.'