The folks over at Clean Power Finance sent us this press release earlier today indicating an expansion of their residential solar financing product to new markets. This is indeed good news as residential solar financing is an important enabler for making solar more affordable for more customers. With low money down or no money down down options becoming more widely available, and with more choice than ever before, potential solar customers can now get clean, long term energy right from their rooftop, without big upfront costs.

Here at GetSolar just about every conversation we have with homeowners involves a discussion around solar financing options; be it leasing, power purchase agreement, loan, home equity line, cash, you name it.  Residential Leases and Power Purchase Agreements (PPA’s) have driven some 30% of California solar installations in the last year, and for good reason. For many customers, they can start saving on their electric bills right away, while keeping more cash in their pocket for other expenses. We welcome additional financing choices in these markets, as it helps our partner installers offer creative solutions to residential solar customers, allowing them to save money on their utility bills while helping America strengthen its energy future.

See the press release.

Solar leasing is well on its way to becoming mainstream.

SunPower Corp. and Citi today announced a new fund to finance approximately $105 million in residential solar lease projects. According to the announcement, the lease program will be available to qualifying homeowners in eight states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Here’s a requisite sound bite:

“Citi’s global financial leadership combined with SunPower’s leading technology and quarter century of experience offer customers an unprecedented level of assurance that is vitally important when a homeowner enters into a 20-year lease agreement,” said SunPower CFO Dennis Arriola. “We are proud to partner with Citi, and applaud its commitment to promoting the use of solar power.”

Solar leases enable homeowners to pay a monthly fee for their solar home energy system rather than buy it outright. The approach makes good financial sense in those parts of the country where …click here to read more

Ah, nothing like a mid-summer promotion… lucky for us, this one is actually pretty cool.

Sungevity, a California-based company that bankrolls the option to lease solar panels for an increasing number of Americans, is coming to five northeastern states — in an ice pop truck.

As part of the company’s Rooftop Revolution campaign, Sungevity representatives will pile into a bio-diesel-powerd ice pop truck equipped with solar panels and tour New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts and Delaware. Destinations along the route include events like music festivals, county fairs, farmers markets and minor league baseball games.

Two other solar lease providers, SunRun and SolarCity, are already active in parts of New England and the Mid-Atlantic. …click here to read more

The world of solar leasing just got a whole lot more interesting.

Last week, Google announced a plan to invest $280 million in SolarCity, a California-based company that offers solar leases in ten states across the U.S.

Hours after, news broke that Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd — a large China-based manufacturer of solar panels — was working on plans to offer a solar home energy lease option of its own. Both developments are likely to increase the availability of solar leases to qualifying homeowners in select states. …click here to read more

Vermont has passed a law that simplifies and standardizes the permitting process for small solar energy systems statewide, a move that could lead to lower installation costs.

In order to connect a residential solar photovoltaic (PV) system to the electric grid, homeowners across the country are required to complete the permitting process set up by their local government.

By convention, solar installers handle the associated paperwork. But permitting variations from town to town can nevertheless increase solar installation costs. A recent report by SunRun, for instance, suggests that inconsistent local permitting and inspection processes add about $0.50 for each watt of solar PV installed. In other words, simply harmonizing permitting standards could shave about $2,500 off the cost of installing a residential solar power system. Clearly, we’re not talking chump change.

Vermont lawmakers agree. …click here to read more

In an effort to provide solar home energy options to its customers, Lowe’s is teaming up with Sungevity, an Oakland, California-based company that leases the systems to homeowners in handful of states.

The home improvement retailer has taken a minority stake in Sungevity that will help each company make up ground where it was previously lacking. Starting at stores in California, Lowe’s will at last have a solar power option to discuss with its customers. Its main competitor, Home Depot, has offered such an option since March 2010, when the Atlanta-based company launched a partnership with SolarCity.

Sungevity, meanwhile, …click here to read more

If you’ve spent even the smallest amount of time reading about solar power, chances are you know that solar panels are good for the environment and can substantially reduce your monthly electricity bills. Solar offers other benefits, however.

One that’s being discussed a lot lately is that solar homes tend to sell at a premium relative to non-solar homes. Why?

Andy Black, founder of OnGrid and an industry expert on solar economics, explains …click here to read more

Google is up to it again. The search giant recently announced plans to invest five million big ones in a solar energy park in Germany.

The recently completed facility is located on 47 hectares (116 acres) in Brandenburg an der Havel, near Berlin. The power plant has a peak capacity of 18.65MWp, which puts it among the largest in Germany.

Google is always looking for new ways to encourage development and deployment of renewable energy across the world. This facility will provide clean energy to more than 5,000 households in the area surrounding Brandenburg. Until the early 90’s, the site was used as a training ground by the Russian military. We’re glad it has found a new use!

We agreed to jointly invest in this project with the German private equity company Capital Stage, which brings strong experience in the German photovoltaic and renewable energy market. Germany has a strong framework for renewable energy and is home to many leading-edge technology companies in the sector. More than 70% of the solar modules installed in Brandenburg are provided by German manufacturers.

Google has been making headlines for its clean energy-related activities in the U.S., as well. The company is backing a plan to build an undersea transmission line that, if completed, would facilitate the transfer of offshore wind power to densely populated Atlantic seaboard markets.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance this week is having its annual conference in New York. Among the tidbits making their way through the Interwebs, I found the following particularly interesting:

(1) Michael Liebreich, chairman of the research group, noted in a talk that he expects the cost of developing a solar power project to drop by half in the next decade, worldwide. New Energy Finance numbers suggest the cost of large solar photovoltaic (PV) projects to decline to from  around $3.00 per watt today to $1.45 per watt in 2020.

A reduction of that magnitude would make solar energy more competitive with fossil fuels. …click here to read more

Faced with the on-going nuclear crisis in Japan — the costs of which could make the March earthquake and subsequent tsnuami the most expensive natural disaster the world has ever seen — nearby China may be moving to double its target for solar photovoltaic (PV) power capacity over the next five years.

Citing unnamed sources, China Securities Journal today reported that the country’s solar target might be raised to 10 gigawatts (GW) of PV by 2015, up from the current target of 5 GW. For comparison, global solar PV capacity was about 40 GW in 2010.

This news comes after a report released yesterday found that, in terms of clean energy investment, the United States has slipped to third place behind China and Germany. …click here to read more