MNN - Mother Nature Network

 

What started as a simple idea to help reduce solar installation costs by getting "1block off the grid" (1BOG) has hatched into a multi-city initiative which connects people so that they can place one bulk order for solar panels and negotiate special installation deals, thus reducing their costs by up to 20 percent over the typical install price.

 

Just this month 1BOG launched Los Angeles and after the great success of the San Francisco BOG (which attracted over 1,000 homeowners) they are expecting a large order to come to LA. 

 

1BOG has a great info site and field kit featuring their cute little green guy (the Bogman), and have an open invitation for volunteers who want to organize a group solar purchase. They also have a large interactive map which includes all 20 cities that currently have a 1BOG program. You can zoom in and see where other homes have joined in (though all addresses are kept private):

 

 

In Europe, especially in Germany, these types of group purchasing programs have been used in conjunction with Feed-in Tariffs and are largely credited with their rapid adoption rate of domestic solar energy.