SunRun and PV Solar report announce California’s fastest-growing solar cities

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: SunRun, the nation’s leading home solar company, and PV Solar Report, an authority on California solar market data, announced California’s fastest-growing solar cities. These cities added more home solar systems in 2011 than their counterparts throughout the state and show solar growth is expanding to new regions. The list complements the release of the Q4 and Year End solar sales and installation reports from PV Solar Report.

While steady solar growth continues in traditional solar hot beds like San Jose, new solar leaders like Hemet and Apple Valley indicate increasing solar adoption on a broader geographic scale. In addition, the majority of homeowners in these cities chose to go solar without buying the panels, known as solar power service.

The fastest-growing solar cities list is based on the California Solar Initiative's (CSI) database of residential rebate reservations for calendar year 2011. Rankings are as follows:

1) San Jose
2) Bakersfield
3) Simi Valley
4) Lancaster
5) Fresno
6) Corona
7) Murrieta
8) Rocklin
9) Hemet
10) Apple Valley.

“We thought it was important to not just look at which cities have the most solar installations, but also those that are growing the fastest,” said Stephen Torres, founder and managing director of PV Solar Report. “While Apple Valley may not have the most solar in the state, its solar installation numbers grew by almost 70 percent in 2011.”

PV Solar Report's analyses also show a tremendous increase in homeowners who chose solar power service over purchasing the panels. For example, top city San Jose had 648 homeowners choose solar service in 2011 versus 312 opting for panel purchase. In December 2011 solar power service was over 70 percent of the home solar market.

SunRun invented this model for residential solar in 2007 and remains the market leader in California with twice the market share of the next largest provider.

"The cost of solar is coming down, which makes it more affordable for families in a more diverse range of cities," said SunRun president and co-founder Lynn Jurich. "At SunRun we’ve also seen solar expand to more median income communities because our service allows homeowners to make the switch for zero or very little money upfront, and they lock in a low rate for clean electricity.”

SunRun now installs over $1.5 million in solar every day, completing one rooftop installation every 11 minutes of the business day by letting American families switch to solar without spending $30,000 or more to buy panels. SunRun owns, insures and maintains the solar panels and installs them on a homeowner's roof. Families pay a low monthly rate for clean energy, fixing their energy costs for 20 years.