GoSolarMarin© Coalition Begins RFP Process

Group’s First Meeting Produces Consensus to Seek Solar Installation Bids

San Rafael - December 21, 2007 - GoSolarMarin©, a coalition of homeowners interested in group purchase of solar energy, appointed a committee to develop a Request for Proposal (RFP) to present to solar providers, according to Lisa Max, the group’s organizer, following a meeting of homeowners, neighborhood associations and local officials.

Dana Armanino, the Green Business Coordinator for Marin County who participated in the meeting, said that her office would continue to work with GoSolarMarin and provide assistance.

Max, who began accepting expressions of preliminary interest from Marin County homeowners several weeks ago, told the group that she had “received expressions of interest from homeowners and neighborhood associations throughout the county.

“While I started GoSolarMarin as a San Rafael group, the allure of solar energy as a green alternative available at a discounted price has broad appeal,” she said. For example, among the participants at the Monday night meeting was a representative of a homeowners association in Novato, representing nearly 300 individual owners.

With 10 solar providers in the audience, Max outlined an action plan, answered questions and selected a committee with the goal of creating the RFP and beginning the bidding process by the end of October.

Max said she would continue to gather names of interested individuals and groups. Her list is “now in the hundreds,” she said.

Max has met with more than a dozen companies and consultants over the past six months as she developed her concept. She has also spoken with other leaders in Bay Area communities, including Berkeley and Mountain View, who have created similar projects. The Mountain View, project produced a discount of 35 percent for individual installations, according to a representative of the company that won the bid and who attended the GoSolarMarin meeting.

At the meeting, Armanino outlined Federal, state and local incentives available. Max also provided the audience with spreadsheet analyses of costs and savings, using industry and government indices, available incentives and financing alternatives.

Max first thought of organizing a community solar purchase three years ago, when she and her husband, Gary Tobin, principal of TOBIN and Associates, moved from Bellevue, WA to Marin County.

Last winter, she learned of a solar project on the Peninsula. To date, 78 residents have enrolled in that program, along with 119 homes in Mountain View and 20 homes in Woodside. A similar project in Berkeley is underway with more than 50 homeowners involved.

The meeting, held at San Rafael Corporate Center, was co-sponsored by MarinLink and Sustainable San Rafael. GoSolarMarin has been supported by the Federation of San Rafael Neighborhoods, the Lincoln San Rafael Hill Neighborhood Association, Sustainable San Rafael and MarinLink.

Max said that interested individual homeowners and neighborhood associations should contact her at 415-847-0900 or via email at gosolarmarin@yahoo.com for additional information.