Greenpeace Activist Turned Entrepreneur
Green Wombat describes former Australian Greenpeace activist Danny Kennedy’s new California venture, Sungevity:
“Putting photovoltaic panels on residential rooftops remains largely a labor-intensive cottage business, often involving multiple visits to a client’s home to make the sales pitch, measure the roof, and design a custom system. Sungevity, which officially launches Tuesday on Earth Day, takes all that online.”
The Sungevity site says it serves California only, but really is only doing business at this instant in San Francisco, as I discovered after trying some searches.
To illustrate how it automates solar installations, I targeted “the crookedest street in the world,” Lombard Street. You can see a photo of the actual location under the website screen capture of Sungevity’s targeting satellite. Green Wombat continues with descriptions of the venture’s funding, business plan and celebrity backers after describing the process efficiency of what happens to your entered building address:
“. . .Sungevity’s proprietary algorithm calculates the roof’s dimensions — the pitch and azimuth — selects appropriately sized solar arrays, and shows what they will look like installed — while computing your return on investment. Once the order is placed, one of five off-the-shelf prepackaged solar arrays is shipped to the customer’s door, and an installation crew is dispatched. A database tracks local building and permit requirements, sending the necessary forms to the homeowner for their signature while beaming local regulations governing solar arrays to the installation crew.”
