четвъртък, 21 февруари 2013 г.
Citizenre
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| Type | Private |
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| Industry | Solar |
| Founded | 2005 Startup company |
| Headquarters | Wilmington, DE, USA |
| Key people | David C. Gregg, President &CEO |
| Employees | Approx. 7 plus approx. 1300 independent sales associates |
| Website | www.citizenre.com |
Citizenrē is a renewable energy startup company that plans to rent photovoltaic (PV) solar systems to homeowners in the United States. The name Citizenrē is a combination of the word "citizenry" with the abbreviation "RE" which stands for renewable energy.
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[edit]Business plan
The company's business plan is based on the premise that they can reduce the cost of generating electricity by cheaply manufacturing and installing company owned residential roof top solar electric panels. The electricity produced will be purchased by householders under contract to Citizenrē. Excess power produced during daylight hours will be "banked" with local electric utilities by net metering to be drawn on at night.
The company plans to construct its own PV manufacturing plant, with production beginning some time after that (see section on criticisms for more on the plant delays), and will franchise local installers to customize and install the systems. The sales and marketing is being conducted through independent contractors using a network marketing model.
[edit]System overview
The Citizenrē REnU system (REnU = Renewable Energy Unit) is based on the plan of renting solar systems to customers, fixing their utility costs to CitizenRE, and then selling the excess power back to the power company, along with getting income from any cap and trade certificates (SRECS) received for producing clean energy. The customer signs a fixed-length contract to pay a flat rental rate that is fixed for 10 years with an option to renew for another 5 years. The rate for each homeowner is determined by the average rate of their local electric utility.
In effect, the customer gets much of the benefit of owning a solar system without the inherent risks. The customer gets positive cash flow from the first month. Besides that, if they move, sell their home, or rent their home, they can transfer or cancel the lease without penalty (that is why they call it a rental). If electric prices go up in 15 years, the customer benefits by not having to pay them. If electric prices go down (due to Bloom Box, or income from stabilizing the grid with electric car batteries, for example) then the customer still has the same fixed rate for 10 years. In almost all cases this is projected to make customers secure and happy with their purchase. They are part of the "solution" rather than being part of the problem.
[edit]Benefits of the Citizenrē business plan
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