somone in cali, pls try and get back to us

That looks really promising, They need to bring it to the rest of the country though... in due time.

Keep in mind that many power providers penalize those with panels by upping the electric rate to commercial. The power you sell back to the grid, if any, is bought at that rate, but when you get power from the grid it costs more.

Sounds great. Would love to see in Indiana! Does anyone have an idea of the all-in cost for an average sized home with a system that should cover all power consumption a vast majority of the time?

I would love to see it for every state, but I'm not holding my breath. Solar just doesn't work out as well here in Ohio — for example — as it does in California... we've got far fewer sunny days during winter months.

Earth Day!!!

ahhhh these are the days where i love to live in cali lol

anything to shave down the initial 20-30k price of a full solar array. Unfortunately the Solar Installation workforce is working at capacity, so getting a company to return your calls is difficult.

Will they also come over and shovel off the array when we get 11 feet of snow?

Sounds too good to be true. But awesome, and worth looking into. I have a number of concerns, which everyone seems to share. Here's one other question I have: are satellite maps better for folks in California? For every place I've lived in Ohio (or every place I've looked for), all the mapper sites put the address three or four houses down, if not in the middle of the street. So...how do you make sure it knows what it's doing?

@papercup mixmaster: That's what I was wondering. It happens here in Mississippi too.

@papercup mixmaster: Maybe, you select your roof or something on the map so that it can calculate the square footage of your roof by figuring out how big it is by taking half of it and guessing about the slope of your roof and figuring out the real length using the slop and comparing it to the scale of the map at the current zoom setting.

@hammertime1994: *slope*

From the site: "We currently serve the greater San Francisco Bay Area, but we are quickly expanding our service area and will reach you soon."

I entered in my parents address in Orange County, so I guess they haven't hit Southern California yet.

Their site is completely flash based and has one of those annoying "welcome" videos with a random person giving a sales pitch in the corner.

I entered the info. They say they will email info within 24 hours. I'll update when they do.

Doesn't work in Santa Barbara

@hammertime1994: There's only 5 choices of array, I doubt that it's that complicated. They probably have web access to public record databases as well. Hey, they may even call you and ask a question or two.

@papercup mixmaster: If you go into Google maps, you can actually search for your address, and if it gives you a spot down the block or something, you can actually move the spot to your house, and it stays that way for anyone that searches.

Yeah, I hope they have something in place for that. It would suck if they showed up with enough solar panels to cover the school down the street.

I think Gizmodo is focusing too much on the satellite feature (I guess it sounds cool), but that seems like a small part of what this company is trying to do with their business model. BTW, I've had panels up for 6 months and they are kicking ass, producing more power than my household consumes! I'm in Los Angeles.

@liquidsoapdispenser: I wish I lived in an area that got enough light coverage during the winter hours to make this feasible, but alas, in Canada the snowy time, she comes. Not to mention I'm not too keen on climbing to the roof to shovel off the panels. I suppose if there were a system to clear the panels via some giant squeegee of sorts it would be ok, the sun is still rather bright in the winter, assuming no cloud cover.

I'm in Florida and hope that's next, it sounds like a good business model, taking the hassle out of sizing it. There's tax breaks for most also, wonder if they have that info on how to get some of the costs back.

$70,000.00 and 68 yrs to break even. Hmmm. No Thanks

Okay!

Everybody all goto the website at one time and plug in your addresses and see how well the satellite keeps up with hundreds of locations_

It finds my house right away but it's still giving me the "give us your email and we'll let you know" crap. It doesn't really start until tomorrow anyway right? Aren't we all a little early yet? I'll try again tomorrow.

@DeadWriter:

I'm not 100% certain, but I think you have that slightly wrong. (can you provide an example?)

In Florida, we have such a system, but it's better described as:

You pay the residential consumer rate when you buy electricity.

You are paid the commercial provider rate when you sell electricity.

That is to say, the electric company will only pay you what the power is worth on the open market, which is a fair scheme. (roughly 80% of the retail rate.) This does change the economics for the solar customer making batteries more attractive. If the cost of buying and maintaining batteries are greater than or equal to 20% of the residential cost of buying electricity (rough average of $45/mo for me) it may not be worth using the "grid" as your battery in net metering systems.

grrr, yeah no dice here in soCal.
Hmm i wonder if someone has a DIY writeup :P
It'd be one hell of a project!

You forgot to mention it ran Microsoft's VE platform.