Chris Lieto, The Green Athlete and Sungevity

I took off the first weekend of May to do my annual pilgrimage south to Lake San Antonio for the Wildflower Triathlon weekend.  Usually, I go down on Thursday to establish a camp site for our group.  Friday is set aside for wine tasting in Paso Robles.  Saturday is a rest day. Sunday is race day.  This year I decided (or my cardiologist decided for me) that I shouldn’t do the Olympic race on Sunday, but rather the shorter mountain bike race on Saturday.  So that was my plan.

After breakfast Friday morning, we wondered over to look at this one camp site.  It turns out that we camped just a few yards away from one of the best triathletes in the world, Chris Lieto.  Chris offered us a cup of freshly brewed Major Dickasons coffee and we sat down for some conversation. 

Chris recently started the Green Athlete blog, where he provides resources and ideas that support athletes in their effort to live green.  As part of this effort, he drives around in this tricked out vehicle that is a cross between a monster truck and a R.V..  It runs on biodiesel, is solar powered, has a kitchen, plasma TV, stereo, and looks as if it can run through (or over) anything.  Unfortunately, I did not have my camera, but pictures are on Chris’ Blog. 

One of the companies that Chris is involved with caught my eye.  It is an eco start-up solar power company called Sungevity.  It made its initial launch on Earth-day and promises to make the purchase and installation of solar power easier and cheaper than ever before.  The web site is pretty straight forward and provides information about solar powered energy for the home.  Just click on the icons on the bottom of the page and get informatin on how solar power works, its cost savings, its environmental benefits and Sungevity’s benefits. 

According to Sungevity’s website, going solar is faster, easier and affordable!

“Enter your address on Sungevity’s website, and satellite-imaging software zooms in on your home, calculates the roof’s dimensions, selects appropriately sized solar arrays, and shows what they will look like installed — while computing your return on investment. Once the order is placed, an off-the-shelf prepackaged solar array is shipped to the customer’s door, and an installation crew is dispatched.”

So I thought I would get a free solar IQuote, using my home in Los Altos as the test case.  I entered my address and a satellite image came up asking me to center the circle on the roof of my home.  Within minutes of giving my contact information, I received the following e-mail from Sungevity:

Dear Homeowner,

Thank you for your interest in Sungevity!

We currently serve the greater San Francisco Bay Area, but we are rapidly expanding our service and hope to be in your area soon.

We will contact you once we are able to help you go solar.

Shine on!
The Sungevity Team

Quite a disappointment!  I think Los Altos is still considered part of the greater bay area, yet I didn’t get a quote.  I didn’t even get a time frame on when I would get a quote.  If I had been a real customer, I would be looking elsewhere for my solar power needs right about now.  It appears they may have jumped the gun and got the web site up without having the ability to service the customer.  I think it would have made sense if the web site had a map or something indicating Sungevity’s service areas and/or future planned service areas.  

I’m still not quite sure whether they can assist me with an estimate or whether they truly don’t service Los Altos yet.   Also, should I have received a quote, I’m sure I would have had further questions about the process like:  How big should my system be? Why they recommend one system over another?  Who are their installers?   But for now, I’ll just wait for my quote.   I’ll keep you posted.