Houston, TX; 28, May 2015: Houston-based residential solar energy company Simplify Solar has gone one step further in acquiring federal funding through partnering with locally-based Houston environmental research institution Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC). HARC, a 501(c) (3) organization incorporated as Houston Advanced Research Center, is a research hub providing independent analysis on environmental and energy issues to people seeking scientific answers. Founded in 1982, HARC today engages in projects focused on the science and engineering needed to address issues related to air quality, clean energy, and water quality and supply.
HARC works with the City of Houston on several renewable energy projects involving solar. For instance, HARC managed the Solar Houston Initiative after successfully seeking funds for the city in 2012. It developed the Solar Houston Plan that identified barriers and opportunities for solar power. To promote solar power’s viability, HARC is currently managing the solar panel system on top of the George R. Brown Convention Center. HARC has offered its grant writing services to Simplify Solar since Simplify Solar offers the unique opportunity to enable mass adoption of solar, which directly ties in with HARC’s goal of promoting solar power’s viability.
Simplify Solar achieves this objective through reducing soft costs via its turnkey online platform and hardware supply for the residential solar market. A primary aim of this program is to reduce solar installation soft costs — all non-hardware costs. Currently, these soft costs that include customer acquisition, financing, contracting, permitting, inspection, installation, and operations take up 64% of the total system cost. Simplify Solar has slashed soft costs by 30% through a combination of hardware packages with a web-based platform allowing the customer to choose a local installer.
Currently, HARC and Simplify Solar are working on a Department of Energy $500,000 grant as part of its Sunshot Incubator Program. The application has been submitted and the first review with comments from the Department of Energy will be given on May 22, 2015. The selection phase is in August 2015 with the awards disbursed in September 2015 to the winner.
Previously, Simplify Solar on its own has won a separate grant from the Department of Energy worth $25,000 in software services and is preparing for the next round of pitches to be given on May 14, 2015. Now working with HARC, Simplify Solar is in an even stronger position to acquire federal funding and to continue the mutual aim of pushing solar power’s viability and enable mass adoption of solar.
About Simplify Solar:
Simplify Solar is an end-to-end residential solar energy service provider which gives customers a comprehensive, transparent, and streamlined process to install solar panels for their homes as well as to track their energy production post-installation. By combining an automated software portal, a network of qualified solar installers, and an affordable hardware package, Simplify Solar is able to reduce the cost of solar installation by an average of 30%. Find out how at simplifysolar.com/start.
For more information, please contact Shen Ge at +1(832)808-2371 or by email at [email protected].
Connect with Simplify Solar:
http://www.simplifysolar.com
https://twitter.com/simplifysolar1
https://www.facebook.com/SimplifySolar
https://www.linkedin.com/company/simplifysolar