SolarCity is expanding its service and operations in Texas by making its popular solar service available to homeowners in Austin for the first time. Customers in Austin can now go solar for as little as $50 per month, with design, installation, financing, and monitoring included. SolarCity is actively searching for locations for a new operations center—its fifth in the state.
The expansion is due in part to SolarCity's solar loan program, launched earlier this summer. SolarCity's loan can allow many customers to immediately pay less for their electricity generated by solar energy systems each month than they previously paid for their electricity bills, and be eligible for thousands in additional dollars from tax credits and other incentives. The company has leveraged its installation volume—SolarCity installed more residential solar in 2015 than the next 50 competitors combined—to negotiate extremely favorable terms on behalf of its customers.
SolarCity provides service to customers of Austin Energy, and also serves customers in the greater Austin area that are not customers of Austin Energy through a partnership with local retail electricity provider MP2. The unique partnership with MP2 allows SolarCity customers that use MP2 as their retail electricity provider to receive retail credit against future electricity use for any solar electricity they provide back to the utility grid during the day.