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SolarCity and DIRECTV are teaming up to make affordable solar power even more accessible for homeowners in major cities across the country. The two companies announced the first-of-its-kind program at DIRECTV’s California Broadcast Center facility in Long Beach where SolarCity recently installed a one-megawatt solar system.
Under the new service relationship, DIRECTV technicians visiting customers’ homes will be able to offer those homeowners the opportunity to use solar electricity from SolarCity, making it possible for them to pay less than their current utility rates. With SolarCity, these customers can take advantage of clean power for no upfront cost and secure predictable monthly costs for years into the future. The opportunity will be offered to DIRECTV customers in every major market where SolarCity currently operates. The companies plan to offer this opportunity to even more customers as SolarCity continues to expand its operations into new markets. Qualified SolarCity customers who sign up to go solar between March 11 and March 18 are eligible for a special $400 rebate to be paid upon installation.
DIRECTV has long been at the leading edge of environmental sustainability in its industry. Its ambitious corporate sustainability goals include reducing the company’s carbon emissions by 40% and reducing its customers’ carbon emissions by 1 million metric tons per year by 2020. The new relationship with SolarCity allows DIRECTV customers to live more sustainably while saving money through the use of clean, renewable solar power.
DIRECTV’s new one-megawatt solar array in Long Beach provides power to the California Broadcast Center, one of its largest energy consuming facilities, which supports DIRECTV’s service in Latin America. The ground-mounted solar system is expected to generate enough renewable solar electricity over its lifetime to power the equivalent of over 1,400 typical homes for a year and deliver important environmental benefits to the Long Beach region and residents of Los Angeles County. It is expected to prevent more than 15.7 million pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere over its lifetime, which is equivalent to taking over 1,350 cars off the road or planting more than 678,000 trees. It is also expected to save nearly 73 million gallons of water that would otherwise be consumed in the production of electricity from fossil fuel or nuclear sources.
Like the benefits its customers can now capture, DIRECTV’s solar installation will allow them to pay for the clean energy the system generates at a discount to utility power and enjoy low, predictable solar energy rates for the lifetime of the system.