Solar States Blog

Let’s start this new segment where it belongs: with a discussion on the word Duh! Popularized in the mid-nineties, the word originally comes from variations on utterances of confusion like ‘umm’ or ‘uh.’ But in its popular form, duh takes on a sarcastic tone of voice, in order to imply that something is obvious. Naturally, people who use the word Duh! now sound totally played out, and we get that. But in your head, you know you still say it, when you hear an idea and you know it should have been yours. An idea that is head-slappingly, eyebrow-raisingly, gotta-tell-your-friends-about-it simple, makes you believe you could go all Billy Mays on everyone.

Like many in the science and technology industry, we are always on the hunt for great inventions and ideas. With the solar industry, the biggest barrier is always cost so many of the most inventive ideas are targeted at reducing cost.

That’s where 1BOG comes in. 1BOG stands for 1 Block Off the Grid, which sounds like the company is about proximity, bringing solar to your door. In actuality, 1BOG does the opposite.

By recalling the same collective bargaining as utilized by health insurance companies, solar energy can be made less affordable. In short, there’s safety (and money) in numbers.

1BOG organizes community residents, creates a buzz around solar and negotiates deals with solar installers to lower the high initial costs associated with going solar.

The best thing about the idea is that, by not taking people off the grid, 1BOG’s communities are still eligible for all the tax breaks and incentive funds that any other early solar adopter would get. But with 1BOG’s collective bargaining agreements, and grassroots community organizing, prices drop, panels go up and you pay less for energy.

Such a simple idea, I bet you wish you thought of it. Solar energy sold like health insurance. Not that it needs to be said but…DUH!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.