San Diego Business Journal: "Solar Developer Seeks Slice of Billion-Dollar Pie"

(San Diego Business Journal, May 31, 2010) - Seeking its place in the sun, Solana Beach-based Amsolar Corp. has chosen to align itself with schools.

It’s there that the one-year-old solar energy business sees opportunity.

Under a typical deal, Amsolar will lease space at a school. It will invest in solar panels and related gear, install it, maintain it and keep everything under Amsolar ownership. It will then sell electricity to the school under a power purchase agreement, which lasts for 15 to 25 years.

In November, Amsolar inked such an agreement with USD, aka the University of San Diego. The deal calls for Amsolar to mount 5,000 solar panels on 11 buildings at the Linda Vista campus, then sell the power to the university at prices below those charged by conventional power producers. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Federal stimulus funding supported the deal.

‘A 20-Year Partnership’

The USD system will supply 1.2 megawatts, which is enough energy to power 1,200 typical homes. It will be one of the top 10 largest solar systems on U.S. college campuses. Amsolar will break ground on the project shortly, says Amsolar Managing Partner Joshua Weinstein.

“We’re really excited about it,” said Michael Catanzaro, director of sustainability at USD. He added that Amsolar has been especially helpful in working through so me of the more difficult aspects of building such a large system.

Meanwhile, in North Adams, a town in the Berkshire region of Massachusetts, Amsolar plans to install a 200-kilowatt system — though not at a school. It will be at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. The museum is housed in a historic factory complex. Amsolar will fund a majority of the $1 million museum project, aided by $162,000 in stimulus funds.

The structure of the deals means that public entities will not have to spend money upfront to get their solar installations, Weinstein says.

The relationship between contractor and client is different as well. When traditional installers put a system in, “they walk away,” Weinstein said. “With us, it’s the first day of a 20-year partnership.”

Lean Company

Amsolar is also helping USD create a course in solar energy. The interdisciplinary course will cover the scientific, business and legal aspects of solar energy. It’s part of the company’s educational arm, called Amsolar Giving.

Amsolar was founded in 2009. An early project is on display on Garnet Avenue in Pacific B each. It is there, in a McDonald’s restaurant parking lot, that Amsolar erected two umbrellalike structures holding photovoltaic panels. One structure includes an electric vehicle charging station.

Amsolar employs 12 people. Weinstein says the business should grow to 20 workers in the next year and a half — though he intends to keep the company lean. Investors in the firm are a “seasoned” group from Europe and the United States who have had success in the renewable energy business, Weinstein says.

Weinstein estimates the market opportunity over the next three years for putting solar systems in schools will exceed $1 billion.