Solar Energy Meets the Social Network

SAN FRANCISCO, June 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- SunReports, the market leader in residential solar energy monitoring for both solar PV and solar hot water systems, has announced a new tool for solar system owners to share their system performance data with friends on Facebook. This marks the first time a monitoring company has provided the ability to publicly display and share system performance within the social network.

By creating a way for individual solar energy system performance to be shared via Facebook, SunReports allows individuals and businesses with solar systems to amplify the visibility of their solar installations, offers branding opportunities for solar manufacturers and installers, and facilitates global discussions about solar energy.

"Unfortunately, solar owners usually don't have much of a chance to talk about their solar energy systems with more than a few neighbors," said Thomas Dinkel, CEO of SunReports. "This tool changes that. Now, people can share – and yes, even show off  – their commitment to green energy with Facebook's 700 million users."

SunReports customers who opt into the Facebook tool can choose how frequently to post their energy data onto their Facebook Wall: daily, weekly, or monthly.  These "Energy Performance Updates" include energy equivalents to make their data more intuitive, for example equating solar energy created to miles driven in a car or tons of carbon dioxide emissions avoided.

"As a business owner, this makes my solar energy system many times more valuable than before," said Alex Winch, owner of Toronto's Beach Solar Laundromat. "Now we can broadcast our commitment to solar energy to our community in a clear, understandable way. I think this is going to translate to a lot of new customers for us. "

By placing manufacturer branding alongside the solar production data, SunReports now offers the only enduring visibility for manufacturers and installers in the entire solar value chain and creates an opportunity for automatic referrals via the social network of the customer.

"As a manufacturer, we are concerned that our branding is lost once the installation is completed and the panels are on the roof," said Rick Reed, President and CEO of SunEarth.  "Now our brand endures in the eyes of our customers, and more importantly, in the eyes of their friends!"

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/sunreports or email [email protected].

About SunReports

SunReports, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, is a privately held performance monitoring service provider for renewable energy installations in the residential and small business/commercial markets. Through SunReports' cost-effective, "zero-configuration required" solar monitoring hardware devices, the Apollo1 and Apollo2, installers and system owners can monitor and verify system performance of solar electric (PV), solar thermal (hot water and pool heating) and small wind installations. SunReports' web-based data collection, data analysis and graphical user interface software provides current, historical and predicted system performance information, including a unique installer portal that provides an at-a-glance performance overview of an entire installed base. SunReports' products are made in the USA and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) compliant. For more information, please visit: http://www.sunreports.com.

SOURCE SunReports