Geostellar is a solar energy marketplace and patented online technology platform. It instantly & interactively tailors solutions for equipment, financing and installation to meet the needs of individual homeowners.
By separating distribution from supply, it seeks to create an efficient marketplace that can provide low prices to the customer, high commissions to distributors, steady volume to suppliers, and healthy margins to the company and its investors.
Its patented platform produces high-resolution solar profiles for over 70 million properties across the U.S. It supports complex queries across every rooftop, field and lot in the United States.
As a consumer, just enter your home address on its website, and it will instantly show you how much you could save by "going solar," with no out of pocket expense.
To provide you with this estimate, it uses lasers and airplane data to make a 3D computer model of your neighborhood. It then uses the model to calculate the movement of the sun, your roof angle, and shadows over the course of the year. Basically, it figures out how much energy you'll get from the sun, and how much energy solar panels could generate.
Geostellar's platform then applies the solar potential to model potential savings on electricity bills based on energy usage, utility rates, available incentives, installation costs, solar panel capacity and financing options.
It then tailors a unique solar solution to meet your energy and financing needs -- a solution that, as it says, can increase your home value.
Once you've signed on, it will dispatch a qualified professional to verify the solar design, secure the necessary permits, and install the solar panels.
Geostellar pioneered this "big-data geomatics" approach to make solar energy accessible, affordable and plentiful. The company is the recipient of numerous awards, including selection as an IHS Energy Innovation Pioneer, the Global Cleantech100, the Global Cleantech Cluster Association's Best of Solar and the AlwaysOn GoingGreen Global 200.
* The State of Solar Energy *
Over the last 20 years, the solar energy market has grown at a rate of 30% CAGR.
Solar is still only 1% of the $2 trillion electricity market. Over the next 20 years, however, the electricity market is expected to double and solar will increase by a factor of 10.
Over this period, solar energy will generate $5 trillion in cumulative revenue.
As of today, only 780,000 of the 90 million U.S. homes have gone solar. This is less than 1% residential market penetration. In 2015, solar energy represented 40% of all new electric generating capacity in the US, more than any other energy technology.
The total US solar energy market (residential, commercial and utility scale) was $18 billion in 2015.
The point at which solar energy drops below conventional electricity is known as "grid parity," which has been achieved in much of the country. The average cost of residential retail electricity in the U.S. is over $0.12/kWh, while the average cost of solar energy is less than $0.08/kWh.
Over time, as solar panels become less expensive and more efficient, the company believes that solar energy will increase in popularity. Solar costs have dropped 70% since 2009. At the same time, grid electricity costs increase by 50% every decade.
* The Solar Energy Competitive Landscape *
Geostellar is a "virtually integrated" solar energy provider, providing the company with what it believes are significant cost advantages over "vertically integrated" providers such as SolarCity, SunRun and Vivint.
It believes it has lower fixed costs, customer acquisition costs and project costs than integrated installers.
Geostellar has no warehousing or equipment inventory. All project labor is contracted through locally licensed installers. Equipment is shipped from the distributor to the contractor at the time of installation. Financing is provided by third parties. Customer acquisition is accomplished by channel partners leveraging Geostellar's patented technology.
It believes that integrated installers tend to have large workforces, significant equipment inventory, logistical challenges and complex financing and risk management programs that add up to high fixed costs. Customer Acquisition Cost is also high with massive canvassing, direct marketing and telesales programs.
It also believes that it offers a better value to the customer than integrated installers. It believes, for example, that Geostellar's installations cost less than those of integrated installers. Because electricity is a commodity, a lower price per kWh of electricity produced is a more compelling offer.
It further believes that it has higher profit margins than vertically integrated installers.
Even at lower prices, it believes its profit margins are higher than those of integrated installers.
Because the vertically integrated installers have higher installed costs and more expensive financing, it believes they can only compete with utility rates above $0.14/kWh or with significant regional incentives. It believes that this leaves under half the states in the country for the integrated installers. Geostellar can compete successfully in states with utility rates as low as $0.08/kWh, providing a much broader market.
(Note that market sizing estimates are from Deutsche Bank, with additional market information by Solar Energy Industry Associates. Additional discussion around solar economics and adoption provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration).
Since 2013, the company's CAGR is 210%. Its 2015 revenue were $5,486,000.
Fortune 500 companies such as 3M, Cisco, and J&J already use the company for their exclusive solar employee benefits programs.