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Yeloha — Airbnb for solar power
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Thanks @benln - Yeloha originated from great personal frustration.. we realized that most of our team can't go solar because we don't own a sunny roof. Then we figured out that's also true for 92% of the population...
I own my home, but when I signed up, it said I need to be a homeowner. Did I get that as an error because I'm in an area you're not currently servicing?
@bradenhamm I'm sorry if the message was ambiguous. You can be a Sun Partner. As to becoming a Sun Host, you may be out of our current coverage area, our team will follow up with you to clarify.
Looks and sounds great! When are you coming to Canada? Would love to solarize my Airbnb mansion :)
@ispekhov thanks! Canada is definitely in our plans for the future. Ontario is already quite big on solar! One of the unintuitive characteristics of solar tech is that solar panel perform better at low temperatures. Good energies on those long bright cold days you often get in Canada.
@amitrosner Could you offer your service in Quebec since the electricity business is controlled by the government?
Thanks Ben.
Hey Product Hunters,
This is Amit, I'm a co-founder and CEO at Yeloha.
We started Yeloha so that you and I and practically everyone could switch to solar energy. Just like that. Online and effortlessly. Even without panels on your roof.
Energy is all around us. There's more of it than humanity will ever need - thanks to the sun.
And yet - - most of us can't capture it, and have to do with fossil fuels that are expensive and polluting.
It's all about helping each other achieve together what we usually can't do alone. By sharing it.
Yeloha, our peer-to-peer Solar Sharing Network was born to make solar accessible to "the rest of us" – the people that do not own a solar-suitable roof, renters and apartment dwellers, by sharing solar with those who own a sunny roof.
We tried to make it as easy as possible. Visit Yeloha. Subscribe to solar power from a solar panel on someone else's roof. Get it for 1 year or for a life time of clean energy.
Take a look, tell us what you think.
Amit
Hey @simooncave - that energy has been flowing for about 4.6 billion years now (but who's counting)... doing our best to remove the obstacles so we can all take a sip
@amitrosner dude! As someone who was previously helping a solar company build an online product I love this!
@husseinyahfoufi thanks a lot! there's so much offline in this industry to digitize... no wonder the soft cost weighs more than the hardware!
@amitrosner - Just signed up. Still not clear on the mechanics of living in Denver but being able to tap into the panels of a home in MA. Am I subsidizing the cost to build panels on a host home and in return guaranteed the $15/panel discount off my monthly bill? Or is the Utility company giving me the credit as a result of this subsidy?
@justinsdarcy thanks for becoming a Sun Partner on Yeloha - that's awesome!
When you subscribed to solar power from those solar panels you essentially sponsored part of the cost and enabled us to generate and feed solar to the grid. The value of that energy is then shared with you through your utility. You'll find it in your electric bill.
@amitrosner Thanks for the response. Would love to be a host when you open up Denver. South facing, flat roof and 300 days of sunshine!
Really great idea @amitrosner. Theoretically if someone owns unused farmland, could they motetize that land by having you come in and installing a farm of panels?
@nemrow thanks. yes, that's possible. We prefer covering roofs since they are just sitting there uselessly baking in the sun.
@ronch thanks! we launched in the US. should eventually be wherever the sun shines ;-)
This is something the world really wanted. Really! Brilliant idea Amit! 👍Just curious. How're you planning to scale up?
@imkarthikk thanks a lot! so far Word of Mouth has been terrific both by Sun Hosts (who get the panels for free in exchange for sharing) and Sun Partners (who subscribe to solar on someone else's roof). There's more to come in terms of scaling... stay tuned ;-)
@amitrosner That's brilliant. You're doing a great job! Hope this goes big steadily and spreads across the world! 😊
Love it! The only problem I see is solar systems becoming cheaper and cheaper to the point people would rather just buy from solar company who doesn't resell the energy.
But hey it's free and folks love free stuff.
Good luck!
@danr_4 that's a great problem to have :) the day everyone has solar on their roof is the day we all won, sharing or not.
Until that day comes we'll be here to solarize the lives of more people, starting with those who couldn't have otherwise done it - either for lack of a suitable roof or budget.
@amitrosner Couldn't agree more. I hope you'll stand by what you say when push comes to shove and that your company won't lobby against decision that could benefit greater good but hurt the business.
A lot of people don't want to install solar on their roofs for the aesthetics as well. Would love to see if this picks up, especially here in Boston! Good luck Amit.
@kunalslab right, we've encountered people who dislike the aesthetics and others who live in historic houses with roofs that can't be altered. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally, the more I dive into this the more I appreciate the looks of the Crystalline Silicon the panels are made of and what it stands for. Aesthetic trends can change over time too - people in Southern California don't look at green lawns the same way.
@or_ron thanks! for the Sun Hosts who get the panels on their own roof, the installation itself is the fastest step: it takes 1-3 days depending on the size of the roof. The permitting process varies by municipality and utility, can take weeks. For the Sun Partners, who subscribe to solar from a remote Sun Host's roof, the installation and permitting are transparent - their experience begins and ends online.
This is really great idea. Currently most effective stopping factor against solar energy is the cost of hardware. You solve this by giving it for free (for host).
I wonder, about profitability, who is behind those not cheap solar hardware?
@gedrovits thanks so much! you're right, the cost of the hardware used to be a real show stopper. In the early days of solar, the industry was led by German and Japanese panel manufacturers, which produced premium panels for a tiny market. In the last five years demand for solar spiked and panel prices have dropped by a whopping 80% (!!) due to a combination of the industry's learning curve and mainly due to the entrance of new players from China that gradually replaced the incumbents.
@amitrosner I know I'm a few days late after spending the weekend in the too-hot north, but wow, this is amazing! Awesome job, keep it up :)
Looks really interesting, but I'm not sure I fully understand. Is this more of a eco concious thing, or can I invest my money and see a return on my investment outside of an electricity bill?
@alexg473 thanks. Some of our Sun Partners do it for the savings, others for the environment, and most of them because they finally have the opportunity to do the right thing without much effort. At this time we don't support investing for profit beyond canceling your electric bill.
@alexg473 BTW, the Boston Herald just published this today - see what the Sun Partner and Sun Host say about their motivations: http://www.bostonherald.com/busi...
First company to make that logo famous wins! Reference ello.co and soawkward app for iOS.
@amitrosner Do you have any case studies or example customer stories you can share? How much money they saved?
@alancassinelli it's all pretty fresh, just recently launched, please keep in touch, we'd love to update once we have substantial data.
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