HelioPower launched its Helping for the Holidays campaign Dec. 6 with the aim of making it affordable to go solar and to give back.

The company is offering a  $500 cash rebate on Canadian Solar panels and free installation to every California customer that buys an array this holiday season. HelioPower will also donate to nonprofit group Power to the People’s new Solar Lighting Program for every system it sells in California.

On top of all that, the first 10 or so customers to take advantage of the Helping for the Holidays campaign will get a $150 gift card.

“We picked $150 because it’s the size of the average electric bill,” said HelioPower spokeswoman Glenna Wiseman. “It’s kind of a symbolic amount.”

The idea is to give homeowners a chance to buy holiday gifts instead of paying their electric bill.

The savings for homeowners with free solar system installation and the $500 rebate are significant and might come at the best possible time of year for some.

“There’s what I’ve heard called the Santa electric bill,” Wiseman said. “People are running their Christmas lights. They get that bill, and it puts electricity on their minds.”

On top of that, December is a big month for finding Federal tax credits. And solar is a guaranteed tax credit of up to 30 percent of the total cost of the system this year.

HelioPower’s major financial incentives are designed to make the decision a little easier.

“The whole idea is to help for the holidays,” Wiseman said.

And that idea stretches beyond California. HelioPower has teamed with Power to the People, a non-profit dedicated to bringing clean sources of light and heat to developing nations.

The organization is focusing on taking solar lighting solutions to Nicaragua in its new Solar Lighting Program that HelioPower will be helping with donations.

Wiseman said she met the executive director of Power to the People, Janean Smith, at Solar Power International in Dallas, Texas, earlier this year and was impressed with her program.

While HelioPower had a holiday campaign in 2010, this is the first time the company has partnered with Power to the People.