Real Goods Solar to give away full solar installation

Company offering solar installation sweepstakes worth $25,000There are a lot of good ways to reduce the cost of a solar installation, but the best way may be to win it.

Real Goods Solar is in the throws of its second-annual solar sweepstakes. The company is offering up a free 4-kilowatt residential solar installation worth up to $25,000.

“You can get a free anything, but no one was giving away free solar,” said Joel Kaufman, Real Goods vice president of marketing. “We decided to do it.”

The company awarded its free solar installation to a California couple last year.

2010 sweepstakes winners Juan and Virginia Vasquez of Rialto, Calif., installed a 4.1-kilowatt solar electric system expected to generate 5,804 kilowatt hours of electricity annually and offset approximately 75 percent of the family's electricity bill.

Real Goods’ sweepstakes is offered in California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont.

“They’ve all been quite equally busy,’ Kaufman said of the geographic areas.

He said people from all of the states where Real Goods operates have been entering to win.

The sweepstakes didn’t include those northeastern states last year. They were added this year as Real Goods prepares to merge with Alteris Renewables.

The company launched the giveaway on the Fourth of July and has had a good response despite a lack of advertising.

“It’s mostly word of mouth and just people looking for solar who find it on our web site,” Kaufman said. “It’s hard to spend a lot of money marketing something you’re going to give away for free.”

Merging with Alteris has also given the company a little extra oomph for its giveaway this year, Kaufman said. With extra backing and new territories, this year’s contest promises to be even more exciting than last year’s, Kaufman said.

He said the event didn’t seem to drive a lot of people to make solar purchases with Real Goods last year, but it did get people thinking about it and talking about it.

“It created an awareness,” Kaufman said. “And that’s what we wanted. Our mission really, what we want, is to get the whole world to go solar.”

The last day to enter the sweepstakes is Sept. 30.

Editor's note: Last week we reported that the company is offering a 4-megawatt system, which was incorrect. The company is offering a 4-kilowatt system in the sweepstakes.