SunRun has partnered with Southern California’s Sierra Club chapter to increase the number of homes with solar installations there. The organizations launched the collaborative effort last week.

It’s the second such recent partnership a local Sierra Club has made. Last week the Oregon chapter of the Sierra Club partnered with RS Energy to offer discounts on solar arrays to homeowners. That company will also give money to the Sierra Club for those members that choose to go solar with a SunRun system.

“We will give a thousand dollars for every Southern California Sierra Club member that goes solar with SunRun,” said spokesperson Susan Wise.

SunRun will also give the environmental advocacy organization $50 for each homeowner member that has his or her home evaluated for solar by a SunRun installer.

The homeowners themselves won’t receive any additional discount on a system, Wise said. “But by going solar with SunRun, they pay so little up front it’s financially worth it for them.”

“This is a high priority for the Sierra Club. In order to end our dependence on dirty energy, we need as many homes as possible to switch to rooftop solar, and by making solar easy and affordable, SunRun is helping end our dependence on dirty, polluting energy like coal,” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a press release. “Every home that goes solar gets us one step closer to our goal of a clean energy economy.”

The company’s president, Lynn Jurich, is a member of the Sierra Club Foundation, according to Wise.

“I think it was a mutual thing that came about. We have a nice working relationship with them,” she said. “I think this sort of came out of that.”

“The greatest challenge with home solar right now is not enough families realize it’s affordable,” Jurich said. “The Sierra Club is helping us get the word out, and we get to help their members have a relationship with electricity they never thought was possible.”

At this point the arrangement is only available to Southern California members, Wise said.

“We’re really just focused right now on this program and making it successful and making sure all of the components [work properly],” she said.

Although they aren’t prepared to roll the partnership out nationwide at this point, there could be such an opportunity in the future, according to Wise. But first, SunRun will have to evaluate the project’s successes. After that, the company may choose to expand the program.

“There’s always the possibility of extending a good ideas and successful programs,” she said, which is part of the company’s program development strategy.

Image courtesy of SunRun.