What does SolarCity have to say about EE?

Intereted in how SolarCity is thinking about Energy Efficiency?  Well, thanks to their S-1 Filing on Friday in advance of thier IPO (Congrats!  we need liquidity in CleanTech!), I have put together some of their key statements on the topic (there are 116 mentions if EE in the doc total).

Strategy:
Our long-term energy contracts serve as a gateway for us to engage our residential customers in performing energy efficiency evaluations and energy efficiency upgrades. During an energy efficiency evaluation, our proprietary software enables us to capture, catalog and analyze all of the energy loads in a home to identify the most valuable and actionable solutions to lower energy costs. We then offer to perform the appropriate upgrades to improve the home’s energy efficiency. We also offer energy-related products such as electric vehicle charging stations and proprietary advanced monitoring software, and we are expanding our product portfolio to include additional products such as on-site battery storage solutions. Approximately 21% of our new residential solar energy system customers in 2011 purchased additional energy products or services from us, and as our customers’ energy needs evolve over time, we believe we are well-positioned to be their provider of choice.

We also plan to expand our energy efficiency business to our commercial customers.

Energy Efficiency Products and Services:
Our energy efficiency products and services enable our customers to save money on their energy bills by reducing their energy consumption. To date, we have completed over 11,000 home energy evaluations and performed more than 1,700 energy efficiency upgrades.

Home Energy Evaluation:   
Our home energy evaluation is the threshold to the broad set of energy efficiency products and services we offer. We sell home energy efficiency evaluations to new solar energy system customers, existing customers, prospective solar energy system customers who are unable to adopt solar energy because of site conditions or credit, and to customers who want to start with energy efficiency improvements. Using our proprietary software, our home energy evaluation consists of a detailed in-home diagnosis that identifies energy use and loss. During the evaluation, we record details of the home’s construction and energy use, measurements of every major building surface, model numbers of appliances and other energy consuming equipment, and measure combustion efficiency and air leakage in the ducts and building envelope. We create a database of this information and review a report of the results with the customer outlining current and future opportunities to improve energy efficiency and home comfort. We then offer to perform these upgrades.

Energy Efficiency Upgrades:    
Based on the detailed analysis from the home energy evaluation, we work with customers to identify their priorities to improve the cost effectiveness, efficiency, health and comfort of their home by implementing appropriate upgrades. We generally handle every aspect of an energy efficiency improvement project for our customers including sales, engineering, permitting, procurement, installation, inspections and any supporting rebate or utility documentation. Our core energy efficiency upgrade products and services address heating and cooling, air sealing, duct sealing, water heating, insulation, high efficiency furnaces, weatherization, pool pumps and lighting.

Revenue:
We recognize revenue attributable to energy efficiency products and services when we complete the services, provided all other revenue recognition criteria are met. Typically, energy efficiency services take one to two months to complete. Energy efficiency products and services are sold on a stand-alone basis or bundled with the sale of solar energy systems or lease or power purchase agreements. When we bundle the sale of energy efficiency products and services with the sale of solar energy systems or lease or power purchase agreements, we allocate revenue to the energy efficiency products and services and the sale, lease or power purchase agreements using the relative selling price method provided by ASU 2009-13. The selling price of the energy efficiency products and services used in the allocation is determined by reference to the prices we charge for the products and services on a stand-alone basis. To date, the revenue generated from energy efficiency products and services has not been material and has been included as a component of solar energy systems sales revenue in the consolidated financial statements.

Revenue from sale of solar energy systems increased by approximately $40.6 million, or 363%, for the six months ended June 30, 2012 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2011. This increase was primarily due to a $14.7 million increase in large commercial solar energy system sales, a $14.8 million increase in revenue from long-term contracts and a $3.9 million sale to a specific customer during the six months ended June 30, 2012. In addition, revenue from the sale of energy efficiency products and services increased by $2.6 million during this period. 

Risks:
We may not be successful in leveraging our customer base to grow our business through sales of other energy products and services.

To date, we have derived substantially all of our revenue and cash receipts from the sale of solar energy systems and the sale of energy under our long-term customer agreements. We launched our energy efficiency line of products and services in mid-2010, and revenue attributable to this line of business has not been material compared to revenue attributable to our solar energy systems. Customer demand for these offerings may be more limited than we anticipate. In addition, several of our other energy products and services, including our battery storage solutions, are in the early stages of testing and development. We may not be successful in completing development of these products as a result of research and development difficulties, technical issues, availability of third-party products or other reasons. Even if we are able to offer these or other additional products and services, we may not successfully generate meaningful customer demand to make these offerings viable. If we fail to deliver these additional products and services, if the costs associated with bringing these additional products and services to market is greater than we anticipate, or if customer demand for these offerings is smaller than we anticipate, our growth will be limited.