Stephen Lacey,
Renewable Energy AccessHow an emerging company has created a storm of controversy in the world of solar energy.----The war of words has intensified in recent days over Citizenre, the new multi-level marketing business that promises to "revolutionize" the way Americans purchase their energy.Skeptics say that Citizenre executives cannot possibly live up to many of their ambitious claims and will hurt the solar industry if consumers are deceived by false company promotions.According to Citizenre CEO David Gregg, the company plans to bring 100 megawatts (MW) of PV manufacturing capacity online by September of this year; however groundbreaking for the plant has not yet occurred. In addition, investors have not been identified, which has some wondering if the company has any money at all. Some have gone so far as to call the company a "scam."But executives and company supporters are encouraging the public to be patient. "This is a long term proposition for both the customer and associate and if they are willing to participate without any financial burden...then we are more than happy to deliver to them," said Citizenre's Gregg in an interview on RenewableEnergyAccess.com's Inside Renewable Energy podcast.The company plans to rent PV arrays to customers over a 25-year period, with the customer paying for the clean energy generated by the system at a price per kilowatt-hour (Kwh) that is less or equal to their present utility bill. There is also a $500 security deposit that will be given back to the customer when the contract expires.At last count, there were over 6,500 customers. But that does not mean that customers have signed contracts, it simply means they have expressed interest and provided some personal information. It appears that no money has yet changed hands.(15 Feb 2007)
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