A year after PayPal founder Elon Musk poured $10 million into the Foster City-based startup, SolarCity said Monday it has raised an additional $21 million. This time Draper Fisher Jurvetson led the round, joined by JP Morgan and Mr. Musk, who is also chairman of Tesla Motors.
SolarCity's approach is to try to persuade neighborhoods to go solar, in return for lower prices to residents. The company claims responsibility for tripling adoption of solar energy systems in Mountain View through such programs.
DFJ, also a backer of solar system finance startup, San Mateo's Tioga Energy, seems to be banking on anticipated pickup in the market for solar services (installing, operating, and financing solar energy systems).
Now that Chinese solar companies have hit the big-time, making conventional panels cheaper and more abundant, the hard part is getting them up on rooftops and making it easy for convenience-loving Americans.