On Earth Day, SunPower co-founder Tom Dinwoodie unveiled a personal energy concierge startup — for those who want to unplug from dirty business as usual with the experienced help of a live human.
“in most parts of the country, people can get entirely free of fossil fuels – coal, gas, and oil – and save money in the process,” the Berkeley-based CEO explained in a press release for his free service, Domino. “Modern consumers want to vote with their pocketbooks. Domino will make it possible for everyone to know their options and to make that change.”
With an overall mission to get a billion people to go green, Domino launched its service in partnership with like-minded greens like UC Berkeley, Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund and the Rocky Mountain Institute, whose analytics serve as its backbone. Dinwoodie’s new venture offers live chat sessions with independent concierges who customize green solutions for their callers’ various lifestyles, compare free quotes from contractors, recommend financing like rebates and incentives, and then help push everything forward.
They are reportedly paid no commission to offer these deals, especially for cash-sensitive big-ticket renewable energy items like solar panels and batteries, hybrid and electric cars, and cooling and heating systems. Domino executives promise that concierges won’t push sales that don’t make any sense; its revenue “comes from referral fees paid by vendors,” which cost them “less than acquiring customers in traditional ways,” according to the press release. One expects that the personal concierge service’s high-profile partners wouldn’t sign on for anything less. But until the performance reviews arrive, Domino’s energy concierge service sounds like another promising avenue for homeowners and others transitioning to our renewable energy new normal.
It already has an informative blog up and running, offering advice and explainers on topics as diverse as clean energy tax breaks, California’s megadrought, heat pumps and electric cars. With Dinwoodie’s good name in the balance and RMI’s impressive analytics, Domino’s human touch could help ring up the big changes we need to beat back the mounting ravages of global warming. Fingers crossed.
This article appeared at Solar Energy