SolarCity lands big Wal-Mart contract (San Francisco)

SolarCity landed its largest commercial solar contract – to install solar on 20 to 30 Wal-Mart stores in California and Arizona.

Foster City-based SolarCity will design, install, own and maintain the new solar systems which will use thin film solar panels. Thin film panels are less efficient than traditional photovoltaic panels, but also much cheaper.

SolarCity is one of the fastest growing businesses in the Bay Area. The company pioneered the Solar Lease, which allows residential customers to get solar installed for little to no money down. The company, started in 2006, has grown to 715 employees.

Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity, said the company, whose "bread and butter" is still the residential solar business, is uniquely positioned for these types of commercial solar rooftop installations because it has a large workforce that it can mobilize to work on large commercial projects, but still has residential work for it's employees when its between large commercial projects.

"If we were a commercial-only company, it’d be tough to weather the ups and downs," Rive said.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) already has solar on 31 stores in California and Hawaii.

The installations are expected to produce 20 to 30 percent of each store’s needed electricity and about 22.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. That’s enough to power about 1,750 homes. SolarCity said it will install thin film panels produced by Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar and Santa Clara-based MiaSole.

Read more in the San Francisco Business Times.