Latest player in solar energy enlists Ed Begley Jr., Morgan Freeman and Amway in the cause. Overdone pitch smacks of a scam.

We recently hired on with a new eco-energy customer targeting the green market. And we are certainly all in a lather over doing our bit to cool the planet. So it was with some surprise that they indicated one of their biggest concerns was not the adoption cycle, but rather the tendency of the alternative power industry to attract scam merchants.

The latest entrant into the market, Citizenrē  (Citizenry — geddit?) has poured a bunch of cash into what looks to Wired (and MortarMark) like another multilevel marketing scam.

"Energy startup The Citizenrē Corporation’s haikulike Google ad says
it all. "Solar for free," it headlines. "No initial investment needed.
Just monthly payments for power."

Instead of making you spring for $25,000 or more in gear, Citizenrē
says it will loan you a complete rooftop solar power system, install it
for free and sell you back the power it generates at a fixed rate below
what your utility charges. The company hopes to make back its
investment with those monthly payments, augmented by federal tax
credits and rebates….

"Indeed, Citizenrē’s offer is generating a furor in renewable energy
circles, fueled by the company’s own secrecy and an unusual business
plan that combines serious technological expertise with an exuberant
multilevel marketing campaign in the style of Amway, Mary Kay and
Tupperware." See Wired for the rest of the story.

Left: If you really want to be part of the solution you need to get a hat like Citizenre’s sales chief Rob Styler. I don’t know why, but it screams green. Odd that, isn’t it?

But what really caught my eye was the long video on Citizenrē’s website. Produced with liberal amounts of low-cost licensed imagery, and narrated by the soothing baritone of Morgan Freeman the homepage features a personal plea by Hollywood ecopreneur Ed Begley Jr. Looking oddly unsavory and  less-than salubrious in an interview from what must be his Beverly Hills couch, Ed’s pitch is strangely over done and sounds more like the kind of thing you’d find on late-night TV sandwiched between endless reruns of Head On and that annoying 18-year old Hawaii real estate tycoon.

Some of Ed’s gem’s:

"Citizenre provides a 25 year guarantee,. That’s right, a 25 year guarantee".
"I mean who wouldn’t do this. It just makes sense".
"Imagine you helping friends save on their energy costs".
"Signing up is fast, easy, and does not obligate you to anything".

Bear in mind that the solar panel industry is struggling with soaring demand and sky high production costs (due to expensive materials fees).

The net effect is an offer that just sounds "too good to be true".

But like any offer of that ilk, Citizenrē’s pitch is nevertheless compelling. We hope they are for real (700 people haves signed up already).