Small Businesses, Once Off-Limits to Solar, Get SolarCity Greenlight

"The company, backed by Elon Musk, think it's figured out how to break open a $10-billion-a-year market."

"The sun could soon shine on small business.  

For all of the solar industry’s explosive growth in the past six years – expanding faster than each fossil fuel last year, for example, thanks to cheap prices and government incentives – what may be the most lucrative market in the U.S. has also remained the most elusive.

That may soon change.

On Tuesday, the country's largest solar installer of 2014, California-based SolarCity, declared it had figured out how to install solar panels atop small and medium businesses while also turning a profit – potentially opening a market estimated to be worth at least $10 billion a year. "

Alan Neuhauser reports for U.S. News & World Report July 28, 2015.