The company originated with the advocacy group Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG), which in September 2010 started a program to install solar power and hot water systems for homeowners. To meet the demand for clean energy, a new entity was needed that could take in outside capital and scale up, so Duane and James launched SunCommon. SunCommon was officially launched in March 2012 after finding funding via private investment; when it began operations, it had 16 employees and annual revenue of about $2 million. SunCommon installed its 1,000th residential solar system in December 2014, and by late 2016 had reached 2,000 installations, with a workforce of about 100. Its 2015 revenue was about $22 million.
