Sungevity’s “The Killa Watts” Win Solar Battle of the Bands

The fourth annual Solar Battle of the Bands, a solar industry party and musical competition presented this year by founder Quick Mount PV and new presenter, S-5!, took place Wednesday, July 9, during the 2014 Intersolar North America trade show. Attended by an enthusiastic crowd of 1200, the after-hours event at the Mezzanine featured bands formed entirely of employees from solar companies. Attendees of the event voted for their favorite band at the end of the night.

Photo credit to Todd Coleman.

The evening kicked off with what is now an SBOB tradition — Christie McCarthy singing her original solar anthem “Rise And Shine.” The Quick Mount PV house band “Northerner and the Rafters” also followed with an original song, “Reasons.”

Competing in the battle were bands from five solar companies from around the US, and our first International band, from French company, Exosun. Other companies were RGS Energy, Inovateus Solar, SolarCity, and last year’s winner, Sungevity.

At the end of the evening Sungevity’s band “The Killa Watts” prevailed as the winner for the second year in a row. Their funky set included a rousing rendition of lesser-known R&B song, “Leave my Kitten Alone” by Little Willie John. Other highlights of the night included Exosun’s  “Je veux du soleil” by Au P’tit Bonheur, a fun, French number to kick-off the battle. RGS Energy took the stage next featuring an awesome guitar solo during their version of “Magic Carpet Ride” by Steppenwolf. Next up was SolarCity with an energetic and beautifully sung rendition of Amy Winehouse song, “Valerie”, and Inovateus Solar came through with their promise to write and perform an original song for the battle (the first original song by any competing band) entitled, “New Paradise”, written about the solar industry.

Solar Battle of the Bands was made possible by generous support from company sponsors Inovateus Solar, Wiley, AEE Solar, Renesola, Mounting Systems Inc. and S:FLEX, with media/nonprofit sponsors SolarPro, Solar Power World, Intersolar North America, and NABCEP.

— Solar Builder magazine

[source: http://solarbuildermag.com/news/sungevitys-killa-watts-win-solar-battle-bands/]