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First there was its offer to install free panels on the White House. (Lease payments were available if Barack felt uncomfortable with the gift.).

Now solar installer Sungevity is turning its sights on Hollywood stars. It’s plot? To promote a solar-lease initiative that is becoming the central thrust of its business.

Solar cell customers need the financing, says Sunvegity CEO Danny Kennedy.

SolarCity pioneered the residential solar lease two years ago. Sungevity is finding it is more popular among cash-strapped homeowners than purchasing panels outright. “They need to have it financed,” says President and co-founder Danny Kennedy.

Sungevity kicked off its leasing program in March with $24 million in financing from U.S. Bancorp. Two and a half months later, the initiative is taking off faster than expected. Since March, 210 systems have been leased – 80 percent of Sungevity’s business, says Kennedy. “We didn’t think we’d be at this level yet,” he says.

Several more systems will be added, if Kennedy gets his way. To promote its push into Southern California, Sungevity calculated the lease payments and energy savings at a handful of celebrity homes. The Blind Side star Sandra Bullock would cut her monthly electricity bill 36 percent, or $131, in exchange for a lease payment of $97. Pop singer Madonna is a bigger winner. Her monthly savings come to $260 for a lease payment of $164. Sungevity stresses the estimates are just that – estimates – and that actually quotes could vary.

On a more serious note, the company added a new weapon to its Southern California arsenal: a 20-year solar lease for the 3.8 million customers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Sungevity offers 10-year leases elsewhere in the state. But for LADWP customers to take full advantage of government solar rebates, they need the longer repayment periods, Kennedy says.

With a hint of consolidation coming to the solar installation business, Kennedy says he is not being thrown off his game plan. SolarCity’s acquisition of Building Solutions, makes sense, he says. But he doesn’t think mergers between home-energy modelers and solar installers are necessary.

As the business of solar installation matures, it naturally will link more closely to the broader home energy-efficiency market. But there are lots of opportunities to partner, he says. “There are different ways to skin a cat.”