The green, festively painted trucks roll out of SolarCity’s Santa Ana warehouse one behind another every weekday morning, carrying racks of solar panels, installation gear and solar workers — many of them new hires, a wonder in a region reeling from recession.

Workers at SolarCity in Santa Ana load a truck for installation work.

Employment also is up at SunRun, which helped local partners add 100 solar jobs in 2009 in the Los Angeles-Orange County area and says it expects to add 200-300 more this year.

The companies appear to be riding a wave of good fortune for the solar-power industry. Incentive programs backed both by the state and federal government, a rise in consumer interest and a drop in costs seem to be converging to keep solar installers busy bolting panels to rooftops across the country.

“We’re having to expand local warehouses,” said SolarCity founder and chief executive officer Lyndon Rive on a recent visit to Santa Ana. The Foster City-based company hired 200 people in 2009.

Demand for residential solar installation is rising, Rive said.

“We expect to double this year,” he said. “It looks like the commercial business is going to quadruple.”

The story is much the same at SunRun, a San Francisco-based company that partners with local installers.

President and co-founder Lynn Jurich said a year ago the company was arranging 10 to 15 installations a month in the Los Angeles and Orange County markets.

“Now we’re at 100,” she said. “The growth is about five times this year vs. last year.”

Recent studies seem to reinforce the point, showing increases in green jobs, especially solar, throughout the state from 1995 to 2008. The Solar Energy Industries Assocation also says that nationwide, photovoltaic solar power, which includes residential and commercial solar panel installation, grew by 40 percent in 2009 and added 18,000 jobs; more growth and another 20,000 jobs are expected in 2010, said spokeswoman Monique Hanis.

Both companies lease solar power systems to residential customers, and SolarCity also offers a similar program to businesses.

The leasing program explains part of the increase in business, Rive and Jurich say, making systems that might otherwise cost $20,000 to $30,000 affordable. Consumers also don’t have to assume the risks they would buying their own systems, Jurich said.

Incentive programs bring costs down further, with rebates offered by Southern California Edison and other utility companies, as well as state and federal incentives.

The cost of solar technology also has been going down, dropping about 20 percent last year.

But Jurich and Rive say the price drops won’t last forever. Prices will level off, and rebate levels are tied to solar-power usage: as more people turn to solar, the rebates shrink.

“The incentives are there to incentivize early adopters,” Rive said — and, sounding like a good salesman, he urges consumers to act. “If you’re thinking about going solar, you better do it now.”

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