For Geostellar, which built a virtual marketplace from satellite imagery and big data, it offers a new route to attracting customers, which is still one of the more stubbornly high costs of operating a solar business.

Other solar companies have established corporate partnerships to funnel new customers to them. SolarCity, for instance, recently announced that it was renewing a deal with Honda that provides its systems to the automaker’s customers at a discount.

“It’s over 100,000 people who are all prequalified because they have good jobs,” said David Levine, chief of Geostellar. “They’re going to pass the credit.”

For the companies, the arrangement offers a way to attract and retain a work force that is increasingly attuned to the environment and to the steps employers take to preserve it. It is a natural extension of current sustainability efforts, executives of the companies said, whether cutting carbon emissions by installing solar panels at their facilities, offering preferential parking and charging stations for electric vehicles, or introducing Meatless Mondays at the cafeteria.

“I get the emails: ‘Why aren’t we recycling this?’ or ‘Why don’t we have 45,000 more electric-vehicle charging stations?’ ” said Ali Ahmed, who manages energy and sustainability at Cisco. “So we had a really good feeling that our employees would engage and latch onto this kind of discount.”

That interest is already evident, the companies said. Three Cisco executives have already decided to install solar systems in their homes through Geostellar, Mr. Levine said. At 3M, employees lined up at a kiosk at lunchtime to learn more about the program, said Gayle Schueller, vice president for global sustainability at the company.

Pricing and savings will vary, depending on factors like the pitch of a roof and the levels of sunlight. But the average base cost of a system will be $3 a watt of the system’s capacity — roughly 17 percent lower than Geostellar’s regular price and almost 34 percent lower than the average cost in the United States last year of $4.53, according to the federal government.