The 2015 Top 500 Solar Contractors issue featured comments from solar executives on a variety of topics. Below are responses provided by Top Contractors on issues of government influence. To read the whole issue, including all Top Contractor Q&A’s, click here.
Does the Florida solar rebate help or hinder the solar market?
The bounty is plentiful for those lucky enough to win the rebate lottery for their customers, but the work is generally completed within a few months and then the phone stops ringing. Now that the rebate is over, the survivors will be those who invested in the future without a rebate. All in all, the rebate falls into the category of easy-come-easy-go. Contractors who did not bank over the past five years are likely to not make it through the next couple of years with low electrical rates, no leasing options and very few people willing to accept decade-long payback periods. This spells a mostly cloudy forecasts for the Florida solar industry.
– Ray Johnson, president, Florida Solar One (No. 345 Overall)
Will new community solar bills expand solar interest in Maryland?
We do not think new community solar will expand solar interest this year because the bill just recently passed (in May 2015), and there is no current method to implement community solar in Maryland. Once there is an effective mechanism in place, we do believe homeowner interest will expand for solar power in the Maryland region. That being said, we, along with many other Maryland-based companies, have shown very strong growth of solar deployment throughout the state of Maryland. We are confident that progress will continue to happen with or without community solar systems.
– Geoff Mirkin, Partner/CEO, Solar Energy World (No. 95 Overall)
How has business changed since Massachusetts’s rebate program ended recently?
The costs of residential solar continue to decrease and public awareness of homeowners continues to increase, thereby outweighing the reduction and eventual elimination of state rebates at the end of 2014. Much of the success of the Massachusetts residential market has been the promulgation of the Solarize Mass program model wherein targeted local communities organize grassroots efforts for the outreach and education of homeowners. We look forward to utilizing our years of Solarize marketing and sales experience, including the lessons we learned, to continue to grow our share of the Massachusetts residential solar market.
– Matt Arner, President, SolarFlair Energy (No. 111 Overall)
How has the streamlining of solar programs into NY-SUN impacted your business?
The NY-SUN program has been instrumental in allowing Sustainable Energy Developments (SED) to grow. Western New York has a strong presence of small, locally owned businesses and the program, combined with effective pricing and finance tools, has significantly increased our sales and given those business owners a financially sound option to add renewables. With the release of funds for projects greater than 200 kW, we see the construction space as our biggest growth from a megawatt-installed perspective. While SED is a national company and will continue to be so, it has always been our goal to bring economically and environmentally sound projects to our local community, and NY-SUN has allowed us to do just that.
– Kevin Schulte, CEO/Founder, Sustainable Energy Developments (No. 91 Overall)
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