Massachusetts is a great place to be a solar installer right now. The PV America show in March (held in Boston) reiterated this repeatedly—successful net metering and rebate programs allowed the state to install 308 MW in 2014 and push it to No. 1 in the Northeast for solar.
Brightstar Solar of Marlborough, Massachusetts, entered the market just at the right time to reap the benefits of a market on an upswing. Founded in 2009 by husband-wife duo Jon and Mona Reese, Brightstar works only within the state’s borders on mostly residential projects.
“We’re practically neighbors with several of the other top residential installers in the state,” said Jon Reese, CEO. “This is a really great place, a great hub for us to be with easy access to almost unlimited work. When we first hung our shingle, we would go anywhere for work, and did. Today we’re fortunate that we’re busy enough to try and control our service area to within 45 minutes from our shop.”
Brightstar today has seven additional employees and is involved with more than just initial installation.
“As a company, I think we’re large enough to have serious experience and expertise, but we’re still small enough to retain a high degree of owner involvement,” Reese said. “We take a very personal approach to O&M. Our customers know they can reach the two people who are primarily responsible for the design and installation of their system with an email or a phone call.”
Reese said obviously everyone has some worry about the federal ITC, but he’s still excited about emerging technologies and the future of solar.
“Today, solar is not yet like hiring a plumber or having your dining room painted, but I think a move in that direction is inevitable as more and more companies and tradespeople enter,” he said. “This is going to be a challenge for companies like ours, as we consider ourselves a smaller, maybe boutique installer, where we’re really focused on customer relationships, quality and customized work.”
Great customer service has been a requirement for Brightstar since the beginning, and Reese said he enjoys working with the many different types of people of Massachusetts.
“Whatever challenges the day brings, we can always go to bed at night, knowing that we’re doing something that is not only good for the environment, but also essentially doubles as a predictable, high rate of return financial instrument for our customers,” Reese said. “We work for all sorts of people from all parts of the political and social spectrums, and I think it’s interesting how the left-leaning folk and the right wingers actually find some real common ground when it comes to solar. What’s more conservative than protecting our natural resources and stewardship with the environment?”
And although Massachusetts ended its rebate program in January 2015, Reese thinks the projects will keep coming—from all types of people.
“Our opinion is that the state really did a good job slowly closing the spigot on the rebate, reducing the dollar per watt incentives they were offering to end users as the cost of installation decreased,” Reese said. “As panels got cheaper, as more competition drove prices down, the state kept reducing the rebates. We think that eliminating the cash rebate is appropriate and we feel confident that our company and most of our competitors will thrive without it.”
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