Brian Sadler, VP of Solaris Renewables, talks about using local solar installers, and the difference that can make when it comes to permitting, design, installation, and follow-up repairs and maintenance on solar systems.

John Maher: Hi, I am John Maher. I’m here today with Brian Sadler, vice President at Solaris Renewables, a solar company in Massachusetts providing premium solar and storage technologies with exceptional customer service; and designing, installing and servicing solar systems in Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire and Maine. Today our topic is “Using Local Solar Installers – What’s the difference?” Welcome, Brian.

Brian Sadler: Hi John. Thanks for having me on.

How Does Using a Local Solar Installer Help with Permitting and Regulations?

John: Yeah, sure. So Brian, a lot of national solar companies are operating all around the country, but how does using a local installer here in Massachusetts benefit me in terms of maybe understanding local regulations or permitting processes, or what are the reasons why you might want to choose a local installer?

Brian: That’s a great question and something that we do talk about quite a bit. Our industry’s relatively emerging in the grand scheme of things. The automobile business, for instance, has been doing this for a hundred years, where the solar business the application to residential or commercial installations on buildings and fields and such is relatively new. And now, although we’ve been doing it for a long time, and there’s been a lot of other companies doing it for a long time, and it’s accelerated quickly, and there’s a lot of nuance to it, I would say it’s not like each customer has purchased solar every year or several times. It’s usually their first time. So being a local company, we’re really entrenched into what the local regulations are in terms of utility, the various types of utilities, their regulations and protocols, as well as permitting, the individual inspectors, a lot of those pieces as well as the local incentives.

And that really drives some of the decisions we need to make in terms of the design and how best to meet code for this national electric code. But then there’s also a Massachusetts code and then inside of that there’s also regulations specific to the utility as well. And then inspectors just have their own flavor, sometimes, and they like certain things and don’t like others. And a lot of times we know that because we’re used to working in those different towns and cities and know the individual inspectors as well. But I’d say it’s really a benefit to get…these are customized projects to the customer site, and knowing the ins and outs of that landscape here locally is important, to check all the boxes and for the customer to get the solution that they’re looking for.

Better Quality Workmanship & Customer Service with a Local Solar Installer

John: Right. Do you think that a customer can get better quality workmanship and ongoing maintenance as well if they’re choosing a local installer?

Brian: I do. For us, for instance, when you call, it’s going to be a team member that…we’re all in the same office together and I know them by name and we all work together on a daily basis. They generally know the customer’s project, the customer’s name. There’s usually a familiarity there as opposed to an international or national call center where it’s occupied by various employees that just taking phone calls and routing them. And so I think you’re going to get a lot more personalized attention and solution troubleshooting and whatnot. So I think it is a huge difference in the customer experience and the quality of service and customer support you’re going to get. Because if our person on the phone can’t resolve it, they’re going to escalate it right away. It’s not like we’ll call you back. It’s usually right on the spot. It’s routed to the appropriate department. If there is something we need to look into, we’ll call back, but also the customer knows where we are, has all of our personal emails and phone numbers. So I think it’s a much different experience for the customer and much more direct customer service as well.

Supporting the Community and the Clean Energy Sector in Massachusetts

John: Right. A lot of people, too, are interested in supporting local businesses whenever possible. Do you feel like choosing a local solar installer can help contribute to the community and to the clean energy sector here in Massachusetts?

Brian: I do. And I feel like that’s something that we talk about a lot too. We really talk about those differentiators of being local, but we employ 50 employees or so. It ebbs and flows slightly, but it’s generally around that number. So because customers are choosing a local company, they are choosing for Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine residences in our case, to have gainful employment in the clean energy sector and make the industry and those individuals feel fulfilled and have a great avenue for work that they believe in and can stand behind. So I do feel like it keeps a lot of the benefit in state. Similarly, we try to partner with as many local manufacturing and finance partners as we can, which again employs more folks locally and keeps the benefit in state. Like for instance, there’s third party ownership options, which has been prevalent.

It did help accelerate our industry in general with the tax credits and other local incentives coming online in the early two thousands. And that takes a lot of that benefit in terms of that financial choice and brings it out of state so that individual not getting the tax credit or local incentives and sending it to a company that is in New Jersey or Utah or California, that’s pulling a lot of that monetary benefit out of the state as opposed to other financial mechanisms that keep the benefit aid directly with the customer, which then is in state and giving them more access to the next level of consumer behavior that they choose to have. But nevertheless, keeping as much of it as local as we can provides layers and layers of benefit to the local economy.

A Local Solar Installater and the Design Process

John: Can you elaborate a little bit more on how a local solar installer can help me to design a solar system for my home that meets my specific needs as compared to a national company that maybe has a more standardized approach?

Brian: That’s a great question. There was a company, recently, that transferred all of their design to basically a menu choice online, a big national installer. So basically you buy them in a kit by the kilowatt and it’s like 4, 8 or 12 kilowatt, and that’s extremely cookie cutter. And then we also over the years have heard a lot of the other national installers, they want a very simplified site and solution for them to be able to install. So for them to be able to hit their goals of profitability and for ease of install and things like that. And so I think there’s a big benefit for the local installer model that we’re able to not only understand the regulations, certain setbacks, the code, local code and things like that. And not to mention individual inspector’s flavor or interest, but we know that nuance and we’re more willing to do the harder things. So we’re more willing to go into attics and crawl spaces to spend a little bit more time on site and give the customer the aesthetic and the performance that they’re looking for by a more quality and thought-out design, and then executing that due to knowing what the local landscape is.

Maintenance and Service with a Local Solar Installer

John: And then finally, does having a local installer ensure that I have a reliable partner when it comes to maybe future maintenance or service needs that might crop up after a solar installation?

Brian: Sure. I mean, we certainly aim to make these maintenance and service free, but there are things that do happen over the course of time, and these are long-term solutions. So we’re talking 25 plus years that the warranties are good for. We anticipate the system lasting for 40 plus years, but there’s a lot of extreme weather here in New England for one thing. But electronics is probably the most apt to fail if there were something to fail. And then also ownership changes or customers change their internet provider, their equipment, things like that. So those things are little hiccups along the way that we’re really well suited to handle being local. So all of our customers know they can pick up the phone and call us anytime. They can come into our office if they so choose, but we’re all readily accessible to support our customers.

And I think it’s a big difference [compared to] calling an international call center that is someone that, aside all of the potential language barriers or other challenges, you’re not getting a personalized approach. And customers get frustrated with that. So if they even think that their system is not operating correctly, they’re going to get routed all over the world on kind of a wild goose chase to discover that they still probably don’t have a solution to that necessarily.

It’s a much more personalized approach. Again, calling right here to our office, speaking to a human, not an automated call center and things like that. And then again, our team knows this customer, knows their project, has everything about their project at their fingertips, and we try to remotely troubleshoot it right away or answer their question or get whatever resolution that they’re looking for. Sometimes it’s just a paid-in-full receipt, things like this so they can file their taxes.

So we’re equipped to do that on the spot, and then again, if our first line can’t take care of them they’ll expedite to the next level, but we always make sure they get those things taken care of right away. And if it requires an onsite visit, again, it’s our team doing it. So it’s our team scheduling our team to go onsite. So I would say the experience is much different and we really aim to make a fully turnkey project where the customer really need not do much throughout the project portion of the process.

Then once it’s installed and it’s energized, we want to be a set-it-and-forget-it. And we find, over time, customers almost forget they have solar, right? When early on they’re checking in on their app all the time, they’re excited, they’re learning how it works, but after they understand how it works and they’re reducing or eliminating their electric bills, incentive payments are flowing in, all these things start to happen. They start to pull back and they almost forget they had solar and then something comes up and they call us and we’re right there for them and make sure we handle it in a professional and quick fashion. And I think that’s because we’re local and we’re all a team working on the project together.

John: And like you said, that the chances are pretty high that maybe they’re calling and they’re talking to the same person that they talked to when they called to get their system installed, or the same person who installed their system is going back out to check on it and make sure that it’s working properly, or something like that, because you have a good team of people.

Brian: So a lot of our customer care team, we’re the ones that made the phone call to show them how to energize a system, get them their solar kit with all their information, and kind of wrap it up. And then our project developers, our sales reps, our reps are with the customer throughout the consulting process, their entire project and thereafter. And so all of our customers know they can always call their project developer, but we also have the customer support team, and then we have management and our operation team, which like you said, it could be that a service tech that could be going on site is maybe someone that had already installed it, was there, remembers the site itself. So that is a huge benefit that we have been through with them throughout the entire process. We have all the information here and we’re able to rely on that to get answers or execute any issues that the customer may have.

John: Alright, well, that’s really great information, Brian. Thanks again for speaking with me today.

Brian: Thank you, John. I appreciate it.

John: And for more information, you can visit the website at solarisrenewables.com or call 781-270-6555.

Bust common myths about solar power! Learn about financing options and incentives that can make solar more affordable for homeowners.

John Maher:     Hi, I am John Maher and I’m here today with Brian Sadler, vice president at Solaris Renewables, a solar company in Massachusetts, providing premium Solar and storage technologies with exceptional customer service into designing, installing, and servicing solar systems in Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire and Maine. Today our topic is Busting Common Myths About Solar Power. Welcome, Brian.

Brian Sadler:     Hi, John. Thanks for having me in. Let’s bust myths.

Upfront Costs of Solar / Free Solar

John:    Absolutely. So yeah, so Brian, the first one that we want to talk about is upfront costs. So one of the things that I hear the most about solar is that it’s got a high upfront cost, a lot of money that you have to put down. Can you address this concern and explain any financing options, maybe some incentives that can help make solar more affordable to homeowners?

Brian:   Man, I hear the opposite. All I hear about is free solar, free solar, free batteries…

John:    Right. That’s the other side of it.

Brian:   Everything is free. The governor’s given you everything for free. So there’s a lot of misinformation out there. Obviously we know that there’s really nothing that’s free. There’s a cost to that somewhere, and we see a lot of it in social media and online that is really pumping that this is a giveaway, it’s a free giveaway. And what it comes down to is that what they’re really trying to convey is they’re lead generation sites and they’re trying to get you to click. It’s a lot of clickbait, but what it comes down to is that there’s no upfront costs. So what they’re saying is zero down and a “free solar installation” that you then pay for on a rate structure.

Now these are usually what we call third party ownership options or leases or power purchase agreements. A power purchase agreement is very common, and that’s where you’re agreeing to buy the solar power that your panels create at a lower cost per kilowatt-hour than you’re paying the utility right now. And that usually has an escalator that goes up annually and would be less than what the utility is going up. So, in effect, it’s a win, but messaging it as free solar is obviously misleading. It gets around the neighborhood and the community and then it becomes a lot of confusion and gives our industry a bad name oftentimes, or at least creates a lot of confusion and people are really hesitant to understand how solar works because they kept hearing it was free, where in reality when people ask me, I say, “Yeah, we do the free solar that you pay for the next 25 years as well.”

So generally speaking, the barrier to going solar is very low. It’s no money down or a low down to go solar. And then there is a variety of financial mechanisms, the ones I was just speaking about, the third party options are one kind of group of mechanisms.

There’s also a variety of loans in the industry, and really the industry around the finances of solar has matured tremendously. So, the finance options have treatments for the incentive programs, be it tax credits or local rebates, and a variety of other local incentives as well, because they want to make solar more accessible as well, and they want to make it easy. And the idea of any of the solar financing is that you are saving money month one. So a lot of folks also ask, “Well, what’s the payback?” Well, if you’re financing, generally speaking, your “payback” is month one because you’re paying less for your electricity than you were previously.

Solar Panel Efficiency & Weather

John:    All right, our next one that we want to talk about is efficiency, and specifically during all weather types. We know that solar power is great on sunny days, but we have a lot of cloudy days or even snowy weather here in New England. How are those types of days addressed?

Brian:   So through the tools that we have, some satellite imagery, LIDAR, and then actual more recent mapping through planes flying overhead, we have some really quality data about where the homes are, what the site conditions are, and all of those coordinates lead to an average precipitation, average amount of cloudy days, average amount of sunny days. And that’s all modeled into the mix to guide homeowners and what their systems will do for a performance. It’s funny, because heat is one of the biggest detractors from production with solar panels. We want it to be sunny, but we don’t want it to be too hot because they actually become less efficient in really hot weather. Here in New England, it’s not as much of an issue, but the closer to the equator you get, heat plays a role. They’re more worried about dissipating heat, making sure that there’s good ventilation so that the product and the panels can produce effectively.

Here we have varying conditions, like you mentioned, cloudy days, rainy days. We have really hot and humid days, we have windy days, we have bluebird days in March, which could be the most productive days of the year because there’s no humidity, there’s no breeze. And you’ll see some outliers on your production data showing that, wow, the biggest day of the year was actually March 20th because there was enough sun and there were no other weather conditions to impact the production. But all those things are factored in, and we do see data throughout the years that shows, okay, a really rainy, unusually rainy spring or unusually snowy winter will impact the average data, an average production to a certain extent. But overall, the model is there for where your home or business is situated and that weather data, historical weather data to predict an accurate production model.

John:    And as we’ve talked about before, you might be producing more than you need in certain months, like the summer or maybe occasionally on a sunny day in March or something like that. And then other days that are cloudy or rainy or in the winter you’re producing less, but it’ll all average out throughout the year.

Brian:   Essentially, so we’re going to use those scientific factors to model what the annual production will be. And like you said, you might have some wins in some parts of the year, in some seasons, you might have a couple losses in another couple of parts of the year. But generally speaking, it comes out in the end to be really accurate modeling and folks are getting the production that they were told they were going to get.

Solar Panel Maintenance

John:    What about concerns that people might have about maintenance that might be difficult to maintain solar panels? Is there a lot of maintenance that’s required on solar panels, and are there any ongoing costs associated with keeping them functioning?

Brian:   Simply, no. And we’re fortunate in our part of the country that we do have some precipitation and we do have snow that will clean the panels. We don’t have a high dust volume here in the Northeast. If you’re talking about the Southwest, dust is more of a concern and there is some panel cleaning that you might need to do. But here, the biggest thing that we see is maybe a pollen bloom, like a significant pollen bloom, which will put a coating of pollen over the panels and that will play a role in the production in the short term. And folks do ask, “Hey, what do I do? My panels are yellow, they’re covered in pollen”, and I just want them to wait until it rains.

A good rainstorm will clean the panels off just fine and get you back producing. And so there’s no moving parts in the solar system, so there’s no wear and tear and there’s really no maintenance associated with a solar system. The only thing is, any service…so the electronics or the wiring, things like that, over time could require service if there’s a failure or disruption in the equipment. But that’s not common and there’s really no ongoing maintenance. We don’t sell any service packages or ongoing maintenance packages because they’re not really needed.

John:    And even like you said with the pollen bloom or it getting dirty, you don’t even recommend that people get out their hose and try to hose it off. You’re just saying just leave it alone, wait for it to rain, it’ll rain, it’ll clear it off.

Brian:   Exactly. Yeah. And as myself and our family, about eight years ago, we went solar and I bought this telescoping rod and I put a foam snow rake that you would clear your car off with on the end ’cause we have a ranch and it’s approachable for me to pull the snow off it. So I was religiously going out there and pulling the snow off and trying to maximize production. And then one day I forgot and I went out to do it and it already melted and I was like, “I am wasting my time.” So I haven’t done it since, unless it was a big…we get a big snow drifting on our house, so if we get a huge snow drift on one end, I’ll pull some of the snow off just for structural safety of the home, which people do if you have solar panels or not.

Generally speaking, the snow and the rain is going to wash the panels and it’s also going to be removed from the panels a lot quicker, given that they’re black. And they’re also on the places where we get the most sun, so snow melts faster and things like that. But as a new adopter of solar eight years ago, I didn’t fully know that yet. So I was trying to keep them as productive as possible and realized I am just wasting my time.

The Solar Installation Process

John:    What about the installation process? Does the installation process take a long time? Is it going to be really disruptive to my daily life, or is that something that people should be concerned about at all?

Brian:   No, that’s a great question, and a good thing for our listeners to know, is that we want to make this a turnkey process and we tell homeowners now that you really only need to be home a couple or a few times throughout the process. So, it’s basically for your site inspection with our project engineers, just so you can see what the final findings are and what the final design, wire management and equipment placement recommendations are, and then what your choices are for that. Then for the actual installation, typically most…I’d say the average is two to three days, and it’s mostly on the exterior of your home, with the exception of some work in the attic if you have an attic, and some work in your basement if you have a basement, or some work in your garage. So it depends on the setup. So it’s really not inside your living space, so to speak.

We want to make sure it’s obviously a great experience and we want to be as least intrusive to homeowners and businesses as we can. We find that homeowners thought it was maybe more intrusive than it really was and found, “oh, this was no big deal”, and sometimes they’re even at work and they would give us access and then go to work, then come home, and things like that. But I would say that the average install takes two to three days. It depends on the complexity and the size and that it’s very minimal disruption to the homeowner and the property and the building as a whole.

Damage To Your Roof

John:    Do you ever get people asking about damage to their roof with the installation, that having solar panels on my roof is going to somehow damage my roof or reduce the life of my roof?

Brian:   Yes.

John:    How do you respond to that?

Brian:   Absolutely. We have those questions every day from potential clients and from existing clients. So from potential clients, they are concerned like, “Oh, we’re going to be putting a bunch of holes in my roof”, and that’s why we have one of the strongest roof warranties in the business and we use the equipment that we use and we have the roof experts installing this. So we want to make sure that we’re, first of all, overcoming those concerns by performance. And we’ve been installing…we’ve done thousands of solar systems, with different equipment over the years. We try to stay tried and true, and we don’t switch our equipment often at all. We’ve had two in 12 years, we’ve had two different types of mounting and railing partners that we worked with. And so our teams are real experts in the equipment and the techniques, and we’ve had zero roof leaks.

We get calls on roof leaks every week because we are typically the last folks up there, so “it must be the solar guy”. So we get calls all the time and we honor those requests by sending out one of our roof experts to go and diagnose a situation. What we find every time is that it’s generally another piece of the roof that just had a failure. So we see a lot of chimney flashing or pipe boot failures, skylights. I’ll just let you know if you have a skylight, it’s going to leak at some point. So we get those calls constantly and we go out and we diagnose and we show that, yet again, it wasn’t the solar installation, it wasn’t any of our penetrations because these penetrations are made not only with care and expertise, but they’re with products that are designed to support the solar system and be roof penetration. So they’re waterproof and they’re not going to leak as long as you’re doing it correctly.

John:    Are there any issues that you could potentially have with high winds and getting underneath the solar panels and pulling my roof up or anything like that?

Brian:   So again, with the equipment we use we have not experienced that. So we do need to adhere to engineering and code, so we have certain wind zones all throughout the country and in our region. So we need to make sure that the proper equipment is used to adhere to those wind speeds, and these are usually over-engineered. So if you’re in a 110 mile an hour wind zone, we’re going to engineer it and install it to at least, if not above, that wind speed, which means that the system would be able to withstand sustained 110, 125 or 150 mile an hour winds.

We have hundreds of solar systems that are right on the ocean or on lakes and up on more exposed hills, like in Worcester County we get a little bit of elevation there and some of these systems are more exposed to wind, for instance, but we have not had any, not even one panel that has been removed or blown away or disrupted by wind because of, again, the equipment that we use is really robust and we want to make sure that it can withstand not only the wind load, the snow load, but also the expansion and contraction of our wide temperature variations here in this region. It’s going to be 140 up there in the summer in a smoking hot day, and it’s going to be zero on a winter day. So we want to make sure that the equipment we use is going to withstand that.

And like we tell a lot of our customers, the advertising we’re looking for is not our van parked in your driveway, fixing your solar system. It’s that you had a great experience, it’s doing everything that you thought it would do and then some, and you’re so happy that you want to share your experience with your family, your friends, and your neighbors. It’s a great idea to go solar and you should talk to Solaris Renewables.

John:    All right, well that’s really great information and I hope we were able to dispel some of these myths and encourage people to install solar panels. So thanks again for speaking with me today, Brian.

Brian:   Awesome, John. Thanks for having me.

John:    And for more information, you can visit the website at solarisrenewables.com or call 781-270-6555.

Brian Sadler of Solar Renewables talks about how solar panels can help you save money and become more energy independent. They also benefit your community by reducing reliance on the grid.

John:    Hi, I’m John Maher, and I’m here today with Brian Sadler, Vice President at Solaris Renewables, a solar company in Massachusetts providing premium solar and storage technologies with exceptional customer service, and designing, installing and servicing solar systems in Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire and Maine. Today our topic is the benefits of solar power for your home and community. Welcome, Brian.

Brian:   Hi, John.

The Benefits of Having Solar Power On Your Home

John:    So Brian, what are some of the benefits, first of all, of having solar power on my home?

Brian:   I think underlying is energy savings, right? So a lot of the motivations for folks is saving money. There’s a bottom line somewhere in the decision-making process in order to go solar. And regardless of how you go about it, you have the opportunity to save some money in your energy bills specifically against your electricity, given that solar is creating that electricity.

So you’re able to get more energy-resilient and independent by being able to fix some of your costs and lower your costs by investing in solar. And a lot of that’s through what’s what we call the Net Metering program, which is a bidirectional meter that’s installed, when you go solar, by the utility, which is able to measure the give and take of power from your house to the utility and from the utility to your home. And that is to make it able for the solar system to lower that kilowatt-hour demand, which is what all of our electric bills are based on.

Solar’s Impact On the Community

John:    Okay. And then beyond my own home, can solar power have a positive impact on my community as a whole?

Brian:   Absolutely. So just think of our neighborhood. So like we just mentioned, the net metering, right? So in real time during the day, our solar system’s going to generate a lot more electricity than our home needs, so it’s going to flow through our net meter, effectively spinning that meter backwards or lowering the demand that you have from the grid.

And you’re pushing power onto the utility lines right from your house, and electricity doesn’t discriminate, so it’s just going to go right down the street and go to your neighbors’ homes, and they’re going to be essentially benefiting from clean renewable power that was made on the same street.

So very efficient, as opposed to a lot of the utility power is centralized and made at a central power plant, and then it’s sent on either our local utility lines, or if we don’t make enough power during certain times of the day, week, year or the month either, we would be buying power on the open market and that would be coming through high-tension power lines to our local grid and then being distributed out through the power line.

So there’s a lot of line loss and inefficiencies and we’re buying a lot more power than we’re actually using. So this is really…solar is a tool for not only individual homeowners and businesses, but their neighborhoods and communities to benefit from.

How Solar Panels Help You Save Money on Your Electric Bill

John:    Okay. And then we’ve talked before about the financial benefits of solar power, and you mentioned saving money on your bill as well. Can you give a little bit of more of a specific breakdown on how solar panels can help me save money on my electricity bill over time?

Brian:   Sure. Really, it comes down to that Net Metering program, as well as by on a billing cycle on a monthly basis, your utility is going to read your meter, and if you are decreasing that demand and that kilowatt-hour charge that you have the dependence on the grid from, then you’re spending less than you were with the utility before.

And if, based on your site conditions and the setup of your solar system and the anticipated productivity, you’re going to be able to have a degree of offset, right? So, your solar system is offsetting your demand and need of the utility, and otherwise you are generating your own clean renewable power to satisfy the need of your home.

And then you’re able to build up credits through the Net Metering program that live on your electric bill, and therefore can be drawn upon in future months when, say, you don’t make as much solar power as you did at different times of the year. And, therefore, when you owe the utility in a given month, but you have credits to draw on, that bill that you owe is either eliminated or offset by, yet again, those credits that you generated at different times of the year.

John:    Right. So typically that would happen in the winter where your solar panels are maybe not producing as much electricity, maybe not as much as you’re using in your house, so you might owe something on your bill, but because you have all those credits built up from overproducing in the summer, then you’re able to use those credits in the winter to help keep your bill down or eliminate your bill entirely?

Brian:   Absolutely. Yeah, the winter’s the biggest one because we typically have a stretch of November when the sun drops, we have daylight savings and then the clocks come back and now it gets dark really early and our days are really short and the sun is now lower and our solar systems become less productive.

And so we have November, December, January and February where we have lower sun angles and less sunlight throughout the day, that’s day hours, less opportunity. But if we built up some credits through the spring, summer and fall, then those credits will be able to offset those winter bills. It’s just a matter of how much you were able to build up and how long those credits will last to offset the bills in the wintertime.

There’s also the peak of summer, so potentially you have central air or maybe a pool and other things that have a high draw in the peak of summer, and maybe you build up credits through spring and early summer, and then maybe in the hottest times of summer you’re using a lot of air conditioning or the pool pump’s running a lot, and now you have an electric bill. And those credits will also offset that time of year as well if need be.

So it kind of happens automatically. It’s really the goal is to make your electric bill more of a statement of that give and take of credits. And in a perfect world, you can eliminate that utility bill altogether, but not everyone has the site conditions to be able to do that, so the more of your electric bill you can fix with solar, the better the economics are. But if you’re able to fix even 50% or 70%, I mean, it’s really the economics are compelling and you’re able to save money by fixing that portion of your electric bill.

Can Solar Panels Contribute To A Cleaner Environment?

John:    So then less from a financial standpoint and more of an environmental standpoint, can installing solar panels in my home help to contribute to a cleaner environment in my neighborhood or in my area?

Brian:   Sure. By generating your own clean renewable power, now you’re taking yourself out of the piece of the puzzle and demand on the grid. So, if you’re in an area that’s burning natural gas or coal and you’re lessening that demand by generating clean renewable solar power, well, there’s not as much fossil fuels that need to be burned in your town or the adjacent town or down the way from the power plant, right?

So the more folks that are adopting solar, the less demand on the grid, the more efficient that our grid and resilient our grid becomes as well, and you’re able to have more clean air, water, and land because of it.

John:    And then you could go another step further, too, and install something like air source heat pumps, ductless systems for your heating and your air conditioning in your house, and now you’re not even burning fossil fuels in your own home and releasing fumes into the air in your neighborhood and then using your solar panels to help to provide the electricity for that kind of a system, right?

Brian:   Yeah, great point. I mean, the more that you can do on your own property to be energy-resilient and generate your own power and localize that as opposed to the centralized power plants, which is a concentrated pollution site. And then again, like you said, by heat pumps, which use more electricity for heating for instance in the winter in our region, but are tremendously more efficient across the board in the winter, and really for air conditioning as well are significantly more efficient and then you’re making your own power to satisfy that demand, well, you’re again, even moreso taking yourself off of the grid of the centralized power. And like you said, you’re not putting a smoke stack on your own building that is sending out pollutants from fossil fuels right on your own property.

Do Solar Panels Increase The Value Of My Home?

John:    Right. Is there any evidence that installing solar panels can actually increase the value of my home, or is that something that potential home buyers are looking for now?

Brian:   Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there’s been some tremendous data put out over the past, really going on over 20 years now. So, the Department of Energy worked with the Berkeley Labs to do a 15-year study. I believe it started in 2000 through 2015. And that’s really when the solar industry was really in its infancy and just beginning out.

Things have come a long ways. Panels are not only more powerful, more efficient, but they’re more aesthetically-pleasing as well. But that 15-year study showed that homeowners can expect a significant increase in their home value, that homeowners want it, that homeowners are interested in saving money and eliminating or reducing one of their electric bills, and are willing to pay more for homes with solar, and that those homes sell faster as well.

More recently, Zillow and Redfin have also come out with studies that show a significant increase in home value and how quickly they move off the market for a higher cost. A lot of these studies did focus on strong solar areas like California, Massachusetts, New York, where there already are higher home values. So it really showed that across all these regions, that homes with solar sold at a premium and faster, is what it comes down to, and that potential buyers wanted it and demanded it in some cases. So they wanted to look at homes that had solar existing already.

John:    And then modern solar panels actually last longer too, right? Their useful life is longer? So you could be buying a house with solar panels on it that have been on there for 10 years and still be able to expect a good, long, useful life from those solar panels that are existing, right?

Brian:   Absolutely. Yeah. I think part of that maturation is that the panels are more resilient, last longer, and I think there’s a lot more quality manufacturers. Previously, there was a real divide between the haves and have-nots in terms of quality, and we saw a lot of foreign products that were a little more of a commodity product, and now we’re seeing an improvement across the board.

And I would say that most panels in our market now have a useful life expectancy of 40-plus years. So yeah, if you’re looking at homes that have a solar system already, there is the opportunity to have still decades of life left in that system.

I think one of the challenges, again, is education, right? That’s been something that, it’s a relatively new technology. It’s not like it’s been around, per se, for 100 years and everyone understands this and everyone’s already bought a solar system at their last house. So there’s a lot of education that needs to happen to understand what it is, how it works. And we find that through the real estate industry, that carries as well, where there’s an understanding that it’s a detriment and it’s something to be fearful of, and there’s a lack of understanding.

And so we as an industry and a company, we spend a lot of time with the real estate industry to help them understand and support them, because we feel, and all the data supports, that it’s an attribute to the home-buying process.

How Can Solar Contribute to a More Sustainable Future?

John:    Right. So can you finally elaborate on how an individual action like deciding to install solar panels on your home can contribute to the overall broader movement towards making a more sustainable future in our region?

Brian:   Absolutely. I think investing in or going solar, and however you do go about it, and supporting renewables is a way to decrease your carbon footprint and being a more sustainable property, be it home or business. Any way that you can do that, it’s a tremendous value.

We talked about some of the energy savings, right? So your lessening the demand is a really localized benefit, there’s a community benefit. And then there’s a regional benefit when you’re lessening the pollutants that are being released into our environment as well.

And a lot of times we do find that folks that are supportive of renewables also are doing other actions to be more sustainable. Obviously, low-hanging fruit that’s really accessible to everyone is recycling or reducing your use and reusing, things like that, limiting commuting, moving to electric vehicles. And a lot of these things, supporting companies and products that have sustainable methodologies as well.

So I think what we find is a lot of our customers, solar is a piece of the puzzle, and it definitely has a tremendous impact, but a lot of these folks are looking at other ways that they can have a more sustainable lifestyle.

John:    All right, well, that’s really great information, Brian. Thanks again for speaking with me today.

Brian:   Thank you, John.

John:    And for more information, you can visit the website, it’s solarisrenewables.com, or call (781) 270-6555.

Brian Sadler of Solaris Renewables discusses how to assess if a home is suitable for solar panels. Factors include roof orientation, shading, and space.

John Maher:     Hi, I am John Maher and I’m here today with Brian Sadler, Vice President at Solaris Renewables, a solar company in Massachusetts, providing premium solar and storage technologies with exceptional customer service; and designing, installing and servicing solar systems in Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire and Maine. Today we’re talking about “is my home suitable for solar panels?”. Welcome, Brian.

Brian Sadler:     Hi, John. Good to be with you.

Key Factors in Assessing a Homeowner’s Roof for Solar Panels

John:    Yeah, you too. So Brian, can you walk me through the process of how you assess whether a homeowner’s roof is suitable for solar panel installation? What are some of the key factors that you consider?

Brian:   Absolutely. This piece has matured quite a bit over the years. First, we kind of stuck our thumb up in the air and said, “Oh, it looks like it’s about 80% solar access.” And we had a tool that we…it was a lot of eyeballing, right? And then there was a couple different tools that would’ve been checked maybe with the site visit, the project manager. Pathfinder was one, SunEye was another one. And these were tools you could get the pitch and some of the solar access by putting the device on the roof and taking some really basic measurements. Some of it did more calculations like the SunEye than the Pathfinder did when you did the calculations yourself. And now a lot of this is really done remotely through really advanced software tools that use a variety of different measurements through satellite imagery.

Some of it has planes flying over that are taking imagery as they fly and we get more updated images through that. You have LIDAR, which is measuring the height and relationships of height between buildings and trees and topography. So there’s really massive strides and advancements in the tools that we have, to get really accurate measurements, for actual physical measurements between of roof sizes, pitch and obstructions on the roof or on the property. And then, taking into consideration the latitude/longitude where the house is, the topography, and getting really accurate data on the potential for each roof or the site in general.

So it’s really been a massive advancement there. And when we boil it down though, there’s really three factors that we’re looking for. And if we talk about these in general terms as opposed to what the industry terms are we’re looking at, the first thing is orientation of southern exposure. In this measurement is, in the solar world, is called azimuth. That’s basically on the compass. So due south being 180 degrees is ‘perfect’ and the opportunity to get the most sunlight throughout the day in the Northern Hemisphere. And then the second piece is really shading or lack thereof. So in terms of the solar, it’s solar access or sun hours, how many sun hours are hitting that surface that we’re targeting to put solar panels on? And then the last piece is roof space or how many panels can we fit compared to what your needs or what your goals are. And that comes down to kilowatt system size, how many panels and what is the wattage and what’s that fit going to be.

So those are the three factors that really are going to dictate how Solar is going to work on any surface and any site. I should mention that pitch comes into play, as well, on the roof’s surface, and what is that? The tilt of the panels themselves as well. And that does play a role. And all those factors come together to what’s called the TSRF or Total Solar Rating Factor. And that basically gives a score between zero and a hundred percent and depending on the equipment and the setup the TSRF will basically dictate how productive, how many kilowatt-hours that system and that surface will be able to generate.

Shade Tolerance of Solar Panels

John:    Okay. So obviously like you said, sunlight exposure is crucial for solar panel efficiency, and one of the things that you mentioned was sun hours. Does the amount of shade that your roof might get play into that number of sun hours? And how much shade tolerance do solar panels have? And when you come to the house, do you assess things like nearby trees or structures that might impact shade on my roof?

Brian:   Absolutely. Yeah, shade is a huge indicator. It’s really that second piece, right? Aside from which way your roof is facing now, how much sun is that getting and shade is going to be usually the key components of blocking that sunlight from getting that. Now, like you said, it could be trees or the building itself, like an adjacent roof surface or dormer or obstruction on the roof surface or nearby obstructions as well. But, generally speaking, it’s trees, and fortunately we have a lot of trees here in New England, which makes our area beautiful, but it also, for some sites, can be a challenge to getting the right mix of design and panels in order to make it effective for the homeowner. Fortunately, we have plenty of wide open spaces and the panels, like you’re just asking, the panels have come a long ways and are more shade and snow resistant as well.

And it’s kind of one and the same because when there’s snow on the panels or if there’s shade on the panels, it makes them essentially less productive, and some of how they wire the panels now and kind of set them up into either two different halves or different quadrants depending on the manufacturer that can give some key resilience to shade. So sometimes you can have some panels, older panels, you might have a little bit of shade on the panel and it will shut down the whole panel. Now we can have shade on half the panel and the other half the panel’s working, or shade on a portion of the panel and the rest of the panel is working. So that really comes down to working with your solar provider and professionals to understand the equipment and the science behind the site to find a solution that’s going to work best for you.

Roof Age and Condition

John:    So then in terms of the roof itself, is there a certain age or condition that my roof has to be in in order for it to be suitable for solar panels?

Brian:   Yeah, good question. Sometimes this gets a little bit overlooked, so we want to make sure that we are going to install the system and have it be there for the long haul and we want to make it a situation where it can be a set it and forget it type of scenario for the home and they don’t need to worry about removing it, and roof repair,s and so on and so forth. So, we’d like to see a minimum of 10 years roof life left in the system, excuse me, in the roof. But a lot of times that’s longer than that, or if the condition of the roof is substandard, we’ll recommend re-roofing before going solar and then you don’t have to worry about that for the long haul.

So that is definitely a key factor. Another piece is the structural integrity of the roof. In every single project we have an independent structural engineer do the calculations of the system that we’re proposing on the roof substrate and the structure of that to make sure that it’s protecting the homeowner and their property and that the solar system can be supported by their existing roof structure.

Roof Pitch

John:    Then you mentioned pitch earlier, let’s talk a little bit more about that. Here in New England we have everything from maybe a flat roof or close to flat roofs to A-frame houses maybe up in New Hampshire that have an extremely steep pitch to them. How does that factor into how efficient the solar panels can be and is there anything that you can do within that to work around that?

Brian:   Yeah, absolutely. So we’re on the 42nd parallel on the earth. And so logic would think that okay, so you want to be 42 degrees and then square yourself up to the sun, but the sun moves throughout the year. It’s lower in the winter and higher in the summer. So roof pitch does play a role in the productivity of that roof surface. I would say any pitch is good because now you’re lifting to get more year round sun involved. And an extreme pitch might be better in the winter, but it might be a little bit less productive in the summer because you’re bringing that pitch up to meet the lower sun angle. If it’s extreme, like you’re saying like a 60 degree on an A-frame or something like that, it’s really extreme, but also now you’re likely bringing more potential shading that’s close by into the picture as well.

Every roof surface really has potential, and between a flat pitch where we can lay them flat in certain situations, because maybe space confinements and we want to get as much power on there. If it’s a big wide open flat roof, we have tilt kits and a variety of different options to be able to tilt the panels up. Usually we go to 10 degrees and that allows to bring more sunlight in throughout the year. But you’re really going to be cooking more in the summer months when the sun is overhead more and you’re getting longer days and just be more productive throughout the year. I would say that certainly roof pitch plays a role, but there are applications really for any type of pitch and to make it effective.

Suitable Types of Roofs for Solar

John:    What about the type of roof that you have? Most houses here have asphalt shingle roofs, but there’s other things, some people have metal roofs. Are things like metal roofs appropriate for solar panels and are there any other types of roofs that you’ve seen?

Brian:   Absolutely. We have old housing stock here in New England and so we get every type of roof. We have wood shingle roofs, slate roofs, asphalt like you mentioned, rubber and a variety of membrane roofs and even metal, you brought up metal. There are a few different options there. So we see for metal roofs alone, we see corrugated metal roofs, which kind of have a profile to them and wavy and we see them in home applications as well as barn and outbuilding applications. Then we see standing seam, which is a little bit more of a finished and robust metal roof surface. And then we see now there’s metal shingled style roofs that kind of have tiles that clip together from the side. All of them have a long lifespan, which is why they’re attractive to homeowners, as well as shed precipitation really well. But we have applications for all of those types of metal roofs.

So there’s certain installation methods for standing seam, for corrugated metal and for shingled metal roofs as well. And then the same thing with rubber or membrane or rolled asphalt or shingled asphalt, we do have applications for all those roof surfaces. Wood and slate I would say are particularly challenging and require a really significant amount of labor and are also a little more challenging to work on. And even I would say could be dangerous, the slate in itself is slippery. A lot of times they’re on very steep roofs. And wooden shingled roofs, if they’re old and you’re not aware that they’re rotting out, they can give way, as well as they can get build-up of slime and moss and be a little slippery. So there are some challenges with those as well. So we pretty much have decided to do everything aside from slate and wooden shingled roofs.

John:    But everything else, like you said, it might change a little bit of the structure of how you’re affixing the solar panels to the roof, but you have ways to work around any of those different things?

Brian:   There’s different mounting techniques and equipment to meet the needs of the roof surface.

Ground Mounted Solar Panels

John:    Okay. So what if my roof is not really suitable for putting solar panels off? Maybe I have a wood shingle roof or something like that and I just can’t put them on my roof. Are ground mount solar panels an option? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of ground mounted systems versus roof mounted ones?

Brian:   Absolutely. Yeah. So we do, and have long done, different ground mounted solutions, and there’s a fixed ground mounted solution which is basically an infrastructure supporting rows of panels. So we see them on the side of the highway a lot of times with a lot of the solar fields and such. And then we also do a dual access tracker, which is more of a pole mounted installation. It stands up a little taller, and then that tracker, it follows the path of the sun and the angle of the sun throughout the year. So it actually moves and it tilts based on the time of year and the height of the sun and then it moves side to side to follow the sun throughout the day. So the trackers are an opportunity to have a smaller footprint and less panels to have more production. They’re generally about 40% more productive than a fixed panel.

And then the fixed ground mount solutions are also great if you have wide open space. So they come out to be essentially similar in cost. So it kind of depends on your landscape and what your prerogative is. Some people just love the idea of a tracker. It is a really cool technology and device. It’s actually just amazing to watch it operate. So really at the end of the day it comes down to your land. And you need for both of these, any ground mounted solution, you want wide open space. So you want to have significant wide open space because you want these to be shade free and now that they’re lower as opposed to a roof on the top of a house, they would be bringing in more shade. So it really needs to be a wide open area.

But we have a lot of space here in New England, so there’s a lot of opportunity for ground mounts to be a great solution for homeowners, but it’s not necessarily meant for your side yard in Revere and whatnot. But it’s definitely more of a wide open space solution. But we’ve had some unique applications across the state as well and we’ve had a lot of homeowners that have been willing to change up their landscape by removing trees or we’ve even put one in a boulder and a tracker in a huge piece of ledge. And so I think there’s definitely opportunities, it depends on how flexible the homeowners are and what kind of landscape do you have?

John:    Is there a minimum amount of land that you need to make something like that work? Do you need a few acres or something like that?

Brian:   So you don’t necessarily need a few acres. And again, it depends on how big, because we can do a ground mounted solution that’s as small as, I don’t know, 16 panels for instance, or the tracker is 24 panels or 20 panels. So it really comes down to having some wide open space and no tree cover.

John:    Right, it’s more about the way that your land is laid out. Like you said, if it’s just open field and there’s no trees right nearby, then you don’t need as much land as you would if you had tall trees around the border of your property or something like that.

Brian:   Yeah, we want to position it facing due south as much as possible. Sometimes we’ve tilted it a little bit off the due south, but you want to get that facing due south to give the most opportunity to collect sun. And kind of a generic rule of thumb that you might use is if a tree in question would fall and it would hit the ground mount or your roof as well, if you’re thinking of it that way, that tree is likely to create shade. So if you’re thinking of how positioning a ground mount or is my roof good for solar as well, but you’re worried about this tree or that tree, think of it as if that tree were to fall towards where we’re targeting to put the solar array, would that tree likely hit it or not, I think is an indication. And if it’s falling and going to really smother the array, well it’s probably going to create more significant shade. Like I said, those ground mount units are lower to the ground and they will bring in more shade. So you really do want to target more open spaces.

John:    All right, well that’s really great information, Brian. Thanks again for speaking with me today.

Brian:   Thank you ,John.

John:    And for more information you can visit the website, it’s solarisrenewables.com or call (781) 270-6555.

Massachusetts is a leader in solar energy due to its RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard) that mandates utilities to use cleaner energy sources. Learn more in this interview with Solaris Renewables VP Brian Sadler.

John:    Hi, I’m John Maher and I’m here today with Brian Sadler, Vice President at Solaris Renewables, a solar company in Massachusetts providing premium solar and storage technologies with exceptional customer service; and designing, installing and servicing solar systems in Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire and Maine. Today our topic is why are Massachusetts Solar incentives so good? Welcome Brian.

Brian:   Hi John. Thanks for having me in.

Fossil Fuels Used for Electricity Generation in New England

John:    Yeah, sure. So Brian, we’re talking about incentives to get people to choose solar power and put solar panels on their roofs. As we know here in Massachusetts, a lot of our power comes from natural gas, and even the electricity that we get is created through natural gas at the power plant. But are there other fossil fuels for electricity generation that are being used here in New England and how much of a role do they play in it?

Brian:   That’s a good question and it leads to why renewables is so well-supported in the region really, and even outside of Massachusetts. Massachusetts has been a leader for a long time and has made regulations basically with goals that they put upon the utilities for cleaner power.

Some of that was what you brought up with natural gas, right? We used to burn mostly coal. And I remember as a kid, my father was a tugboat captain and brought coal into the Salem power plant. We used to go visit him there, and now that power plant is natural gas, and a lot of that is through the state’s support of renewables and dictating to the utilities you need to have certain milestones.

They had a 2020 plan, 2030, and now a 2050 plan as well, and no more burning coal. So they needed to invest in that infrastructure to transfer that, or retrofit, I should say, that plant from a coal-burning plant to a natural gas, so obviously a huge investment. That investment gets passed on to us, the ratepayers, which is often why we have some of the highest electricity rates in the country.

Nuclear is part of the mix as well, and other states do have coal as well. Sierra Club just sued the state of New Hampshire and won to get rid of coal in New Hampshire, so they’re sunsetting their last two coal-fired plants in New Hampshire coming up in the near future. And all this is with the mindset of burning cleaner fuel, right, for our residents and the environment to have cleaner air, water, and land as well.

And then on top of that, we don’t have any fossil fuels that we source here in New England, and they all need to be insourced and brought in from other parts of the country or world. So we ship in, we pipe in, natural gas. We barge in, like I said, right, in the past, coal, or truck in or train in coal, and then there’s no security or independence to that. So the only way for our region to have any of that energy security and independence is to generate it ourselves. And really, here in the northeast, specifically New England, not having any of those fossil fuels, it’s with renewables, and that’s why most of our states are strong supporters of solar and wind, geothermal adoption as well.

Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS)

John:    Okay. Can you explain what a renewable portfolio standard or RPS is and how it’s impacting the way that electricity is generated here in Massachusetts?

Brian:   Sure. That’s kind of the next level on what we were just talking about, that due to that regulation that the states have imposed upon the utilities, they’ve set a standard that a certain percentage of that energy mix that they generate needs to come from renewables. And the utilities can go and clear cut land or try to find mixed use land opportunities to install essentially large scale solar or wind projects, which is an investment and a lot of resources on their end, or otherwise, they can invest directly in solar and wind by paying those homeowners and business owners and landowners who choose to invest in solar or wind in some cases as well.

The renewable portfolio standard sets milestones and benchmarks on how much of the percentage of electricity generated needs to come from renewables, and then it really creates a market where there are income programs that homeowners and businesses can take advantage of by investing in solar and then get an income stream that helps offset their investment in solar as well.

It’s really a powerful tool that we have here in New England for homeowners and businesses to adopt solar, and it’s fairly unique. There’s a handful of states throughout the country that do have renewable portfolio standards, but it’s not standard across the country and it’s not commonplace, but it’s really an opportunity for us to accelerate the adoption of solar.

John:    So basically we’re, in Massachusetts, supposed to be having, like you said, a certain percentage of our energy coming from renewable sources, but rather than having the state doing that themselves, they’re basically giving money through incentives to homeowners and businesses to incentivize them to switch over to solar, and that counts toward that percentage.

Brian:   More so it’s really the state creating legislation and regulation for the utilities and saying, “Utilities, you’re the power generators, you need to have cleaner mix of power.” And the utilities are now motivated to either get fined for not hitting these benchmarks or go have significant investment in infrastructure to generate, to invest in renewable solar fields, for instance, and then generate power that way, or otherwise, RPS is a really strong way for the utilities to create payments in a market directly to those who invest in solar like homeowners and businesses.

That’s what it’s really designed to do is to get more of an energy mix and hit the benchmarks for cleaner energy solutions, and there’s really a whole market around it. We have third party energy suppliers now, energy being deregulated, so folks can choose, on their electric bill, their supplier. And a lot of those suppliers, for instance, are brokers who are choosing and selling their energy at a higher rate for homeowners to feel like they’re investing in a cleaner energy that way.

How those brokers are making greener power or cleaner power is by buying these mechanisms. They’re usually called renewable energy credits, and they’re buying these renewable energy credits or RECs to support renewables in that fashion, and so that’s how folks can support renewables. Corporations buy renewable energy credits as well, but utility is a primary driver and through the state legislation for the renewable portfolio standard and cleaner energy mix.

John:    You mentioned that Massachusetts has to bring in all of our fossil fuels that we use to burn and create electricity. Does increasing our reliance on solar, and possibly wind power as well, actually make New England more secure when it comes to our energy supply?

Brian:   Yeah, absolutely, right? Any fossil fuel has a market as well. In the winter our utility rates go up significantly because, again, we don’t have natural gas here, so we’re bringing it in, but we’re also heating our homes with natural gas, so there’s even more demand for natural gas between creating energy and for burning it for heating in our homes and businesses.

That demand increase drives up the cost, and that’s why we have significantly higher electricity costs. And so, we are subjected to essentially the natural gas market throughout the year. And because we don’t control or source any of that natural gas, the only way for us to have any independence from that or security against that is to generate our own power. And really, the only way that we can generate our own power is through renewables.

Solar is one of the most deployable renewable energy sources, given that it’s come so far and the market has matured and the equipment has matured to the place where it’s much more easily deployable to homes and businesses than wind is, for instance, or for geothermal. Wind and geothermal don’t necessarily work everywhere, and solar doesn’t necessarily work everywhere, but it’s more accessible and it does work more readily in more places.

Challenges to Integrating Solar Power into the New England Power Grid

John:    So we all know that solar power is better for the environment than burning fossil fuels, but are there any challenges to integrating solar power more fully into the New England power grid?

Brian:   Well, one of the biggest barriers is, I would say, the utility and regulation and the stress on our antiquated grid. Our grid is one of the oldest in the country, and there’s been marginal and incremental improvements to that over the last 140 years. By naturally adding more power onto that grid, be it from more population, more homes, more businesses, and then you’re adding another power source to it with solar or wind, it does create more stress on it.

And so one of the biggest barriers is the acceptance of the utility to update their equipment, and we have a whole movement called the grid modernization where the renewables industry, the utilities, the state and constituents are all looking at how do we modernize our grid in a safe and reasonable fashion that’s not disruptive.

It’s a huge challenge, and it’s a hard problem to solve, but one really great way to solve that is through smart adoption of renewables, and we just need to all work together to try to make that happen. But some of the grid infrastructure itself is limiting, and we have a lot of customers that have to invest in transformers upgrades in order to do their solar system, and it’s hard to make the ratepayers pay for that infrastructure, and that’s kind of how the rules are set right now.

I think that just the regulations that we have here make it challenging. There’s a lot of red tape. I mean, it’s also part of the reason our standards of living are so high here in New England is that we do have regulation that protects the general public as well. There’s certainly a balance, but I would say that’s one of the biggest challenges is the grid infrastructure.

By smaller systems being incrementally added, so mostly residential individuals investing in solar on the homes, we’re truly distributing power and distributing that load throughout state, and it’s really the most efficient way for us to get energy security and the energy independence and really distribute that power and energy generation throughout our state, our neighborhoods and communities and benefit for everyone as a whole.

Key Things Massachusetts Needs To Do To Become More Energy Independent

John:    So in terms of that energy independence, what do you think are some of the key things that Massachusetts has to do in order to become more energy independent and less reliant on outside sources for electricity?

Brian:   I think a lot of it is education of the general public and understanding how simple and easy the adoption of solar is. I think we’ve had some challenges in our industry with bad actors that have muddied the waters and make it confusing for homeowners and businesses and that has led to some hesitation with the quick and easy adoption.

We’ve seen a couple different bursts and boosts in our industry as a whole, and the adoption as a whole in Massachusetts and New England has been tremendous and growing mostly year-over-year, but there are still a lot of folks out there that don’t understand it yet or have been given conflicting information, which makes it confusing. I think a big piece is the education, and that’s on companies like ourselves and organizations that we work with to help get the information, the right information, into the general public’s hands.

And then I’d say other folks getting involved as well is a huge piece, but we have, fortunately, some of the best incentives here in New England due to these strong policy measures set by the state that allow us to have some of the best energy savings opportunities with the net metering programs we have, which are really strong and are secure for some time to come because of these benchmarks that the state has set, as well as because we have a strong renewable portfolio standard, there is quality income for homeowners and businesses to offset their investment in solar.

John:    All right. Well, that’s really great information, Brian. Thanks again for speaking with me today.

Brian:   Thanks, John, I appreciate it.

John:    And for more information, you can visit the Solaris Renewables website at SolarisRenewables.com or call 781-270-6555.

We talk about moving forward with solar energy, including tips for maximizing the benefits of solar power, how homeowners can stay informed about industry updates, emerging solar technologies, success stories from customers, and the next steps for people interested in exploring solar power in Massachusetts.

John Maher:     Hi, I’m John Maher, and I’m here today with Brian Sadler, Vice President at Solaris Renewables, a solar company in Massachusetts providing premium solar and storage technologies with exceptional customer service; and designing, installing, and servicing solar systems in Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire and Maine. Today our topic is moving forward with solar energy. Welcome, Brian.

Brian Sadler:     Hi, John. Nice to be with you today.

Tips for Maximizing the Benefits of Solar Energy in Massachusetts

John:    Yeah, you too. So Brian, what are some tips for maximizing the benefits of solar energy here in Massachusetts?

Brian:   Great question. I think a big piece is dictated by site conditions. Otherwise, I would say you want to talk to a local installer that is really in the weeds of what the local incentives are, local programs for financing or other opportunities to maximize the benefit of solar for the customer as well.

But in terms of the site conditions, it comes down to your orientation. So which way are you’re facing, right? Ideally you’re facing as much due south as possible, but if you’re facing almost due east-west it’s the opportunity to leverage one or both sides of your house as well. So there’s that piece.

And then we’re looking at shading or, really, lack thereof, and the position of trees or other obstacles that might cause shade on the roof. And then last, it’s really your roof space or how many panels can we fit compared to what you need or what your goals are.

So those things are really based on science, and the installer is going to use technology or in-person in some cases to really diagnose the science behind the site and be able to help guide the customer to how best to leverage solar for their property.

We also do ground mounted solutions. So potentially you have a beautiful house that has a lot of tree cover, but you have a large space, a field behind or next to you and you can look at fixed or tracking ground mounted solutions as well. So it really depends on the site conditions on how to best maximize it.

Staying Informed About Solar Industry Updates

John:    How can homeowners and businesses stay informed about solar industry updates?

Brian:   That’s a little bit of a tricky one. Unfortunately I would say, there’s a lot of dated and oftentimes misleading information. So I would say the best way, again, is to contact a local installer, someone that lives and works in your area, someone that’s going to have their finger on the pulse of the industry, the latest and greatest, what policy changes, regulations and incentive changes that there might be.

A lot of the larger national or regional companies are looking at a bigger picture. They might be working in 50 states or 25 states or 10 states, and they are not necessarily as involved in the local community and what the local state regulations and incentives that there may be. So I’d say really reaching out to a local installer is going to be the best bet to get the latest and greatest. There is a website called DSIRE, which has a lot of the incentives. It’s a little bit of a plain-Jane stodgy website. It’s very data orientated. It usually has fairly up to date information on it, but you can find out incentives for basically any energy product on that site as well.

Emerging Solar Technologies and Innovations

John:    And are there any emerging technologies or innovations in solar power that have happened recently or are about to happen in the industry?

Monitoring

Brian:   I wish I could predict the future and had the crystal ball, but there’s certainly been exciting things. I would say more on the technology, the connectivity side. So a lot of the interaction with peripherals to make this a complete energy system. So if we’re looking at solar power, you have your monitoring where you can view what the system is doing, and often we set up all of our customers with what’s called consumption monitoring, they can see what their home is doing as well, and that interaction between the two.

Battery Storage

And we do a lot of battery storage, that adds another layer to that. So you can see what the solar home and battery relationship is based on, what the home is doing, how long the battery might last, things like that.

Smart Panels & Smart Home Connectivity

And then similarly, we have the smart panels and a lot of smart home connectivity that has been emerging and I would say only growing more and more robust and going to have more and more peripherals coming soon as well.

EV Charging

EV charging is becoming more and more prevalent and we see that integrated into these systems as well, where you have some companies it’s one app that does your solar monitoring, your battery and your EV charging as well. And there’s some smart home peripherals that come with that. Sometimes you have a smart panel that might coalesce all of that information into one place as well. But I think we’re going to see a lot more connectivity, a lot more simple user interfaces right now. It’s a lot of monitoring, there’s some control depending on what you’re doing. And I think we’re going to see more and more integrations and more and more control over time.

Customer Success Stories – Switching to Solar Power

John:    Can you share any customer success stories, customers who have switched to solar power?

Brian:   Sure. We have thousands of them. I can speak to specifically a conversation I just had today. A customer emailed in with their electric bill and said, “Why do I owe them $300? I haven’t paid them all year.” And so I looked at the bill and chatted with them. And this is their first year of solar, so they’re still understanding how this system works for them and their family at their home. But they had more net metering credits from building up overproduction, so throughout this first year they’ve basically never had an electric bill. They’ve just been building up credit, building up credit.

John:    So their solar panels have been producing more electricity than they’ve used each month?

Brian:   Exactly, exactly. And when you do that, you’re able to build up credits and they’re real dollar amount credits that live on your electric bill. You can’t cash them out in terms of taking a check for them. But what you do is they’re just like “rollover minutes”, when there was a cell phone company years ago that had rollover minutes and if you didn’t use the minutes, they rolled over to the next month. It’s very similar to that. If you built up production credits from not paying the utility and pushing power onto the grid, then you’re building up credit that you can therefore use in future months.

So this customer had a lot, they had over $2,200 in credits, but they receive a bill and instead of seeing a negative amount, they saw that they owed the utility $300 or thereabouts, which was significant in itself, but certainly a lot more than they’ve been seeing this whole year. So I described to them like, this is better than we expected. Right? You’re overproducing more consistently and more than we told you you would. And this is the first time into the winter months where your solar system is not producing more than you’re using. And therefore you’re still subjected to all the same rates and fees that you would get from a normal electric or non-solar user. And in this case you do owe them money, but because you’ve built up credits, it just debits that amount, that $300, out of your $2,200 of built up credits, and therefore you continue to pay zero. So you still owe them $0.

John:    So here this person thought like, “Oh, now I have to pay money. What’s up with this?” But no, it’s actually out of that $2,200 that they have saved up, they only have to spend $300 of that to pay their bill this month.

Brian:   To pay this bill. It’s common. And it’s all modeled for that, we modeled for this. So the expectation is that, generally speaking, your solar system will not cover your need in the winter. So we want to look at spring, summer, early fall, when production…the days are longer, the sun’s up higher, your system is more productive and you’re able to build up those credits on your electric bill and therefore use those to try to get you through the winter.

Lots of customers are able to eliminate their electric bill altogether, other customers might only be able to do 80% or 70% or 40%. But the more of your bill you’re able to fix, the greater your savings and the better the economics are. But not everyone can eliminate their bill based on those site conditions we talked about earlier. Roof space is a big one. If you have a great site, but we can only fit, well, eight panels on there, well, you might’ve needed 16, so you’re going to cut your bill roughly in half, but you’re fixing that portion of your bill. Instead of being exposed to the constantly rising utility rates, which here in the Northeast we have the highest rates in the country and they’re going up the steepest as well.

So that was great news to deliver to this customer that you’re actually doing better than we thought and you continue to pay zero, which is great.

John:    Yeah, exactly.

Brian:   I know for myself and our family, we went solar just about eight years ago and we haven’t paid an electric bill since, which is great. We realized the tax credits, the local incentives, our system paid for itself very quickly and we’re able to fix our costs to zero. We don’t have to pay any electric bill anymore. Then we were able to add peripherals to our house, which was our long-term plan. We oversized our system slightly, knowing that we’re going to eventually do heat pumps, we’re going to eventually have an EV. We just, two weeks ago, added a battery system with a smart panel and an EV charger that’s integrated with it as well. And these things are new to us. Now I understand really well how they work. But it’s still going to take some time for us to understand how to best leverage that for our family. But it’s liberating to no longer pay an electric bill and to have the full control over all the systems in our house as well.

John:    To have that battery backup, so at nighttime or when everybody else in the neighborhood has a power outage or something like that, you’re actually able to use that battery backup to power your house.

Brian:   Exactly, right. It’s just a lot of security and then creature comfort, so if we do lose power we’re able to keep our whole home up and operating. It feels comfortable and secure and it makes the rest of my family…puts them at ease that we don’t necessarily have to worry about that. And we’ve had a lot of our employees in the space and are motivated, so a lot of our employees have gone solar as well and are now realizing all of those same benefits and not paying electric bills in most cases either.

The Next Steps For Someone Interested in Solar in Massachusetts

John:    What are the next steps then for someone who’s really interested in exploring solar options here in Massachusetts? What should they do next?

Brian:   I’d say reach out to us, of course. I’d always say reach out to a local installer, I think that’s the key piece. Of course, we’d love everyone to go solar with us, but more importantly, we’d love everyone to go solar, and we’re happy to work with anyone that wants to learn more about how it works in general, how it works specifically for their home. We provide customized consultations based on the science of their home. I wouldn’t say do your research, that’s what you want to leverage your local installer for. Talk to a few different local installers. Ask the same questions, see what you get for answers, who you’re comfortable working with, who you know and who you trust.

A lot of customers say, “Well, I want to do my own research.” And we find that a lot of times the information you find is not always complete, can be somewhat misleading and tactics to get you to go solar with them. Our website is really transparent, educational, I think you can find a lot of really valuable information.

Again, being a local installer, we focus on the local communities that we work in and these local states that we are up to speed on exactly what’s going on in terms of regulations, policy, code, and the incentives as well. And I think that we try to do as much local as we can. We try to use as much local products and services that we can. All of our employees live and work in the area. And of course our customers are our neighbors, and you’ll be treated as such. And that’s something that’s really important to us.

So that would be my recommendation, is always talk to a local company. There are a lot of companies out there that come into our state because our incentives are great and they come in and they don’t always last. There are companies that have been here a long time that have come from other states or national, but I would say overall the local installers and folks that do full service work are going to be who you get your most viable information from.

John:    All right, that’s great advice. Brian, thanks again for speaking with me today.

Brian:   Great John. Thanks for having me.

John:    And for more information, you can visit the website at solarisrenewables.com or call 781-270-6555.