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.