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Stuart Garfield
Friday, December 5, 2008
Solar panel installers jump 200% under Mass. program
By Efrain Viscarolasaga
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Advances in photovoltaic technologies are helping to make residential and commercial solar systems more efficient, and tax breaks and financial support from both federal and state programs are making them more affordable. But let’s face it, neither lab-coat-wearing scientists nor suit-wearing politicians are going up on your roof to install your new solar panels.
Solar installers, on the other hand, are basking in business and lining up work from both residential and commercial clients over the next few years, and as a result are creating jobs and jockeying for top position.
The number of primary solar installers registered with the state has jumped from 25 to 75 since the state launched its $68 million Commonwealth Solar program last December, and that doesn’t include the dozens of subcontractors used by those firms, according to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
“The Commonwealth Solar program has been very successful — 400 projects have been supported so far — and as a result, there is a lot of work (for installers),” said Robert Keough, an assistant secretary in the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
The trend has also been felt nationwide. The North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, which provides certifications for installers through education and qualification exams, said the number of member institutions that have begun offering such exams has jumped 39 percent since August. The number of students that have taken the exam has jumped 27 percent since the beginning of 2007.
Rollup strategy
Locally the installation industry has also grown through acquisitions.
Bob Chew, the founder of SolarWrights Inc. in Bristol, R.I., has been in the solar-contracting business since 1977. His company has been on a spending spree over the past year, first acquiring Springfield-based Kosmo Solar Inc. in January, and then Solar Works Inc. of Stamford, Conn., this past September. The deals have given SolarWrights, traditionally a commercial system installer focused in southern New England, a larger presence in the residential market, as well as a reach that spans from Maine to New York.
SolarWrights’ move to consolidation is being funded by Boston-based private equity firm Riverside Partners LLC, which has helped raise $15 million to form the group’s holding company, Earth Friendly Energy Group Holdings LLC, according to federal documents. In the coming weeks, SolarWrights, which is also forming WindWrights and EnergyWrights divisions under the same umbrella, will announce a new name for what is now a 115-person organization — Alteris Renewables Inc., according to Chew.
In North Andover, Nexamp Inc. is among the fastest growing “newbies” in the industry. Founded three years ago, the company has gone from 10 employees last year to 25 today, focusing on both the logistics of getting a solar system up and running, as well as the actual installations. The company is led by vice president Jonathan Abe, a former manager at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Renewable Energy Trust, and president Daniel Leary, a former U.S. Army captain with the Army Medical Service Corps during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
According to Abe, the firm does the vast majority of installation work on its own and has tapped a vein of former military personnel with engineering training to help.
“Of our hires, probably half have renewable energy experience, while the other half have experience in other areas, such as tank mechanics,” he said.
According to Keough, the trend is also drawing interest from more traditional local industries, such as electrical contractors and HVAC companies, as well as from companies outside of New England, such as California-based Borrego Solar Systems Inc., which has grown from 10 employees to 30 in its Lowell office and announced plans to expand its local operation this past summer.
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