Northeast Ohio isn't known for an abundance of sunny days, but thanks in part to Ohio's relatively high energy prices, there are apparently enough rays to heat up the solar energy business.
Powerhome Solar said it's been going like gangbusters installing photovoltaic panels on area homes since it opened an office in Valley View in early 2018. The facility has quickly grown to employ 80 people and is looking for more, company officials said.
"It's been a great office for us," said Jayson Waller, CEO and co-founder of the North Carolina-based company.
The entire company has grown rapidly since Waller helped start it in 2015, he said. Powerhome finished that first year with 35 employees and about $4 million in sales, while today it has a payroll of 1,200 employees and expects sales to top $250 million, Waller said.
And Ohio has hardly been a small portion of its success.
"Ohio is our second-largest market … behind Michigan," Waller said, adding that both markets have seen more solar sales than North Carolina, which ranks third among the 10 states in which PowerHome operates.
In addition to the Valley View office, PowerHome has an office in Columbus, with more than 100 employees, that is growing rapidly, he added.
Clearly, the huge number of left-leaning environmentalists that make up the majority of residents in the Buckeye State accounts for the sales, right?
Waller knows as well as any Ohioan that that's not the case. In fact, he said, most of his company's customers in Ohio are rural and tend to be Republican. It's not that they're not pro-environment, but Waller said other factors have pushed them to put solar panels on their roofs and in their yards.
Federal tax credits have driven up sales across the U.S., though the credits are slated to go away after 2022 and already are being decreased, Waller noted.
However, Ohio and Michigan show stronger sales than other places for a different reason, he said.
"Those are great states for solar power because the cost of (traditional electric) power is so high," Waller explained. "People think that you have to have sun and that's all you need, and that's a big part of it. But the cost of power is an important component."
He reasons that's why Michigan is his top state for sales — with its electricity costing homeowners about 16 cents per kilowatt hour. Ohio is in second place because costs here are typically between 13 cents and 14 cents per kilowatt hour. That compares with only 10 cents in North Carolina, Waller noted.
Almost all of Powerhome's sales in Ohio are for residential projects. One customer is Eric Trio, a music teacher at St. Clairsville Elementary School in Richland County who put eight solar panels on his home in 2018 and then added four more in 2019. Trio said the savings he saw on his electric bills made him want to expand his system while federal tax credits are still in effect. All told, he said he's got about $16,000 invested in the system.
"It was definitely a great energy- saver for us, especially when we get to the summer and are running the AC and a pool pump," Trio said.
Last summer, Trio said his average electricity costs were about $160 a month — down about $100 from what he paid before having solar power. He also sells power back to the electricity grid when he can't use it.
Trio said he's hoping that this summer, the first with the four new panels he installed last year, will show even greater savings as the amount of his power from solar increases from about 50% of the electricity he uses to more than 60%.
In the meantime, some of his neighbors have been visiting to see his solar panels and are thinking of installations themselves. That's something Waller said often happens and results in more sales for his company.
Meanwhile, Powerhome is proving to be a source of new jobs and careers for its workers, including Jeremiah Trajkovski, project manager for the Valley View location.
Before taking that job, Trajkovski was a crew leader for Powerhome in Michigan. Prior to that, he was a squad leader in the Marine Corps who served in Afghanistan and managed to get all 13 of his squad members home safely.
Asked if he's afraid of heights — which Waller said is the biggest limiting factor to working on rooftops to install solar panels — Trajkovski just laughed.
"Not at all" he said. "I rappelled down from choppers, was a skydiver, all of that. … This is nothing."
It also pays significantly more than the Marine Corps, he added. But Trajkovski also is in charge of a larger group of people and looking to recruit more.
"I have three crews right now. They're six-man crews. I also have three service techs, so I have 21 employees working for me … and we're definitely still hiring," Trajkovski said, noting that he's currently trying to put together a fourth crew of installers to keep up with demand.
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