Is it Finally Time for Solar?

For most of my career in roofing, I have been the one who was excited about solar rooftops.  But more often than not, I was a bit disappointed that the roofing industry did not out and out own the solar market and make every roof a power source.  Now GAF Energy is proposing changes that could ignite solar in the roofing industry once again.  I recently interviewed Martin DeBono, the president of GAF Energy and I would love to hear what RCS contractors and readers think of the interview and selling and installing solar during re-roof projects?  Here is the post

Yes, it very much is. I have been in the solar industry for 10 years, I've had several types of jobs in the industry, and I have personally sold over 300 residential systems.

Roofers are in the perfect position to sell and/or install solar. At the very least a roofing company can get a referral fee, at the most they can be the solar installer. At this point there are a ton of resources and compartmentalized solar companies that make installing solar doable when you have an existing construction company. Companies specialize in just selling solar, or just financing it, or even doing the O&M on the back end (which is greatly needed). A roofing company does not need to do it all, they can leverage their personal strengths and can find good partners to enter the solar installation industry.

My concern though is quality. A solar installation needs to be done correctly in selling, designing, installation and management. A solar install must be treated with respect, and it must be done with knowledge and care.

We are seeing solar take off as an industry due to lowered pricing, increased Utility pricing and the best most recent development is building codes requiring solar installs on new construction.

I now work for a company that develops software using imaging so a solar project can be designed and sold without anyone getting on the roof until the day of the install. We are already used in the roofing industry and hope to do for solar what we have already done for roofing.

I am always happy to discuss solar!

Thank you!  We really appreciate the feedback!