Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Building the Solar Economic Ecosystem
To me, people joining the solar workforce are all rock stars in the figurative sense, but
an example of someone who has joined the solar industry and is also literally a rock star
is Rue Phillips, onetime guitarist for the heavy-metal band Black Sabbath. He now runs
a company that cleans and maintains solar systems, and he's another hero of the Solar
Ascent because his company is an early example of the ancillary services that will be a
byproduct of the mass manufacture and deployment of solar panels.
Followinghismusiccareer,Ruebecame anelectrician, andwhilebuildingacontract-
ing business he had his eyes on solar, which he saw as an up-and-coming solution. Hav-
ingbeenanindoorwiremaninhomesforacoupleofdecades,heknewthesolarpotential
of the skin of residential buildings. He taught himself and his crews how to install solar
systems while doing other electrical work in the residential sector, and he realized that a
bigger opportunity would be managing them over time.
Even though the solar panel is very low maintenance, with no moving parts, it does
need to be cleaned occasionally, and at times things do happen, like squirrels nesting un-
der it or branches falling onto it. Furthermore, the inverter and some of the other com-
ponents need maintenance from time to time, and as millions of these systems are in-
stalled, more of them will need annual service calls. So Rue took some risks, invested
someofhisownmoneytoretoolhiscrewsandbuynewtrucks,andwithabusinesspart-
ner built out True South Renewables, a company that's now dominant in several regions
in providing operation and maintenance services to the solar industry.
At the start of 2012, two-year-old True South had more than 200 megawatts under
contract and another 500 megawatts in negotiation, from Texas to Ontario and in quite
a few US states in between. Rue's business services small rooftops and big utility-scale
solarprojects,withbothbigandsmallsolar-panelarrays;butifallthedealshehasinthe
works were single-family homes, there would be some 40,000 of them. In other words,
his company will create a lot of jobs in the years to come as it provides what he calls
“gold standard packages,” which include a once-a-year audit, or check of the system; a
panel washing; and 24-hour emergency tech callout service. True South could become
the Geek Squad of solar—or even something bigger—very soon.
This is just one example of hundreds of creative companies springing up in the eco-
system surrounding the Rooftop Revolution. I'm on the board of The Solar Foundation,
whichconductsanannualcensusofsolarjobcreationintheUnitedStates.Thisisafairly
perfunctoryprocessofcountingheadsincompanies—lessmodelingexerciseoreconom-
ic forecast than an actual census of people employed directly by the solar industry. It's
from this National Solar Jobs Census that the Solar Energy Industries Association can
claim 100,000 jobs now in the industry, which is a wonderful result for all Americans.
