SAN FRANCISCO – The solar installation business used to belong to mom & pops.
If you wanted to slap panels on your roof, you hunted around for a local installer. And while that’s still the way it works in much of the country, big players like SolarCity and Vivint are changing the business. Armed with nationwide marketing campaigns, they’re building up brands with broad public recognition, imprinting their names on the minds of homeowners who may one day want to go solar.
Now Soligent wants to help the mom & pops compete.
The company today will launch a suite of services that, together, work as a virtual back office for small, independent solar businesses. Dubbed the “Solar Engine,” Soligent’s new offering can help indies process permit applications, arrange financing and get better prices on equipment. It can also work as a matchmaker among independent solar businesses, pairing companies that excel at signing up new customers with those more focused on installation.
“We are basically that middle step — all the muck and junk that people don’t do well,” said Jonathan Doochin, Soligent’s CEO. “We empower them to do what they’re really good at.”
Based in the Sonoma County wine country, Soligent already bills itself as the nation’s largest solar distributor, working with roughly 4,500 dealers. The company grew out of the merger of DC Power Systems and Solar Depot and traces its history back 33 years. Doochin, a veteran of Clark Energy Group, became chief executive officer in 2013 and brought in a new management crew, as well as a new strategy.
Soligent had already offered some of the Solar Engine services for years. But it hadn’t packaged them together into something comprehensive. The new offering, Doochin said, gives small solar companies a way to compete against the big players while retaining their independence.
Full story by David R. Baker at sfgate.com/energy.
