Latest / Clean Power Hour / SDE's Approach to Solar Racking: What DG Installers Need to Know #348

Transcript

SDE's Approach to Solar Racking: What DG Installers Need to Know #348 · Clean Power Hour

• 0:50
  Kyle Sinclair: The problems that we heard in the market, or a lot of pieces and parts are imported from overseas. You know, mainly in high volume distribution residential market, there's lengthy lead times that come with some of those components, and especially on the commercial project side, and the price point is a little higher than we anticipated when we entered the market back in 2015 so those were the three main problems that we wanted to solve. Was we wanted to be faster to market with USA made material. We wanted to provide quick turnaround times with our engineering solutions, and normally we're within two days for a residential, signed and sealed draw package, and we're within four days for a commercial, signed and sealed drop package.
• 1:43
  intro: The clean energy industry is moving fast. The deals are getting bigger. The technology is evolving, and the stakes have never been higher. Welcome to the Clean Power Hour, the podcast for solar storage and micro grid professionals who want to stay ahead of it all each week, your host, Tim Montague, industry advisor and president of clean power Consulting Group, brings you unfiltered conversations with the leaders actually building the energy transition. Now here's your host, Tim Montague,
• 2:18
  Tim Montague: today on the Clean Power Hour ground mount and carport solar. My guest today is the co founder and CEO of SDE Sinclair designs and engineering. It's so great to have you on the show. Kyle,
• 2:32
  Kyle Sinclair: thank you so much,
• 2:34
  Tim Montague: and we and just so our listeners know we are going to be doing a webinar with a couple of partners of yours also, but this is part one of bringing Sinclair onto the show.
• 2:43
  Tim Montague: And as my listeners know, I am a total geek for racking and here we are in 2026 there are massive opportunities in both carport and ground mount solar particularly in the DG market.
• 2:57
  Tim Montague: Of course, there's a utility scale market which is dominated by trackers, and we have nothing against trackers. They generate good l Coe, and it's a grand experiment. On the other hand, we'll see if those mechanisms hold up to the test of time. But Kyle, give our listeners a little background on yourself.
• 3:17
  Tim Montague: You're also a Navy veteran.
• 3:17
  Tim Montague: Thank you for your service. And what is it that inspired you to create a solar racking company?
• 3:25
  Kyle Sinclair: Yeah, you know, out of all the products that are out there in the solar market, racking is not, you know, the most breakthrough technology that's going to change everything, but it's a very important piece of that puzzle, you know, for a very large investment. And we're, we're down there on the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to, you know, total cost of the project.
• 3:45
  Kyle Sinclair: But we became really passionate when we started hearing the problems in the market from customers, you know, our value add to our customers is that vertical integration of professional licensed engineering services with manufacturing. And when I say manufacturing, I mean it we make every single component in house with USA made prime steel, where a lot of the groups out there that offer racking solutions are having to subcontract a lot of the components out to roll four mores or stampers or various other groups. So the the problems that we heard in the market were a lot of pieces and parts are imported from overseas. You know, mainly in high volume distribution residential market. There's lengthy lead times that come with some of those components, and especially on the commercial project side, and the price point is a little higher than we anticipated when we entered the market back in 2015 so those were the three main problems that we wanted to solve. Was we wanted to be faster to market with USA made material. We wanted to provide quick turnaround times with our engineering solutions, and normally we're within two days for a residential, signed and sealed draw package, and we're within four days for a commercial, signed and sealed drop package. So our customers really appreciate that responsiveness, that quick turnaround times on the engineering. They also really appreciate the speed that we can deploy components because we're manufacturing in house, and we're doing everything turn key.
• 5:33
  Kyle Sinclair: We can, we can produce three megawatts of ground mount racking in a single eight hour shift.
• 5:41
  Tim Montague: Wow. I love, I love this angle. American made.
• 5:47
  Tim Montague: Great customer service, fast turnaround and. And you have built an amazing name for yourself. I have to say, we met when I was still at continental energy solutions, back in probably 2019 something like that. 2018 2019 and and the world has changed since then.
• 6:05
  Tim Montague: You know, solar installers and developers have many choices when it comes to these products, but you have carved out a niche here in the heartland. Paid a little more nuance into, you know, why, why you guys are thriving the way you are.
• 6:24
  Kyle Sinclair: You know, I think the most critical thing when it comes to crown mount, design, engineering and manufacturing, is to take away the sales side of it. And I have nothing, nothing against sales people in this industry, by any means, but we took the approach of, hey, engineering first, and we'll be the first ones to tell potential customer that, hey, our system isn't the best fit for this application or these site specific variables, whether it's soil conditions or topography or, you know, high wind loads and hurricane areas, we have no problems, you know, pushing those potential customers To better solutions. You know, we're, we're big fans of APA and omco and RBI, and there's, there's a lot of good groups out there, including MT solar out of Montana. Really, really solid system design and good engineering behind those where we really add the value is when the customer is in a pinch for speed, if there's a timeline issue, what we've really seen this year is all that pull forward because of Safe Harbor regulations, and a lot of the key players in the industry are focused on the larger, you know, 100 plus megawatt size projects for data centers and some of the rural, high profile jobs. So there's kind of this, this gap in that under 15 megawatt range where we do really well. So when Safe Harbor Jobs came up, being able to deploy 1.5 megawatts in a couple days, made those EPCs feel very comfortable with specifying our products, because there's no issues with lead times, and because we're handling the project development from start to finish internally, we're handling the structural engineering. We're working with those specific counties on the structural permits to make sure that everything is in order, and then we're designing to those site specific requirements, so we're able to quickly release the work orders for those custom parts and have them made same day.
• 8:43
  Tim Montague: Let's talk about some of your products and the evolution of those products. In the pre show you had mentioned the sky rack 2.0 origin story. I think that's a good place to start. And and then we'll, we'll talk about some of you know this your new I beam ground mount system is also very interesting.
• 9:04
  Kyle Sinclair: Yeah, yeah, the sky rack 2.0 it was introduced in the market at the right time.
• 9:11
  Kyle Sinclair: I think that's why we grew and we're so successful early on.
• 9:14
  Kyle Sinclair: Because growing a company is hard, it's brutal, it's a grind.
• 9:19
  Kyle Sinclair: And what we saw we I kind of came into the narc the market, you know, very naive, where we saw solar booming in Michigan in my original plan was, hey, there's a lack of installers, and there's not a lot of groups supporting residential ground mount installers with pile drivers. So in Michigan, you know, climax was a big popular company before they went bankrupt, and they did a lot of ground screws, and they were specking in a lot of sun Moto and RBI product up here. So we look at that as you know, we came in with pile drivers, and we were offering residential installers, installs with ground mount systems. So that's how we started. We also got to put our hands on a lot of the other products, we installed a lot of sun Moto and RBI and ready rack, all great systems and solutions, but the one we fell in love with was schlutter, and that was one of our favorite systems to install because of the simplicity of the design and the minimal hardware requirements.
• 10:27
  Kyle Sinclair: So we took all the lessons learned from things we didn't like about other products and things we loved about schleter and designed the sky rack 2.0
• 10:39
  Tim Montague: cool, and just give us a quick overview exactly what we're talking about. Is this a is this a 2p fixed tilt that's.
• 10:51
  Kyle Sinclair: Yeah, the sky racks a too high portrait. You know, as the we get that question a lot from customers on, you know, hey, we've got a four high landscape design. And, and do you offer landscape designs? And I say, Oh, well, what panel are you using? And they give me the spec of the module, and it's pretty much equidistance in width doubled by length. So a two high portrait versus a four high landscape takes up the same amount of square footage and requires less steel based on the bolt requirements on our rack to the module frames. So we looked at it as a more cost effective design solution. But there are some modules still out there that are mainly roof mount panels that are, you know, little wider and a little shorter so you can maximize space so, but we we just don't see a lot of those panels used on Commercial installs.
• 11:52
  Tim Montague: You made a post recently on LinkedIn about a project of yours that was hit by a tornado, and one of the topics that we visit and will be visiting regularly here on the Clean Power Hour is how robust our solar projects are, how they're holding up against the weirding of the weather that is happening, it's it's undeniable that there are more storms, and this includes ice storms and hail storms, wind storms, Fire storms. So when you think about preparing and designing projects and products to withstand where we're at and where we're going in terms of extreme weather. How do you approach that?
• 12:45
  Kyle Sinclair: Yeah, I mean, that's the stuff that keeps you up at night, especially during, you know, tornado season, which we're about to enter, the peak here in Michigan. And you know, tornado Valley has shifted, and Southern Michigan's right at the tip of that new Valley. And I looked at a little bit of data after we talked yesterday, just to understand Michigan's weather and how it's changed. And our average in our state of tornadoes is 16 a year. And in 2025 we had 33 tornadoes.
• 13:23
  Tim Montague: Wow.
• 13:23
  Kyle Sinclair: And in 2026 we've, we haven't even entered peak season, and we're already at 19. So you know, we're seeing that because of that, that shift, we do have more severe weather in our areas and and so when we design our systems right, we're designing to the ASCE national requirements or county requirements, you know, based on a 20 to 50 year window of data, but we look at it realistically, like, hey, this data isn't that valid anymore.
• 13:55
  Kyle Sinclair: You know, we're seeing, we're seeing a big shift, and we're seeing increased wind loads in new counties that never experienced. You know, 140 mile an hour winds in Michigan. So because of all these additional wind events, you know, we we want to take the extra time to make sure that we're providing a solution that's going to last 50 years out in the field. It's and we've had a lot of systems, you know, tried and tested out in Michigan, we've had systems that have taken direct hits. We've had failures from direct hits.
• 15:29
  Kyle Sinclair: You know, at 200 mile an hour wind loads from an f3 but those are have been so minimal that, you know, when our customers panic in a situation like that, we always come through and support them, whether or not the warranties covered will will still help them through that situation and provide the steel for free or at a reasonable price.
• 15:56
  Tim Montague: And you know, here in Illinois, we have very deep top soil, you can get away with a C channel. But as as you were discussing yesterday, you've now developed an I beam product for other soil types. Tell us about tell us about foundations and the different types of foundations.
• 16:18
  Kyle Sinclair: Yeah, yeah. You know, the C channel has has done really well in the Midwest.
• 16:23
  Kyle Sinclair: We've taken on a lot of the fixed tilt market share in Midwest states. There are areas that we wanted to expand to geographically specific areas in Texas and in some areas on the West Coast. And I hated losing those jobs, and we saw the trend that, hey, we're we're, it's not about our price or our speed, it's just about our design solution. A lot of EPCs in certain areas prefer I beam because of the high refusal rates of sea channels in rockier soil conditions. So when you're driving a C channel and it hits a six inch Boulder, it will damage the bottom, it'll flare the steel. It'll J hook. It's harder to drive those straight.
• 17:17
  Kyle Sinclair: And those larger machines, like the Vermeers and the geics, have a lot of hydraulic pressure on those channels. So, or if they hit an underground obstruction that they can't get through, you know, they have to pull out the sea channel and try and reuse it plus or minus two feet from that pre designed location. So oftentimes, when they would do that, they pull the sea channels out and they just be trashed. So they they'll scrap them, throw them away. That adds a lot of cost, also adds a lot of time and labor to the project. So in, you know, I made it a goal that, you know, we wanted to hit those new geographical areas with a product and a solution that those customers needed. And our six by nine and our six by 15, I beam solutions is performing really well in those new locations.
• 18:07
  Tim Montague: And then the other thing I think about, just in terms of robustness of a ground mount solar array, is how the module is attaching to the purlins. There are a couple of factors also. It's the mechanical strength and robustness, but also the speed of installation, the ease of installation. So tell us a little bit about how SDE approaches that.
• 18:33
  Kyle Sinclair: Yeah, we took a very simple approach. You know, the our our rack, is really just designed with four main components, you know, we have a post, a truss, a strut and a Perlin, and then each of those have their own profiles or their own grades that based on coil that we stock that helps us design two different site specific variables across the country. So when a customer calls out of South Carolina and they need a system that you know needs to handle 160 mile an hour wind loads for hurricanes, my professional engineers will design it with a grade 80 yield and likely thicker steel. Will also change the profile on the fly to make sure that we're giving the customer the you know, best design solution for those higher yields that are needed on the on the I beam side, one thing that is challenging with with groups that provide I beam systems is the manufacturing process. You know, handling i beams from the mills are difficult. These are 40 foot beams. They're they come in very heavy bundles. They have to be handled properly, and they have to be saw, cut and punched and then shipped to a galvanizer. So there's a lot more extra layers. So when we brought that new design solution, we worked backwards and focused on efficiency of manufacturing. So we have automated I beam punch lines that handle all of that in one process, and so we're able to get the cost down on that I beam solution that is more cost effective than most competitors C channel designs, so we're offering a more robust product at a cost effective price.
• 20:37
  Tim Montague: Let's talk about supply chain and distribution.
• 20:41
  Tim Montague: You are now available through two means, direct or via green tech, renewables. And what are the pros and cons of working direct and via distribution?
• 20:56
  Kyle Sinclair: Yeah, it's direct. Is, is an easy workflow process for us on the commercial side, residential puts a little straight on us as we grew and because, because, really what we are is we're coil manufacturers right for our sky rack 2.0 ground mount system for C channels and z perlins. And so we process about 3 million pounds of coil through our manufacturing facility a month.
• 21:24
  Kyle Sinclair: And as we scaled to that level, the calls from Legacy Sinclair customers that ordered ground mounts kitted to their project site became challenging. So we would have, and I remember.
• 21:40
  Kyle Sinclair: Dawned on me the first time I drove to work and there was 10 to 15 trucks backed up waiting to get loaded at my facility, and it's like, oh my goodness, what? What did we do? How did we get here? So, and you may have one truck showing up to get 40,000 pounds that's going direct to a commercial project site. And then the next truck was showing up, and it had to be a kitted 40 panel system, you know, 40 panel rack, only 1500 pounds. So we really had to step back and look at what made the most sense, and how we can get our shipping and receiving and our manufacturing process aligned to be the most efficient as possible, and so that's when we started to look for partners in distribution and green tech, renewables was one of the first groups to give us a shot, and we've had a tremendous amount of success with partnering with specific warehouses who are stocking our products in bulk, and then when that customer reaches out to Sinclair for a kitted rack, we can push them to our distribution partners.
• 22:52
  Tim Montague: Very good, very good. Yeah, you know, manufacturers have many challenges when it comes to working directly with customers.
• 23:02
  Tim Montague: You have to be a logistics company. In addition to being a very good engineering design and manufacturing company, the logistics matter so much stuff has to arrive on the day and time that you say it's going to these are often remote sites, and certain staff are only going to the site when they're receiving shipments. You also are having to make sure that all the parts and pieces are there, and you don't have to send an additional shipment to that site because of some missing part or piece. Do you want to talk a little bit about logistics?
• 23:47
  Kyle Sinclair: Yeah, I mean, it's especially when you're you're growing and you're scaling. You know, you don't want to hear those gripes and complaints from customers or get those calls that you know they're missing some some parts on the field. But we, we really took the approach that we want to do things right, and along that journey, we committed to an ISO 9001 program, which is a quality management system that's internationally recognized. And through that, it really required us to develop those processes and procedures and have all those checks in the boxes, and have the training solutions for our shipping and receiving team and for the guys who are loading trucks and picking products, you know, off the shelves to load properly. So we saw a dramatic change in in how accurate we could be. You know, there's other automation that we're in the process of adding, where we're working with key instance technology, and integrating that into our ERP system. So the guys have the scanners every time they scan. You know, that bundle of z perlins, it's reconciled in the system and its load images are taken immediately, so everyone is is is proper to what that Bill of Material requires, but we still have human error that happens that's always going to be a part of it, but we're proud, because we've set some pretty high standards when it comes to delivery accuracy and delivery timing, we currently hold, you know, a 95% delivery accuracy rating in our ERP system, so anytime there is a missing component or a part or an issue that's cataloged properly, and we have reports in our system, And so we're able to set those goals per quarter and then give that feedback to our group. So that way, if we see it track over, we have time to adjust and fix those problems internally.
• 25:55
  Tim Montague: The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America's number one three phase string inverter with over 10 gigawatts shipped in the US. The CPS product lineup includes string inverters ranging from 25 kW to 350 kW, their flagship inverter, the CPS 350 KW is designed to work with solar plants ranging from two megawatts to two gigawatts. CPS is the world's most bankable inverter brand, and is America's number one choice for solar plants now offering solutions for commercial utility ESS and balance of system requirements go to Chintpowersystems.com or call 8555846, 7168, to find out more great. Let's shift to carports. I think carport is one of the less utilized racking solutions. There are reasons for that, but ostensibly, you know, we have a a huge amount of real estate in urban areas that are parking lots and could host car ports, which provide energy to the host as well as shade for the customers. And that is a win, win. But how long have you been in the carport business and tell us about those products?
• 27:28
  Kyle Sinclair: Yeah, the first carport we designed was in 2017 2018 I think it was continental electric that, and I think we were working together on one of the first couple carport jobs in Chicago that we had sold, you know,
• 27:48
  Tim Montague: was that the Archdiocese,
• 27:51
  Kyle Sinclair: oh, I cannot remember. I feel like it was a library,
• 27:55
  Tim Montague: okay,
• 27:56
  Kyle Sinclair: but, you know, nothing, nothing big. It was pretty, pretty small system. But those, those carport jobs, come with a lot more risk, and we learned that very quickly, that we took the approach where we wanted to be very picky with who we partner with on carports, because we do offer a very good system design at a cost effective price, And we can deploy pretty fast to market with those products. The challenge we had early on was, you know, they our customer portfolio was mainly ground mounts. So as soon as those customers heard that Sinclair is providing carports, a lot of those groups wanted to start selling carports, but they didn't have the experience needed for all of the challenging construction that comes with that, specifically the foundation requirements and drilling holes and, you know, doing foundation cages and setting and aligning things proper, and then building structures that are, you know, 25 feet tall. So we we saw a lot of risk early on, just because we didn't have the right partners. So we really had to focus on, you know, okay, who's, who's got experience in installing these, these structures, you know, who are asking the right questions? So as those leads were coming in, and customers were really interested in our carport project. We all, we took the approach that we're vetting them, you know, versus, oh, this is a sale. It's, I don't know, you know. Let's, let's see if you have the right experience and and you have the right attitude to go into these jobs, knowing that these jobs are going to be difficult. Every single system is going to be designed custom to those site specific variables, and we're all putting a lot of of money and time and effort to making sure that these jobs are going to be smooth. So we were very, very lucky to get to partner with groups like Gen mounts, renewable energy holdings. James tritsky and Sid Lentz are just wonderful guys to work with, and they they have that, that same approach that we do, where you know, if we're going to do this job, it's going to be done right. And so we have a really strict workflow that we manage with them, and we're also able to adapt to challenges pretty quickly. Not. I don't, I can't think of one carport job in the history that's like, Everything went perfect, right? It was just smooth sailing, right? There's always something, whether it's, oh, we're drill. I think we had one in New York recently where they were drilling and they hit an air pocket and realized that there were underground tunnels below the parking lots that they didn't know existed, you know, that were on its city records and things like that. So having to work with the city and design some spread footer solutions and make sure that we can achieve the same timeline and keep that customer happy. That's we started getting really, really good at that throughout those projects.
• 31:07
  Tim Montague: I'm curious what advice you have for developers and installers who are self developing. There's, it's, it's easy to think about a carport on the surface from a helioscope perspective, but as soon as you really get into the engineering, it gets complicated fast, and one of the challenges from a development and sales perspective is you don't know, for example, what the soil is.
• 31:33
  Tim Montague: You haven't done soil testing, and yet you're asked to price up the project so that you can get a contract in. Place or an LOI, and start doing some of that more detailed work. So what are the what are the three or four things that EPCs should think about and prioritize in the process of developing a carport project?
• 31:59
  Kyle Sinclair: Yeah, well, first go in knowing that carports are expensive, right? So just having that mentality that this is going to be a tough project and it's going to be expensive and there's no cut corners, is step number one. Step number two is, you know, we've done enough projects in our portfolio to see a little bit of everything and different soil conditions and spread for designs versus hex cage designs. So we can offer a lot of that price variance up front, so they can budget accordingly to win those jobs and to be successful in making margins on those jobs. So a lot of the time, you know, we'll offer solutions that say, Hey, if the geotech comes back in these levels, you can expect your price point to be in this range based on the different footers that we're going to use.
• 32:57
  Kyle Sinclair: But if it comes back Sandy, and the OD of the hole needs to go larger, and those holes need to be deeper. You know, the drilling guys are going to charge you X amount more. So a lot of the guys in the project development, we just give them those numbers so they can plan for a worst case scenario. If, if you plan for the worst case scenario and you budget accordingly, then everyone will have a successful project. It's always the one where you're in the field and you're drilling and, you know, it's in the contract, right? The subcontracted guys say, like, hey, if we hit rock, you know, we've got to take time to connect the rock drill and connect the water hoses to that, and it's going to take, you know, three or four more hours to drill through this. You know, your price per hole went from$1,500 to $2,800 so you know, knowing those numbers up front in planning for those on site challenges, you know, helps everyone budget accordingly.
• 33:59
  Tim Montague: Anything else about carport our listeners should know?
• 34:04
  Kyle Sinclair: Yeah, I think, you know, we're, we're definitely seeing a huge uptick in the carport market, and the looking at the metrics and the KPIs in my system, especially going back three, four years.
• 34:22
  Kyle Sinclair: You know, those RFQs are coming in consistently more, and it's not just because Sinclair is gaining brand recognition in the market, but it's because it's it's getting to a point where it's more price competitive, and that certain areas, especially with areas that have demand charges and peak charges during demand hours. It's it's a better return on investment when you have a large parking lot. We're also seeing at the same time, which is challenging. Kind of back to your original question.
• 35:00
  Kyle Sinclair: Is supply chain challenges. You know, it's, they call it the solar coaster for a reason, and the supply chain is a big part of that, whether it's panels or high demand on steel components or flexing steel prices due to tariffs and, you know, global issues that are outside of our control. So when one thing I would highly recommend, you know, to new carport installers, is, when you find a partner, you're going to see that there is going to be fluctuation in change orders, you know, based on the time you order systems.
• 35:40
  Kyle Sinclair: And so communicate clearly with the manufacturers. A lot of the times, we quoted a job a year ago, and those guys come back and they're like, Hey, we got this job. Here's the PO and it's right. And in the reality, it's like, hey, steel prices have gone up 30% you know, I can't commit to this price. So working through that, and constantly communicating through the project development phase, and just being open and honest and letting customers know that, hey, we're seeing some trends.
• 36:09
  Kyle Sinclair: If you want this price, we should lock it in now. My team does a really excellent job at that, at working with the EPCs and offering those updates
• 36:19
  Tim Montague: so your quotes are good for 30 days, or what is the window?
• 36:22
  Kyle Sinclair: You know, ground mount prices we normally lock in for a year,
• 36:26
  Tim Montague: okay?
• 36:27
  Kyle Sinclair: You know, as the manufacturer and as the guy that oversees our procurement processes, you know, we have really clear windows of when we went to order based on where the crew index. Is on steel coil, and we've done really, really well at purchasing at the right times. Some of that was luck, but, but because we buy prime steel from USA Mills, you know, our crew lag time can be six to nine months. So we're procuring steel now for the forecast in q3 and q4 so
• 37:08
  Tim Montague: sure.
• 37:09
  Kyle Sinclair: So that allows us to lock in our pricing for our strategic partners and our distribution channels or legacy customers and repeat buyers of Sinclair products. And they really, really value that, because they're not having to be concerned with chasing prices on the carports. It's quoted by job. And it's also, you know, quoted within a 90 day open window, and that's based on our inventory. So we do inventory fairly heavy on laser cut plates, you know, five by five, seven gage tubing and 16 by 50 pound i beams. You know, we'll go in at the in, and we'll spend cash to inventory heavy to keep our costs as low as possible for our customers
• 37:59
  Tim Montague: in our last few minutes together, Kyle, where's what's what's the future of SDE, and if you have comments about, you know, industry trends, that's also welcome,
• 38:11
  Kyle Sinclair: yeah, you know our we're really focused on continuing to scale the company.
• 38:16
  Kyle Sinclair: And you know, the pull forward right now, because of Safe Harbor has has been tremendous, and we're growing significantly from that. But I think it's important that we really focus on diversifying our product lines. Agrivoltaics is a huge topic in the industry right now, and having elevated structures, a lot of the system designs that we've seen from other groups are not that attractive in both price or esthetics, so we're looking to come out with some some new products this year.
• 38:56
  Kyle Sinclair: Specifically, you know, pole mount solutions and taller three high portrait I beam solutions that can be driven, versus doing concrete footers in in solar farmland. So we're really excited to introduce some of those new products we also have, we're looking into ground screws and that that topic has been a little controversial for me, because there's so many players in the ground screw market, and they do really, really well. APA is, is a great company that offers, you know, commercial ground screw systems, especially some of the high topography systems, terrace smarts, glide wave is pretty good and and so we looked at that as you know, we want to be different. We don't want to be like everyone else, but we also listen to our customers feedback, and a lot of our customers come to us and say, Kyle, if you had a ground screw design, we'd buy through you, just because of the ease of working with your team, the responsiveness of our engineering and our permit packages, and also not having to worry about six to eight week lead times. So we're really looking at that. We think there will be some additional market share gain from offering a ground screw design in 2027
• 40:20
  Tim Montague: I think of ground screws as being appropriate for rocky soil. Is that the primary application?
• 40:27
  Kyle Sinclair: Yeah, or, you know, it's also, it's, we also had a hard time getting customers to give the sky rack 2.0 pile driven system a chance, mainly on the residential install side, just because those companies had a installation method and had the crews trained to do ground screws so we could come in more cost effective and faster and, you know, quick engineering, but it's hard for them to pivot to go, Well, we've been doing ground screws, you know, for 10 years. Why would we now go and invest in pile drivers, so I think there's market for us to gain by having a ground screw option and chasing groups that are already used to installing that specific method.
• 41:15
  Tim Montague: Cool, all right.
• 41:15
  Tim Montague: Well, I look forward to our webinar, which will happen in a couple of months, but I want to thank Kyle Sinclair of Ste Sinclair designs and engineering for coming on the show. It's been great getting to know you and your company a little bit in the last six months. Of course, we we first met quite a few years ago, but it's just in the last six months that I've gotten to know you. So that's been great.
• 41:42
  Unknown: And.
• 41:42
  Tim Montague: Guys, are you a residential solar installer doing light commercial but wanting to scale into large CNI solar? I'm Tim Montague. I've developed over 150 megawatts of commercial solar, and I've solved the problem that you're having. You don't know what tools and technologies you need in order to successfully close 100 KW to megawatt scale projects. I've developed a commercial solar accelerator to help installers exactly like you. Just go to cleanpowerhour.com click on strategy and book a call today.
• 42:15
  Tim Montague: It's totally free with no obligation. Thanks for being a listener. I really appreciate you listening to the pod, and I'm Tim Montague, let's grow solar and storage. Go to clean power hour and click strategy today. Thanks so much. And I want to encourage all of our listeners to check out all of our content at cleanpowerhour.com we cover the energy transition writ large with an emphasis on solar, batteries and micro grids. And I do a bi weekly news roundup with John Weaver, the journalist for PV magazine, aka the commercial solar guy. So check out all of that at Clean Power Hour comm or on YouTube. You can find us on Spotify, Apple, etc. And the most important thing you can do to help us, help others is Tell a friend about the show, and with that, Kyle, how can our listeners find you?
• 43:08
  Kyle Sinclair: Yeah, just they can visit our website at Sinclair designs com. Feel free to email us at Kyle@sinclairdesigns.net or call us at 877-517-0311, to talk to a licensed professional engineer, and we'll we'll get your drawings quick, and we'll stamp out the steel as fast as possible.
• 43:31
  Tim Montague: You're also dropping quite a few cool videos on LinkedIn, I have to say, so good work on the videos.
• 43:37
  Kyle Sinclair: Yeah, we've got a great group that we work with out of Jackson, Michigan.
• 43:40
  Tim Montague: Oh, cool. All right. Well, I'm Tim Montague, let's grow solar and storage.
• 43:43
  Tim Montague: Thank you so much, Kyle,
• 43:46
  Kyle Sinclair: Thanks, Tim.
• 43:47
  Tim Montague: Have a great day.
• 43:47
  Kyle Sinclair: You too. You.