Latest / Clean Power Hour / From Coal Country to Solar - How Complete Solar is Helping Homeowners Go Renewable | EP175

Transcript

From Coal Country to Solar - How Complete Solar is Helping Homeowners Go Renewable | EP175 · Clean Power Hour

• 0:50
  Dave Anderson: Complete solar what we really feel like we've been hyper focused on as of late is working with these HVAC companies, these roofers, all these other home services businesses, to be able to allow those businesses to offer solar as a service using our tools and then our back end fulfillment.
• 1:07
  Dave Anderson: So any HVAC company that wants to say, hey, not only can you get this 19 SEER 21 SEER 25, seer, AC unit slash heat pump, but they can also offer now solar to power that heat pump and AC unit?
• 1:21
  intro: Are you speeding the energy transition? Here at the Clean Power Hour, our hosts, Tim Montague and John Weaver bring you the best in solar batteries and clean technologies every week, want to go deeper into decarbonisation? We do two, we're here to help you understand and command the commercial, residential and utility, solar, wind and storage industries. So let's get to it.
• 1:42
  intro: Together, we can speed the energy transition.
• 1:49
  Tim Montague: Today on the Clean Power, our vertically integrated residential solar, my guest today is Dave Anderson. He is the founder and chief marketing officer for a company called Complete Solaria. And we're gonna learn more about what that company is all about. And also wanted to mention that Dave is a podcaster. His show is called the solar podcast, which was one of the names of one of my shows some years ago. So it's good to see another solar podcast in the in the interwebs. And I want to say welcome to the show,
• 2:22
  Dave Anderson: Dave. Thank you.
• 2:22
  Dave Anderson: Appreciate it, Tim, it's great to be here.
• 2:25
  Tim Montague: So you and your family have a long history in the solar industry. I don't know if we can get into all the nooks and crannies, but give us a Cliff's Notes version of how you personally and your brother got into the solar industry and what you're up to right now.
• 2:41
  Dave Anderson: Yeah, I don't know if it's really a family affair, per se. But yeah, so we'll Anderson, who's my co founder is also my older brother. And he and I have been running a solar company for the last 13 years. And it's taken on a handful of different looks throughout the 13 years. The one thing I would say is maybe a little bit more of a family affair, however is so we grew up my whole family in a small coal mining town in eastern Montana called coal strip. Pretty originally named and coal strip Montana was there were three operating coal plant or excuse me coal mines that surrounded the town. It was an unincorporated town basically owned principally by the power plant that was there owned by Montana power at the time. And it was a four gigawatt coal fired power plant. And then the three coal mines that kind of surrounded the entire town. So to say that I've been surrounded by energy, my entire life is an absolute truth. My family certainly were huge beneficiaries of and understood, you know that it was a lot of hard work. It was the hard work of my of my friends, parents that were providing electricity for some of the major cities in the western United States. A lot of electricity was generated in that coal mining town on that prairie was being shipped all the way across Montana, Idaho and Washington to provide electricity for Seattle, the Seattle Tacoma area. So yeah, my family was certainly surrounded by energy. And I had no idea to be honest with you would come full circle that I would, you know, be surrounded by energy for the principal or for the major part of my career in solar. But, but yeah, so that's certainly a family affair. But it's, it's it's been,
• 4:25
  Tim Montague: so was your was your family directly involved in the coal industry there in Montana?
• 4:30
  Dave Anderson: You know, we weren't so my mother was an educator, and my dad later in my life became an educator as well.
• 4:37
  Dave Anderson: So the town only existed because of energy. But there were a handful of people that were there, as, you know, almost like support to the
• 4:44
  Tim Montague: community.
• 4:44
  Tim Montague: Understood, understood. Well, there's no question what that town is about. Right. colstrip.
• 4:49
  Tim Montague: Right. I love it. And have you been back recently,
• 4:54
  Dave Anderson: you know, it's been a number of years since I've been there. Actually. I was I was there. I guess, six or seven years ago was the last time I was there. So my family had since moved away. So it's, it's pretty hard to accidente your way to eastern Montana.
• 5:07
  Dave Anderson: It's pretty secluded, but obviously I have some some lifelong relationships and friends that are there and and so I was able to take my kids back to see the the area that I'd grown grown up in and after having been away for probably 10 years before that.
• 5:22
  Tim Montague: I mean, I'm just wondering is the is the coal industry still booming in the in this part of Montana, because in many parts of the country, it's waning, just because of the cost of other types of energy. I mean, it's funny, some people think that renewables kick coals but but it was really natural gas from fracking that kicked coals but and made it non economical and a lot of power plants got converted from coal to natural gas. Yeah,
• 5:47
  Dave Anderson: yeah, coal is not thriving there. It certainly still exists. In fact, the the power plant has changed hands at least a half dozen times over that period of time. And usually it's purchased as part of a much larger acquisition where they are aggregating many of these large power generation stations.
• 6:07
  Dave Anderson: And the truth of the matter is that that power generation Station has been thought of as more of a liability as part of that portfolio than an asset.
• 6:12
  Dave Anderson: And a lot of the instances, I think, for the reasons you're mentioning natural gas, certainly the trends moving towards renewables, in fact, that it was it was a four station for power generation station, town. So there was units one and two that were built in the late 60s, early 70s. And then units three and four that were built in the early 80s, about the time that I moved there. When I was a young kid, and units one and two have since been completely turned off. And the main reason was, is just the retrofitting, right, so the amount of work that has to go into retrofitting those to bring them up to the current EPA standards, which I would argue are still too low. But the bringing them up to the current EPA standards, it became not economical for them to be able to do that. So now the two larger units units three and four still operate and generate electricity. And I think they still have contracts with some of the larger utilities in the east or excuse me, in the West Coast, specifically that that Seattle Tacoma area.
• 7:11
  Tim Montague: Understood, understood. Cool. So when did you get into the solar industry?
• 7:15
  Tim Montague: And how?
• 7:18
  Dave Anderson: Yeah, um, you know, I'd love to tell you that it was it was completely deliberate, and that I just like, you know, was fully and wholly altruistic about my approach towards getting into renewables. But the truth is, is that when I was young, and in my very early career, actually still a college student, I was recruited to be a residential door to door sales rep for a home security company and, and I enjoyed a measure of success in that industry, selling home security systems door to door, and then ultimately starting my own company, where we were actually advertising on a fairly unknown marketing company, then called Google, where we were buying paid inclusion advertisements, and I had a small call center with a handful of friends that had gone out knock doors for me in the past, and, and we were selling home security systems. And while I, I found that I really enjoyed the residential sales and residential services side of the business, home security wasn't necessarily the passion that I had, I grew up in a small town, in a trailer park, where my parents literally would be frustrated if we ever took the keys out of our car, because we won't be able to find them. And so home security was kind of an interesting product for me to sell, given my background, and so after a handful of years of enjoying actually great success, I was actually fortunate enough to sell that small home security company to a larger home security company. And this was about the same time that my brother was finishing grad school at Stanford. And he was working for a venture capital firm as an entrepreneurial and as an entrepreneur in residence.
• 8:43
  Dave Anderson: And he was deciding that he wanted to be more of an entrepreneur, not just working within the VCs, but actually trying to build a company, I was looking for a new opportunity.
• 8:53
  Dave Anderson: So he and I hatched an idea to go into business together and, and I moved out to California from the Salt Lake area, Salt Lake, Utah area. And we funded our first company, which was a residential services business and in early 2006. And that company, was was actually going quite well, we were mediating lending between car dealerships and small community banks and credit unions that had access to really low cost of capital. And, you know, the goal was to, you know, try to find people that needed low cost the capital and pair them up through a proprietary algorithm that we had built. And then 2007 and 2008, we just got steamrolled by a terrible credit meltdown and financial meltdown. And, and we really became victims of terrible timing in that industry as financial services as a financial services business. But it left us kind of scratching our heads, what's an industry that was really in desperate need of some responsible financing, for a group of purchasers that would be huge beneficiaries, if only they had access to financing. And it was it was, solar was starting to have a little bit of a buzz in the Silicon Valley as as potentially being an emerging market. And so you know, after sort of incubating on it, and then really feeling like it was helping us to fulfill a lifelong passion of ours, which was to help work on and solve some energy problems that we always knew had existed from the time that we had grown up in a small town in Montana. We decided we wanted to work on that problem.
• 10:24
  Dave Anderson: Our initial foray into solar was trying to mediate lending between those same credit unions and regional banks, with solar companies. The problem was the solar companies that existed in the early 2000 10s, late 2000s Are you know, are like 2009 2010 It was usually small mom and pop type shops, you know, that were maybe like selling and installing their own systems, maybe only doing 1234 Five systems a month that Max and in order to be able to get to scale where we could actually provide financing, to enough of those installers to make it meaningful for the banks, we would have had to work with hundreds of those small mom and pop shops. And so I went back to my roots of residential sales and, and we started to grow our own team of sales reps and, and went back to my roots in marketing and started marketing to homeowners and helping them understand the value proposition of going solar. And that's changed a lot over the over the years. But we quickly grew to being one of the largest one of the largest residential solar companies in California.
• 11:30
  Tim Montague: Very cool. And that is Complete Solar. And
• 11:33
  Dave Anderson: that was Complete Solar, correct? Yep. That was Complete Solar was formed at that time.
• 11:37
  Tim Montague: Yep. And the company is now known as Complete Solaria, which is, which is a hybrid because you you own a solar panel company called Solaria. And, and then Complete Solar is, I think, a relatively straightforward solar residential solar installer, right?
• 11:59
  Dave Anderson: Yeah, no, that's exactly right. So after running and managing Complete Solar successfully for about 10 years, much of the management that had we had known well, from from our partnership, and working with SunEdison, actually, when SunEdison was thriving, many of the sort of management and executives from SunEdison had made their way over to Solaria, as slurry was an equipment manufacturer primarily focused on residential business and a premium, like a high end premium module manufacturer. And they were really supremely supremely interested in trying to figure out a way to because of the brand loyalty that they had built, you know, do something that was more strategic with a with a company that was providing a higher level of service to homeowners. And so it became obvious to us, you know, about a year ago or so that there were some obvious synergies in working with them.
• 12:54
  Dave Anderson: And so we we affected an acquisition an acquisition, I guess, it's been a little over a year ago of salary. So smart is core business, of course, is is manufacturing, and distribution of modules and, and they have a loyal base of about 1300 Pro partners across the United States of people that love to sell their products and services or their products, excuse me, because of how beautiful they are and how reliable they are and the warranty on them. And, and we always have fancied ourselves as as being a customer first residential installer. And so their brand promise and our brand promise seem to overlap really well.
• 14:24
  Tim Montague: Yeah, I didn't know about Solaria until a couple years ago, because I was working strictly in commercial solar. And you don't see salaria panels much in in, in commercial, but Solari is a is a well known brand in residential.
• 14:38
  Tim Montague: It's a beautiful black on black panel. And, but But I'm curious, like, there were probably many solar panel companies, you could have considered acquiring why Solaria? Did you had you been working very closely with Solari over the years with complete?
• 14:57
  Dave Anderson: You know, interestingly, we actually did not do a lot of work with slavery over the years, I think where it really came was the familiarity with the management groups. So my brother and I were very familiar with, you know, their, their president at the time. And, and as well as several of the people that were working at that company, and there was a lot of familiarity and, and spending a handful of meetings together, we also realized that philosophically, we sort of viewed the opportunity to really service the residential space, and solar kind of the same. And that was really the impetus for how we started to work together. TJ rogers, who is the Executive Director, or the director of our board was also sitting on the board at slurry at the time. And he was the one that I think was instrumental in trying to bring the companies together as well.
• 15:46
  Dave Anderson: Obviously, he's got his fingerprints all over residential, solar and commercial solar for that matter, but because of the huge role that he played at end phase, as well, in their turnaround, from their, you know, lowest of lows to their, you know, current highs that they're at. And I think that, you know, I think that when we we all got together as a management structure, it was when we really realized that we philosophically kind of viewed the opportunity to go and serve the customer first, with a premier and premium module with high warranties with high aesthetics, as well as just coupling that with what we believe is, you know, providing our customers with fast service and high communication that those things were really synergistic. So
• 16:31
  Tim Montague: you've been in the solar industry for 14 years, which is a long time. You know, I I've met a few people who have been in solar longer But, but not that many. And and so you've seen a amazing transformation both in the scale, scope adoption. I mean, just kind of the technology, of course has changed dramatically. What are some of your, you know, looking back? What are some of your aha was? And I guess nuggets of wow, you know, here we are, it's it's, it's, it's pretty incredible to think about how far the solar industry has come, you know, we're doing 30 gigawatts of solar this year in the United States. And, you know, in the early 2000s, we were doing a megawatt a year.
• 17:25
  Tim Montague: Right. So we've grown 1000s of fold in the last 20 years. But what are some of your take homes for how the industry has changed?
• 17:36
  Dave Anderson: Yeah, you know, when I first got into solar, you know, the concept of a PPA, or a lease was a brand new idea Sunrun and Solar City were, we're bringing those out, obviously, the real pioneer to the original PPA was, was really more like SunEdison. And even before that, a little bit, but on the residential side, we weren't really seeing it till Sunrun. And Solar City really sort of like, helped it to grow.
• 18:05
  Dave Anderson: So the growth of the financing has been something that I both enjoyed to see. But I'm also chagrined to say that it's, it's it has not commoditized, the way that I hoped it would, you know, the cost of financing is still really high in the residential space. And the cost of financing, I think artificially keeps the cost of residential solar too high for many homeowners. And I think that there's, you know, as an asset class, it's performed so well.
• 18:25
  Dave Anderson: And so I'd love to see the cost of that of the financing come down such that it we can, we can get to a place where, you know, more people have access, easy access to financing such that they can, you know, you know, go solar, but I would say that the thing that has been the most interesting for me, and I've talked a lot about this on podcasts in other places, but solar continues to be one of those services, and I really view it more as a service than a construction project. But it's one of those services where for whatever reason, it seems to be that there there's required still to be this like trusted adviser relationship with the homeowner, to get them to go solar. You know, there's, when I first started in home security, for example. You know, it was almost every time someone purchased a home security system, it was either right after something bad happened, or because someone knocked on their door, right, the best time to get home security is like the day before you need it, of course. But the the impetus for so many people, when I first started was someone tried to break into my house or something freaked me out. And now I want home security because I just want to feel more secure in my home. Or because someone knocked on my door and kind of, you know, helped me get this great deal on home security. And so that's where I went. And now we've gotten to a place where it's about 25 Penetrate or 25% market penetration in the home security space. And it hasn't really grown or shrunk so much there. Until recently now the DIY side of things. So now the ring cameras and the simple safes. And a lot of these DIY home security systems have started to grow that market share a little bit by by bringing the cost down and making it making it simple. And in some ways, I actually and I don't know why maybe it's just because of my background, I likened solar industry on the residential side to my kind of learnings on the on the home security space. But we're at a place now where even though we're doing again, several 1000 times more than we were, like you said in the early 2000s, we're still at a very, very low market penetration. And for whatever reason, the majority, high 90% of consumers that that goes solar, do it with a kitchen table sales presentation, you know, it's not like someone, you just don't see it happening with a shopping cart experience like, like what you're starting to see in home security, and so many other services where people are going to the internet, doing a little bit of research and then signing up for a service, they, you know, they think about this more like I've got to meet with three or four contractors, I've got to get three or four bids, the bids are going to vary.
• 20:55
  Dave Anderson: While you know, they're going to vary pretty massively. And then I'm going to try to do some research and some reviews. And I'm going to kind of pick the middle one. And I would say that that has been a little bit of a surprise to me, I would have expected that there would be more of a shift for consumers realizing it's a commodity service in some ways, and that they would be you know, going online, doing their own research and then having a really simple shopping cart type of experience to be able to transition into solar. So seeing the evolution the financing has been fun to see and then being surprised by it's still it's still a long sales process and it's an it's still a long installation process. And those are things that the residential Space has to figure out as to face.
• 21:45
  Tim Montague: The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America. The maker of North America's number one three phase string inverter with over six gigawatts shipped in the US. The CPS America product lineup includes three phase string inverters ranging from 25 to 275 kW, their flagship inverter, the CPS 252 75, is designed to work with solar plants ranging from two megawatts to two gigawatts, the 250 to 75 pairs well, with CPS America's exceptional data communication controls and energy storage solutions. Go to chintpowersystems.com To find out more.
• 22:21
  Tim Montague: Yeah, I mean, I love to follow some of the forays of you know, big box retail getting into solar for, you know, example IKEA. And I think Home Depot, variously experimented, I just googled that. And it looks like you can buy solar at IKEA in California, which is one of the largest, certainly the largest residential solar market. And it's no longer the largest solar market on an annual basis, because Texas is getting a whole ton of utility solar right now.
• 22:56
  Tim Montague: But so, you know, it's it's coming along, and, but it's not for the faint of heart to think about, you know, getting those panels, it's one thing to buy some solar panels, it's a whole other thing to install them on your roof. Right. Yeah. So I think there's gonna be a niche for, for contractors for the foreseeable future, for sure.
• 23:22
  Tim Montague: And that is interesting that it has not quite commoditize the way you might have expected it.
• 23:26
  Tim Montague: But you know, it is commoditizing, there's no doubt about it. And with programs, like we have a program here in the Midwest, where the Midwest Renewable Energy Association goes around, and does group purchase programs with, you know, local municipalities, and they select through an RFP process a preferred vendor. And it's a you know, it's a very one price fits all model, they do bulk purchase, and it works. And that does save consumers a lot of headache and having to, you know, vet, a series of contractors. So that's one approach. What do you see in in California, I guess, in terms of approaches to mainstreaming the solar industry?
• 24:13
  Dave Anderson: Yeah, well, it seemed to be clear, I don't think that we're going to remove the contractor, there's always going to be a space for DIY and in construction, but the truth of matter is, is homes are built by contractors, homes are built by licensed professionals. And we are talking about high voltage, so I don't think we're really going to see contractors removed what I, what I'd like to see happen is, you know, tools that make the process more clearly understood by the typical homeowner where they can translate, these things are gonna go on my roof, and it's somehow going to show up the savings on my electricity bill, you know, the interplay between the utility company and how those electrons lower my electricity bill and how the panels even work, frankly, it's a little bit too much of an enigma for homeowners, I'd love to see, you know, some tools and some things built such that the that the typical homeowner can understand and translate more easily, how panels on my roof, you know, turn into savings and grid stability and turn into a lot of the other benefits that are associated with SOAR. So, to your question, though, in California, some of the things that I'm seeing so, you know, it's still a push market, right.
• 25:20
  Dave Anderson: And so the majority of solar that is sold is sold as a result of of marketing efforts where we're going out to the homeowner in some way. So, you know, that can that can be a mailer, that can be a phone call, or that can be a door knock. It can be a community party, it can be trade shows, but it still requires someone to make an effort on the marketing side a push effort to try to like notify, educate, you know, try to not coerce, that's not certainly not the word, but to incentivize homeowners to to learn more. Oh,
• 25:59
  Tim Montague: yeah, absolutely.
• 25:59
  Tim Montague: Yeah, the beauty.
• 26:02
  Dave Anderson: The beauty of it is, is that the product speaks for itself. Once you have the opportunity to maybe spend 20 3040 or even an hour, you know, 60 minutes with a homeowner, the product speaks for itself. But you know, we're not winning with billboards right now, or we're not winning with banner ads, and people aren't just going to websites and signing up.
• 26:22
  Tim Montague: Well in California is a few years into a legislated program, right, where all new residential construction has to be solarized. Have you noticed that like, is is solar much more visible now in new construction because of that, that law? Yeah,
• 26:40
  Dave Anderson: I think so. And you know, So, most people know that that's true that you have to put some solar on a new construction. Most people probably don't realize that it's the the amount of solar that you put on new construction is pretty insufficient for a typical homeowner. And so we Complete Solar and Complete Solaria, we work with a lot of Homebuilders in California and outside of California, but obviously, principally in California because of the legislation that requires it. To help homeowner or excuse me help the builders make sure that they meet the minimum requirements for solar that's required on any new home build, but also that we have some mechanisms in place so that when the new homeowner moves in that we can right size the system for them and or retrofit, do things like batteries, and Evie chargers and a lot of the other things that are tangential benefits to solar, which aren't required as part of that legislation. And so But absolutely, we're seeing additional systems sold and more homeowners benefiting from solar as a result of that legislature.
• 27:43
  Dave Anderson: And it's also created some additional awareness. So when when all of your neighbors have solar, and you're the last one to get solar in your neighborhood. Eventually, people start picking up the phone and calling and in California has certainly not reached that tipping point where we're getting more inbound traffic than outbound. But you know it California is the market where we do get the most inbound traffic for sure.
• 28:07
  Tim Montague: And, you know, now we have nem 3.0, in 2023, which has altered the landscape in the IOU territories, to the point where the attachment rate for storage has gone way, way up. I think it went from 20 to 70%, is the statistic I've seen. So solar and storage is the game in California. That's the way to make it pencil and provide resiliency. And it's a double edge because yeah, solar and storage provides a lot more value. But it also has a bigger ticket. So it's it's a bigger burden potentially on consumers.
• 28:42
  Tim Montague: And I didn't know that that that that rule about solar on new construction was somewhat being gamed and just requires a small amount. So you're you're saying that new construction is getting just like a couple kW?
• 28:58
  Dave Anderson: Yeah, it's a formula. But generally speaking, it's a system that would be far smaller than if you were to go and visit with that homeowner and really right size the system for their usage. And on the one hand, I'm okay with that. And the reason I'm okay with it is because what it's really doing is, is just creating the awareness that it doesn't make sense to build a house without solar. And and it gives, you know, people that, you know, contractors, the opportunity to speak with those new homeowners to help them really figure out what the right solution for them is. I don't typically love things that are mandated. Just speaking about that philosophically, even though it is the right thing for homeowners to do it, what it does is it starts the conversation so that we can right size the systems. Now, of course, when you're doing tract housing, and you're a builder is just building for owners unknown, we tend to go with the kind of standard minimum system.
• 29:50
  Dave Anderson: But even their solar is pretty modular, it's pretty easy to go back and add on. But the truth is, is that I would say that it's probably on average, less than 50% of the of the need for the home if you're really trying to right size the system.
• 30:09
  Tim Montague: So what else? I guess should our listeners know about trends in residential solar? What you know, when you look into your crystal ball?
• 30:19
  Tim Montague: What gets you excited? Or what keeps you up at night about the solar industry?
• 30:27
  Dave Anderson: Yeah, you know, it's interesting, we the Attach rate has gone way up for batteries, because of the legislature in California, essentially the way that the feed in tariff works or the net energy metering program works.
• 30:41
  Dave Anderson: Economically, a homeowner typically is financially better off if they have storage as part of their solar solution. The interesting thing was is there was expected to be because of the increased size of the ticket, a pretty huge decline in that, you know, right after April timeline when it was when it passed. And yes, there was a decline because there was a run by all the solar companies and by a lot of homeowners to try to get their order in before them 2.0 expired and went to the NEM three. So there was certainly a run by homeowners and by solar companies to get consumers to sort of like move now. But what we found, particularly within our company, but even as an industry is that we didn't see much of a slowdown, which means that there is a lot of interest in batteries and that homeowners would would prefer to have a more holistic solution that would include storage. And you know the problem with with batteries that I had with the nem 2.02 and M three point No legislation was not that it's not a good thing it was that the industry wasn't really ready from a supply perspective. From a distribution perspective, we didn't have enough licensed installer installers to like, hold, hold stop changeover to start installing batteries on every solution. And I was really concerned that the industry was really going to stub its toe as it tried to figure out how to move into installing storage with the PV, I think we've done a pretty good job, certainly within our company, we feel like we've given ourselves a more than passing grade for being able to be adaptive and start installing batteries. And the truth is, is that I'd like to see that happening across the country more, I would just prefer that it happened more organically as opposed to being more mandated. And but I think it's great that homeowners understand the value not just of the PV, but have a whole approach of really installing storage and batteries. And, and, and, you know, really thinking about a more holistic solution for the home. So that was good, that was a good thing for me.
• 32:43
  Dave Anderson: And I think it's good for the industry. And I think it's a good leading indicator California good leading indicator of what we might see happen in other states, hopefully, more organically and less mandated. But, but, but it's going to happen in other states as well that that switch over to using storage with with the PV, I
• 32:59
  Tim Montague: recently got to interview Sunrun, their VP of policy, Amy Hart, and Sunrun is the largest residential solar company in the United States.
• 33:07
  Tim Montague: They're doing almost 10% of the residential, solar, and they are all in on solar and batteries.
• 33:16
  Tim Montague: But they're largely their business model largely is to own the asset, right? And, and that gives them a lot of flexibility.
• 33:25
  Tim Montague: They can, you know, make this virtual power plant out of all the batteries they own and then provide grid services, is that something that is on your mind, and something that complete Solaria has considered?
• 33:39
  Dave Anderson: Yeah, so Sunrun is a partner of ours. And so that 10% number in some ways is, is is artificial in the sense that it's a bunch of companies like mine that make up the the majority of the installations that they're doing. And, and it really takes us Sunrun to be able to put those energy contracts in place with the utilities. And to really maximize the value, what I'd like to see is as a partner of Sunrun, Sunrun, really working on those energy contracts using the storage facilities that they're, you know, that they're installing across the country through the dealers that they're working with. And then being able to pass that value back on to the homeowners not just, you know, keep the value, obviously, as a company themselves. But there's, you know, there's a lot of value to the grid in terms of grid stability, load management, by having a large PV network, as well as a large battery infrastructure. And, already Sunrun has worked on putting some of those contracts in place, particularly east coast.
• 34:36
  Dave Anderson: And I know that they have tried to give the value of pass at least some of that value on to the homeowners, which is great.
• 34:41
  Dave Anderson: We Complete Solar aren't specifically looking to aggregate our customer base, and to work on those energy contracts. I think in the future, it's the type of thing that we'd love to work on. But it's not something that we're short term focused on. But as you see battery deployment happening more and more and more, figuring out how the batteries are going to be how they're going to interplay in the larger macro grid structure, I think is really important.
• 35:06
  Dave Anderson: Sunrun, I think has been leading the charge there. And every solar company is a beneficiary of the work that they do with utility companies in that regard. But so, so yes, we'll be participants by virtue of our partnership with like Everbright, for example, or Sunrun, or some of these other PPA and, and lease providers.
• 35:22
  Dave Anderson: But in the short run, it's not specifically part of our strategy to come up with those energy contracts with utilities right now. Gotcha.
• 35:31
  Tim Montague: Well, in our last few minutes together, Dave, what else would you like our listeners to know about what you're up to? And you know, I'm curious, what does the future hold for for Complete Solaria?
• 35:41
  Tim Montague: If you can say anything about that?
• 35:46
  Dave Anderson: Yeah, no, I appreciate that. You know, we fancy ourselves really as a customer centric business and what that what that really means are partners centric business, obviously customer centric, because we have our end consumers but partner centric business. So our company has really grown particularly over the last handful of years because of like I mentioned the 1300 Pro partners that buy our Solaria pod products and modules. But there are there are there are an increasing number of HVAC companies, home security companies and other home services companies that have trusted adviser relationships with the homeowners and would love to expand their product offering to offer solar as well.
• 36:26
  Dave Anderson: But for most of those home services, the idea of going and getting you know the the necessary licensing and becoming a contractor such that they could offer solar as a service is pretty overwhelming. Complete Solar what we really feel like we've been hyper focused on, as of late is working with these HVAC companies, these roofers, all these other home services businesses to be able to allow those businesses to offer solar as a service using our tools, and then our back end fulfillment. So any HVAC company that wants to say, hey, not only can you get this 19, seer, 21, seer, 25, seer, AC unit slash heat pump, but they can also offer now solar to power that heat pump and AC unit. And they can couple all that together in a single proposal and, and we work with these HVAC companies to be able to do that. And they're able to share in the upside as well, obviously, because it's their customer, and then we just do the back end fulfillment and make sure that that customer has a fantastic experience going solar, in addition to that new exciting HVAC slash heat pump unit that they just add and and as you're very well aware, there's so many other provisions as part of the the new inflation Reduction Act, that are driving customers to do things like go to heat pumps and things like that. But going to a heat pump by itself isn't enough going to a heat pump with solar and solar and storage and, and then going Eevee, all of these things together is really the right approach. And the way that we're trying to build our company is to allow anyone, whether you're a car manufacturer, or a car company, whether you're an HVAC company or roofing company, or anyone that provides these tangential services, we want to be able to provide a back end to allow these companies to also offer solar, and then we can provide world class back end support and installation for each of these other companies. And, and that's what we're really focused on.
• 38:11
  Dave Anderson: And I think we've done a great job of that particular over the last year or two.
• 38:15
  Tim Montague: I love that model.
• 38:15
  Tim Montague: You know, I think all solar installers should should copy that. and partner with HVAC contractors. I mean, electrifying. Everything is the name of the game. We're in the process of electrifying transportation. HVAC is next.
• 38:30
  Tim Montague: And and then heavy industry, which is the harder nut to crack perhaps, but we have we truly have the technology to electrify the residential built environment now. And you know, the writing is on the wall that we will have a completely solar and wind powered grid by something like 2050 Yeah, you know, they'll still be a fraction of nuclear and hydro, but they will be a vast minority of of grid power. Well, I want to thank you, Dave, for coming on the show. Please check out all of our content at cleanpowerhour.com. Give us a rating and review on Apple and Spotify. That's the best thing you can do to help grow the show. And then of course, tell a friend about the show, check out our YouTube channel, please subscribe to the YouTube channel. So you get notifications by hitting that little bell. And reach out to me on LinkedIn. I love connecting with my listeners, you can also connect with me at cleanpowerhour.com And subscribe to my weekly news. And without How can our listeners find you Dave?
• 39:36
  Dave Anderson: Yeah, we can easily be found at completesolaria.com If you're interested in partnering with us as an HVAC company, or at any residential service, or if you're wondering if the service that you offer can easily be coupled with solar, I would encourage anyone to go to completesolar.com. And there's a section on the website for partners. Obviously, I can be found personally on on LinkedIn.
• 39:56
  Dave Anderson: And of course we have our the solar podcast podcast that we put out weekly as well. Tim, love what you're doing. Thanks so much for having me on. It's been it's fantastic to to be not only a participant, but a listener of your show. And I think, you know, I think anyone that listens is is going to become well informed on the on renewable energy generally, I'm glad for my small contribution as it relates to residential solar.
• 40:22
  Tim Montague: I have one last question. And that is how many markets in the US? Are you working in? Yeah,
• 40:28
  Dave Anderson: so the pro partner network we have is in all 50 states. But we particularly do fulfillment in 15 of those states. And, and I would call them the solar states. Obviously, we're, you know, the largest solar markets are the markets that we're in typically, the East Coast and the West Coast. And then all along the southern United States are those primary markets.
• 40:47
  Dave Anderson: Certainly, we're in all the largest markets, California, Texas, Florida, the northeast, but and then a lot of the coasts or a lot of the states on the East as well. So but you can find that all on our website as well.
• 41:00
  Tim Montague: All right, well, I'm Tim Montague. Let's grow solar and storage. Have a great day, everyone.
• 41:06
  Tim Montague: Hey, listeners. This is Tim, I want to give a shout out to all of you. I do this for you twice a week. Thank you for being here. Thank you for giving us your time. I really appreciate you and what you're all about.
• 41:21
  Tim Montague: You are part and parcel of the energy transition whether you're an energy professional today, or an aspiring energy professional, so thank you. I want to let you know that the Clean Power Hour has launched a listener survey.
• 41:39
  Tim Montague: And it would mean so much to me.
• 41:39
  Tim Montague: If you would go to cleanpowerhour.com click on the About Us link right there on the main navigation that takes you to the about page. And you'll see a big graphic listener survey, just click on that graphic, and it takes just a couple of minutes. If you fill out the survey, I will send you a lovely baseball cap with our logo on it. The other thing I want our listeners to know is that this podcast is made possible by corporate sponsors.
• 42:18
  Tim Montague: We have chintpowersystems, the leading three phase string inverter manufacturer in North America. So check out CPS America. But we are very actively looking for additional support to make this show work.
• 42:30
  Tim Montague: And you see here our media kit.
• 42:36
  Tim Montague: With all the sponsor benefits and statistics about the show, you know, we're dropping two episodes a week. We have now over 320,000 downloads on YouTube. And we're getting about 45,000 downloads per month. So this is a great way to bring your brand to our listeners and our listeners are decision makers in clean energy. This includes projects executives, engineers, finance, project management, and many other professionals who are making decisions about and developing, designing, installing and making possible clean energy projects.
• 43:15
  Tim Montague: So check out cleanpowerhour.com both our listener survey on the about us and our media kit and become a sponsor today. Thank you so much. Let's go solar and storage