REC Solar brings installation services to Phoenix, Az
by Patrick O’Grady, May 11, 2009
Source: Phoenix Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2009/05/11/daily6.html
REC, based in San Luis Obispo, Calif., opened its Phoenix office several weeks ago touting more affordable prices for residential and smaller commercial users via lease options. It is the latest addition to a market that already includes California-based SolarCity, which hit town with a buy-in from Tempe-based First Solar Inc., and Scottsdale’s American Solar Electric, which teamed with SunRun, a California solar financing company, to offer lower cost entry points.
The move is driven by the state’s strong market for solar distributed power, said Angiolo Laviziano, REC’s president and CEO. “I see the changes at the county and Phoenix level, particularly with the green city initiative,” he said, referring to Phoenix’s plan to turn the Phoenix area into a carbon-neutral region, where much of the power is supplied by solar.
REC Solar offers deals similar to the other companies. Solar systems are for sale or lease to residential, business and government entities such as school districts. Arizona is the sixth state REC has entered. It started in California and has spread to Hawaii, Oregon, New Jersey and Colorado.
Arizona’s incentives from utilities as well as renewable energy standards from the Arizona Corporation Commission have made the state good from a solar installation perspective, said Cary Hayes, regional sales manager for the company in the Southwest. REC started in 1997 with two people and now has 350 employees. It does not use subcontractors for its work, instead opting to hire its own installers. It has installed about 2,500 systems since their inception, Laviziano said.
Solar installations create about three times as many jobs per megawatt installed as manufacturing, Laviziano said. The challenge in achieving greater adoption of solar is to make it more cost competitive. With incentives, adoption rates will continue to rise, he said. “We will really bring solar to the mainstream if we make it financially feasible.”