Project management, financing, installation and other services enable independent solar dealers to concentrate on growth, squeeze out soft costs
Soligent, a leader in systems and technologies for making solar dealers more competitive, today unveiled Solar Engine, a modular suite of integrated services that allow independent solar dealers to drive out costs, reduce paperwork and grow their businesses.
With Solar Engine, dealers leverage Soligent’s global network of partners and suppliers, deep experience and software platform to prepare bids, arrange financing, or design and deploy projects to reduce the time and money required to complete residential or small commercial solar projects. With Solar Engine, they can develop bids that compete with national installers while freeing themselves up from administrative or operational tasks.
By using the Solar Engine, dealers can:
- · Reduce the time from contract to completion from an average of over 90 days to less than 45 days.
- · Substantially improve deal flow and net profitability.
- · Create a buffer against seasonal demand fluctuations.
- · Increase net profitability by up to 10% or more.
“Independent solar dealers are the backbone of the industry, but they are increasingly stuck spending time on arranging financing or operational tasks like permitting where larger national dealers often have an advantage,” said Jonathan Doochin, CEO of Soligent. “Solar Engine effectively levels the playing field and gets solar dealers back to what they do best. We’re their virtual back office.”
The growth of the solar industry creates unprecedented opportunities and challenges for solar dealers. A new solar system is installed every four minutes in the U.S., according to GTM Research, and independent solar dealers account for over 60% of residential and commercial installations. At the same time, independent solar dealers must contend with changing building and safety requirements, new incentive programs, employee training, materials management and constantly-evolving financing options. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates thatnearly two-thirds of the cost of a residential solar installation now revolves around so-called “soft costs” like permitting, logistics and financing.
Solar Engine amalgamates the talents of independent dealers into a virtual organization so that they can compete against larger dealers without giving up their autonomy or brand names and also uses is large economy of scale to reduce the cost of project management, financing materials management and other costs. Sales-focused dealers, for example, can leverage Solar Engine to obtain permits, design systems and get projects installed, completing these tasks for substantially less than they could do on their own.
Installation-focused dealers, meanwhile, can participate in larger, and more, projects by serving as a Solar Engine installation partner, providing their services to projects originated by sales-focused dealers. Solar Engine will also provide a pathway for electricians, roofers and HVAC specialists to add solar as a service offering.
Soligent also aggregates demand and negotiates directly on behalf Solar Engine dealers to obtain volume discounts on equipment as well as financial options such as power purchase agreements or loans from multiple vendors at market-leading rates. Soligent’s optimization engine will can comb through 40 or more different options for financing solar projects and provide dealers and their customers an optimal solution for their location.
Soligent’s goal is to make solar the obvious choice for power for both consumers and businesses. Based in Rohnert Park, Calif., the company is the largest sourcing and logistics provider for renewable energy products in the Americas with hundreds of millions in annual revenue and 33 years of experience. It serves over 3,000 solar dealers.
In 2013, Jonathan Doochin became CEO and brought in a new management team with extensive experience in solar to build on this heritage by creating new services on top of Soligent’s logistics expertise. Before Soligent, Jonathan co-founded Clark Energy Group, an energy services company which successfully won a $5 billion contract for retrofits for federal government buildings, the Harvard Graduate School Leadership Institute and a Ferrari leasing agency, among other companies. He also later served as an advisor to the DOE.
Mark Laabs, Soligent’s COO, was the COO at Climate Bridge, a clean energy finance company and one of the largest players in the global carbon markets with offices in Europe, Asia, and Oceania. Laabs is also chairman of Iwana Energy, a Latin American solar project development company, and the Rare Cancer Research Foundation.
“At Soligent, we believe we can work with dealers to change the way the world produces and consumes energy: giving customers lowers costs, more certainty, and greater sustainability all at the same time,” said Laabs. “Solar Engine and the dealers that use it will help solar reach more people in more places than ever before.”