Contractors believe Solarize Madison will help their firms shine

Two upstate New York companies are brightening their outlook for 2012 after being selected as contractors for a new solar-power group-purchasing program in Madison County.

The program, Solarize Madison, selected Rochester–based Arista Power, Inc. and Endicott–based ETM Solar Works to install photovoltaic solar-power systems in Madison County. Arista Power will sell direct-buy systems, which owners purchase outright, while ETM will lease out systems.

Solarize Madison calls for the companies to install a combined minimum of 30 systems in 2012. It is open to a variety of individuals and organizations, including businesses, farms, homeowners, and municipalities.

The program is an attempt to lower the cost of a solar-power system by using group purchasing. So, a business or homeowner purchasing or leasing a solar array through Solarize Madison will pay less than if it had contracted with a solar company independently — up to 80 percent less, according to initial estimates.

The program’s contractors expect to receive benefits as well.

“We look at the Solarize Madison program as a great way to get the word out about solar in general,” says Gay Canough, president of ETM Solar Works. “Yes, the homeowners in the program are going to get some special deals, but I think the most important thing to us is getting the word out, letting people know about solar so that more people will think about going solar.”

ETM Solar Works, founded in 1988, already has some customers in Madison County — it operates in a 75-mile radius around Binghamton, according to Canough, who owns ETM along with her husband, Lawrence Lehman. But participating in Solarize Madison will give the company a greater presence in the county, she predicts.

It will also be worth about $500,000 in revenue, Canough estimates. ETM generated $2 million in revenue in 2011 and anticipates $2.5 million in revenue in 2012.

The firm, which is headquartered in 3,700 square feet of a building it owns at 300 North St. in Endicott, plans to hire one or two new workers this fall. It currently has nine employees.

Arista Power foresees similar benefits from its affiliation with Solarize Madison, although it likely won’t be doing any hiring, according to Cherrie Mahon, its vice president of investor relations and corporate communications. The company currently has 16 employees.

Arista Power has not done any work in Madison County previously, Mahon says. Instead, its work has been in the Rochester area and surrounding counties.

“It’s a great way for us to get into Madison County,” she says. “It’s not that far for us.”

Arista Power, which was founded in 2001 as a research-and-development company specializing in wind power, has only been doing solar installations since the end of 2009. The company wants to use the Solarize Madison program as a way to spread its name and increase awareness of solar energy, Mahon says.

“What we want to do, and what we’ve committed to doing, is marketing and word-of-mouth events,” she says. “We want to get the community involved in it.”

Arista Power expects to generate about $400,000 in revenue by installing direct-buy systems through Solarize Madison. That would bump its 2012 revenue up to $7.5 million, Mahon says.

The company generated slightly less than $800,000 in revenue in 2011. Much of the firm’s anticipated revenue jump between 2011 and 2012 is largely due to military contracts the company had been working on that were not payable until this year, Mahon adds.

Arista Power is headquartered in 20,000 square feet at 1999 Mt. Read Boulevard in Rochester. The firm is publicly traded on the OTC Bulletin Board under the ticker ASPW.

Solarize Madison background 

Solarize Madison’s contracts with Arista Power and ETM are for this year, according to Janet Myers, the program’s project manager. If the program continues next year, which has not yet been decided, it will undergo a new request-for-proposal process to pick contractors, she says.

The Solarize Madison program is modeled after similar initiatives in Oregon and Massachusetts, according to Myers, who is working toward a bachelor’s degree in renewable-energy technology at Morrisville State College. It has support from the Madison County Planning Department, the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board, and the Renewable Energy Training Center at Morrisville State College.

“Most of the other Solarize programs have been strictly residential,” Myers says. “We’re opening it to all of Madison County, whether it be a homeowner, business owner, farm owner, or municipality.”

Those who are interested in purchasing or leasing a solar system through the program will have to sign up by Sept. 30, according to Myers. So far, 12 people have expressed interest — and the program has yet to start a public push, she adds.

Acquiring a solar-power system through Solarize Madison could cut costs by about 80 percent, Myers says. That estimate is for a small system generating less than 50 kW, and it includes federal and state tax credits, as well as incentives from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

The cost-savings analysis doesn’t include one additional incentive that will be available to some homeowners. The Madison County Planning Department is offering grants of $2,000 for the first 15 homeowners who purchase photovoltaic systems through the program. That $2,000 incentive is funded from a grant from the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board’s Climate Change Innovation Program, and it will not be available for those who choose to lease solar-power systems.

Myers hopes Solarize Madison sparks a rash of installations. From 2003 to the end of 2011, just 26 photovoltaic systems were installed in Madison County, she says.