Readers’ Choice 2020: RepowerYolo — Best Solar Company

We are extremely grateful to be named the 2020 Best Solar Company in Yolo County, as selected by Davis Enterprise readers. Our appreciation is buoyed by a singular emotion: We love what we do, and we take great pride in helping members of our community go solar. The trust our community places in Repower fuels our ambition to work harder and amplify our impact. Thank you!

From The Enterprise’s Best of Yolo issue:

“Wow,” said Chris Soderquist, who owns RepowerYolo along with John Walter. “We are beyond honored to be selected as the No. 1 solar company in our community. Our commitment to help property owners go solar — with the highest quality equipment, workmanship and service — is galvanized by the trust Repower homeowners place in our work.”

Since its inception in 2014, Soderquist says Repower has helped more local homeowners go solar than any other (local or national) solar company. In 2019, its business doubled — they helped more than twice as many homeowners go solar. “Since we do not advertise, market or employ salespeople,” Soderquist said, “we are thankful for the trust homeowners place in Repower. In total, we have helped more than 350 property owners in our community go solar.”

Repower’s mission is to simplify the process, improve the quality and reduce the cost of going solar for Yolo County property owners. It have a triple bottom line: When property owners go solar, they reduce PG&E costs, shrink their carbon footprint and support the community (through the YoloShines program, which donates $500 to the property owner’s favorite local nonprofit).

What makes them special? “We are hyper-focused solar geeks,” Soderquist said, “simpletons who do one thing: Solar PV systems for Yolo County property owners.”

Past accolades include the city of Davis’ 2018 Environmental Recognition Award and NextDoor’s No. 1 rated solar company in Yolo County. YoloShines has made more than $125,000 donations to local nonprofits.

Another trip around the sun

On New Year’s Eve, we encapsulated the past year in a 15-thread Twitter communique. Here’s a summary:

‘tis the end of the year and thus time to recollect our 2019 trip around the sun. We are extremely grateful to our collective community for its support in a record-setting Repower year. A few highlights to share …

• In 2019 we helped 125+ Yolo County homeowners go solar. In aggregate, our 2019 solar clients will save $8.1 million in utility costs and retire 19,101 metric tons of CO2 (over the next 25 years), the equivalent of taking 4,055 cars off the road or planning 315,841 trees. Very cool.

• Solar is now. Primary motivations to go solar are uncertainty about (and mistrust in) PG&E, a desire to reduce and hedge utility costs, and strong ideals about confronting climate change (e.g., “Doing my part.”). A smart, sustainable investment.

• Rewarding projects we orchestrated this year included the Marriott Residence Inn Davis, Davis ACE Hardware, Davis Community Church, Hyatt Place Vacaville, Millennium Child Development Center Dixon, Yolo Food Bank, Lincoln40, Lutheran Church of the Incarnation Davis, and myriad advisory projects for First Northern Bank.

• Kudos to our comrades Valley Clean Energy for fighting the good fight. In particular, thank you to VCE for amending their solar net-metering program, per our recommendations, to make it viable for Yolo County solar owners. The future is bright for VCE.

• Many thanks to THE GREAT Chris Granger and our fellow board members and volunteers at the Cool Davis Foundation, the little engine that CAN make a difference in reducing our community’s carbon footprint. Cool Davis rocks.

• Great appreciation to fellow Davis Community Meals and Housing board members and Paul’s Place capital campaign colleagues for their inspiring + tireless work to help less fortunate members of our community. Paul’s Place is happening.

• To fellow volunteers and capital campaign members who propelled Yolo Food Bank’s beyond successful ($7 million) capital campaign to build and open a new distribution center … wow! You did it. And, thanks too for entrusting Repower to solarize the new facility.

• This is great fun: When homeowners go solar, we donate $500 to their favorite Yolo County nonprofit organization. We call this YoloShines. On behalf of Repower homeowners, we supported 37 organizations this year; over the past week alone, we donated $40,500 to local causes. 2019 YoloShines beneficiaries: Citizens Who Care, City of Davis Housing Trust Fund, CommuniCare Health Centers, UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, Cool Davis Foundation, Cub Scout Pack 111, Davis Chapter of Project Linus, Davis Community Meals & Housing, Davis Little League, Davis Media Access, Davis Schools Foundation, Empower Yolo, Esperanza Rising Foundation, Family Hope Network, UC Davis Guardian Scholars Program, NorCal Trykers, Interfaith Rotating Winter Shelter, iHouse Davis, Norcal GSP Rescue, Patwin School PTA, Purebreds Plus Cat Rescue, Rivendell Nursery School, Robert E Willett Elementary School, Rotts of Friends, STEAC, Suicide Prevention Yolo County, Paul’s Place, Sutter Davis Hospital Foundation, Davis Phoenix Coalition, University Covenant Church, Yolo Food Bank, Yolo CASA, Yolo SPCA, Yolo Crisis Nursery, Yolo Interfaith Immigration Network and Yolo Land Trust. What a year, with great thanks to Repower homeowners for their support of our community.

We remain humbled, thrive on the opportunity to earn trust, to enrich full and meaningful lives. Solar simpletons, yes, but beyond helping neighbors save money and reduce their carbon footprints, our commitment to strengthen our community is galvanized by the day. Happy 2020.

Why solar, why now? Homeowners speak out

At times it feels like we are solar psychologists. To effectively help property owners evaluate solar, we ask a lot of questions and — importantly — try out best to listen … two ears, one mouth. 

Our initial consultation with property owners generally begins with a two questions: Why solar? Why now? The sentiment of property owners falls into two camps: Pragmatic/economic, and/or idealistic/environmental.

Over the past month, we have had several dozen conversations with property owners. Here’s a sampling of contemporary reactions to the two Why? questions, shared in no particular order (with a heavy dose of PG&E sentiments):

- I’ve been putting it off; now seems like the right time to go solar.

- I am installing a new roof. Installing solar at the same time seems sensible. (This is common … we are currently orchestrating more than 10 re-roof + solar installations.)

- I looked at solar a while back and it didn’t pencil. Now that the cost of panels has dropped and PG&E’s rates have gone up, I want to learn if it’s feasible.

- PG&E’s rates are going to continue to go up, particularly with their bankruptcy and accrued liabilities for the fires.

- I want to do my part and reduce my carbon footprint.

- I am sick of PG&E and do not trust them.

- I just got an electric vehicle (or, plan to do so soon); now seems like the right time.

- The tax credit is going down at the end of the year (from 30% to 26%) … I do not want to lose out.

- I believe solar is the right way to go from an ecological perspective … we need to produce more clean energy/solar power.

- I just bought my house and it doesn’t have solar.

- I want to improve the value of my home.

- I am installing an electric heat pump, plan to go all-electric powered by solar.

- I believe solar is the right thing to do over the long run, economically and environmentally.

- My bills are really high; I’m tired of paying PG&E.

- PG&E’s problems are only getting worse. With solar, I can lock in my cost of electricity.

- I just retired and will use more electricity in the future.

- Solar is socially responsible, but I’m not sure if it’s financially reasonable.

- I have done everything I can to improve the energy efficiency of my home. Now, it’s time to consider solar.

Our opinions:

- Solar does not make sense for everyone.

- If you intend to own your home for more than five years, solar is worthy of consideration.

- There is no urgency to go solar; do not buy the, “you’ve gotta go solar by this date for this reason.”

- PG&E’s rates will continue to inflate; by what amount and when, nobody knows.

- Solar is the simplest and most effective way to reduce your carbon footprint and mitigate against future PG&E rate increases.

We are happy to engage in a conversation and help you contemplate solar. Feel free to stop by our workspace or contact us today to schedule your no-cost evaluation.

Shade on my solar panels: What to do?

A few times each week we tender discussions with homeowners (who are interested in going solar) that begin with a similar question: How do I know if my home/roof is a good candidate for solar, given shading from surrounding trees? Or, perhaps it's a statement: Solar won't work at my home because I have too much shading.

With kudos and thanks to THE GREAT Mike Kluk -- one of hundreds of terrific Cool Davis volunteers that propel our community's sustainability -- we now have an in-depth look at technologies we employ to help mitigate shading (and, thereby, maximize electricity generation of solar panels that are shaded). Mike just published an article in The Enterprise, Rooftop solar: Partial fixes for partial shade. If you're contemplating solar, it's well worth a read.

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Mike to help inform his research and prose. An excerpt:

Every residential solar installation is unique. Roof size, angle, and orientation to the sun all affect production. But for installations where intermittent shading is an issue, the addition of optimizers or microinverters typically increases production from 15 to as much as 25%. Over the lifetime of a system, 20 to 30 years typically, that is a tremendous amount of power that you will not need to pay for.

Our take: Solar does not work for everyone. However, by employing SolarEdge's power optimizers, the downside of shading is mitigated.

Most important, we are happy to perform an assessment and quantify the impact of shading. The end result may be a no-go, but it's worth contemplating.