Earthwave Renewables has one heck of a sales pitch: this Upstate company can help lower or even eliminate your power bill.
“People know that the power bill is an expense that we have every single month, right?” asks Preston Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Earthwave, a venture that specializes in installing solar panels on commercial and residential properties. “It’s essentially a contract that we signed up for and you don’t have any negotiating power. As long as we want our refrigerators running and the ability to play PlayStation with our families, we’ve got to pay that bill. So what we do is hook you up with the solar system that’s going to generate all your own power.”
That’s not all, though. If you use solar energy, you might be in for a hefty assist from the IRS.
“There’s a 51% combined tax credit, ” Johnson says. “It’s 26% federal and 25% state. So the government is going to pay for more than half the cost of the system and the efficiency upgrade, and what it costs to pay off that system is typically less than what you’re paying your utility company on a monthly basis. Then you’re just paying off your system; that takes the few years, and then that bill goes away. Now you’re producing all your own power free and clear.”
If it sounds like Johnson knows his stuff, he does. Before Earthwave Renewables opened earlier this year, he spent time working for Logisticus Group, a project management company that dealt with a lot of solar technology. That’s how Johnson discovered that there were residential and commercial markets for what he wanted to do.
“For most of our projects at Logisticus, we were dealing with renewable energy,” he says, “so we would do practicality studies. We would help developers procure, store and then distribute solar panels. So there was a lot of overlap.”
Johnson says that Earthwave does things a little differently, and more individually, than their competitors.
“It’s a holistic approach to the industry,” he says. “The traditional methodology is, ‘Put as many panels on the roof as possible.’ The bigger the system the more you get paid. We have a longer view of it — we don’t plan on doing this for a year or two, making a bunch of money and then disappearing. We want to have some longevity, so we put the needs of customers at the forefront. If we can save you money and not put as many panels up, it just makes more sense. We’re going to design a system that’s custom-made for your home.”
Before installing solar panels at your home or business, Johnson says that Earthwave does its homework. “We’re going to call Duke (Energy) and get a summary for your home of how many kilowatt hours your family has consumed over the last year,” he says.
Fast facts:
- A typical solar panel installation takes 5-6 hours.
- Earthwave is a minority-owned, veteran-owned company.
