While the clean-energy industry has taken a hit like everything else during the COVID-19 crisis, one of the oldest solar installation firms in the Roaring Fork Valley is continuing to shine.<\/p>\n
Sunsense Solar, which celebrated its 30th anniversary Monday, is trying to fill several positions as it ramps up numerous projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually a busy time right now,\u201d founder and owner Scott Ely said Friday.<\/p>\n
He credits the Roaring Fork Valley with being a \u201csolutions-oriented\u201d area that has embraced renewable energy. Holy Cross Energy and the Community Office for Resource Efficiency provide incentives for homeowners and businesses to install solar. The Investment Tax Credit from the federal government remains in play, for now.<\/p>\n
Ely, 63 and a self-described \u201ctree hugger,\u201d also believes the threat of climate change makes his company\u2019s mission even more vital.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstanding that no technology is perfect, when you think about generating electricity from putting a solar panel in the sun, there\u2019s just something magical about it,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we can educate the masses to accept the technology as mainstream, ultimately benefiting the next generation and beyond, well, that\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ely \u201cgot sold\u201d on the technology and pursued a career in the field starting in the early 1980s in Boulder. The solar industry was in its infancy and there was a lot of room for innovation and creativity. He formed Sunsense in 1990 and moved a year or so later to the Roaring Fork Valley. He started as a one-man crew, usually hauling materials to secluded hippie cabins and humble mountain retreats accessed by rough Jeep roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything was off-grid,\u201d Ely said, \u201cso you had to bring everything with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
He installed panels on numerous homes in Little Annie Basin on the back of Aspen Mountain and in the Crystal River Valley. One of the oldest systems he installed that still exists is in the Lake Irwin area, on the Crested Butte side of Schofield Pass. He worked on projects from Steamboat to Telluride. Ely said he always had the support of his wife, Chrissy Leonard, even though the trips to the backcountry made her a \u201csolar widow\u201d for long stretches.<\/p>\n
His early clients came from all sorts of economic situations and political persuasions. They had a common bond of wanting to be energy self-sufficient.<\/p>\n
Many of those early clients were \u201creal pioneers,\u201d he said, but now they\u2019re \u201cjust smart energy shoppers.\u201d<\/p>\n
His growing reputation led to him getting hired to install solar systems on the 10th Mountain Division Huts and Fred Braun Hut System in the mountains surrounding Aspen and beyond.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was able to travel into the backcountry on a regular basis,\u201d Ely said, noting that he often had a dog and a fishing pole in tow. \u201cI used to say that my commute was over two mountain passes and miles down a dirt road before four-wheeling to my job.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the first decade of the 2000s, grid-tied systems hit the mainstream as more people became aware and fascinated with solar electricity as an option. Costs fell, incentives appeared and a desire to be \u201cpart of the solution\u201d ramped up. In the Roaring Fork, Eagle and Colorado River valleys, nonprofit organizations such as CORE and CLEER were instrumental in promoting solar and renewable energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say it\u2019s robust in this valley,\u201d he said of the interest in solar. \u201cPeople see that it makes economic sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a further boost in business when Colorado voters in 2004 approved the Renewable Energy Requirement Initiative<\/a>, also known as Amendment 37, which requires escalating percentages of retail energy sales from renewable sources in the state. Holy Cross Energy, which serves customers throughout the region, embraced the direction and has a goal of 70% clean energy by 2030.<\/p>\n The explosion in demand resulted in Sunsense\u2019s rapid growth. Students from Solar Energy International, formerly located in Carbondale, provided a reliable and eager labor pool. The company now has between 25 and 30 employees, depending on current projects, and also occasionally hires subcontractors for big jobs.<\/p>\n The company had prepared for a big celebration of its 30th anniversary, but the coronavirus threat nixed the plan. Ely said his company will donate the money budgeted for the event to local nonprofit organizations and causes.<\/p>\n The past decade produced a significant leap forward for the solar electric industry, Ely said. Businesses and communities have dived into the rush for clean energy.<\/p>\n In the old days, Ely said, a job with 20 solar panels was big. Now, jobs with 40, 60 and more modules are common. In addition, panels are larger and more efficient.<\/p>\n Utility-scale solar farms are replacing fossil fuel-fired power plants. Sunsense built the largest solar array in the Roaring Fork Valley in 2015 when it worked with Clean Energy Collective on a 1.8-megawatt facility at Sunnyside Ranch, the site of the former Carbondale landfill in Missouri Heights.<\/p>\n Sunsense\u2019s largest individual project is a 2-megawatt solar farm in Grand Junction with between 7,000 and 8,000 panels.<\/p>\n The big push in the industry now is for battery storage, not only at individual residences but also on an industrial scale. It\u2019s ironic in a way, Ely said, because the pioneering projects in the hippie cabins incorporated batteries decades ago out of necessity because they weren\u2019t tied to the grid. Once a big part of the market shifted to sites tied to the grid, interest in batteries fell. That\u2019s changed back again so that utilities can tap into power produced by solar at all times, not just when the sun is shining. Battery storage is a big part of the push to create resilient systems.<\/p>\n