Solar energy company looking at bright future
Rensselaer firm riding rising demand for solar energy to cut costs
By Brian Nearing
Published 6:22 pm, Wednesday, May 1, 2013
- Steve Erbry, vice president of Monolith Solar addresses those gathered during a press conference at Monolith Solar on Wednesday, May 1, 2013 in Rensselaer, NY. The company held the press event to discuss their plans to expand their workforce. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)
http://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Solar-energy-company-looking-at-bright-future-4480625.php
Four years ago, Mark Fobare and Steve Erby were starting up their new solar energy installation company in Erby's kitchen in East Greenbush. Then his wife had them move it out to the garage.
The pair worked long hours, maxed out their credit cards and found a vacant building to call home. On Monday, Fobare's and Erby's company, Monolith Solar, announced an expansion of a growing business, which they expect to hit $30 million in sales this year.
Located on Washington Street, in the shadow of the Amtrak passenger station, the company will be building a 13,000-square-foot addition, and nearly doubling its workforce with plans to hire 40 more workers, said Fobare, a Niskayuna native, during a news conference announcing the expansion.
As part of a growing market for installation of solar panels in homes and businesses, Monolith has become the third-largest installation firm in the state. With offices in Hudson and Queensbury, the company covers a territory from the Canadian border to Westchester County, and as far west as Syracuse, he said. Plans call for a new office in Buffalo by this fall, with a possible location to be added somewhere in the Midwest after that, he said.
It's a rapid rise for a company that installed its first solar collection system at the Rensselaer city library in 2010, assisted in part by a $125,000 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. "The savings are mounting up," said city Mayor Dan Dwyer, who estimated that the library's monthly utility bill went from $1,000 to about $400. He has since had panels added to City Hall, a new firehouse on Washington Avenue and the city public works garage.
"These are good-paying local jobs," said Rensselaer County Executive Kathleen Jimino. Fobare said installers can be hired at hourly wages ranging from $12 to $20, and experienced installers could earn up to $80,000 annually,
So far, the company has installed more than 200 systems at homes and businesses, said Thomas Barone, vice president of operations and energy services as NYSERDA. Those systems are producing enough power to support about 1,000 homes, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants by the equivalent of about 650 cars.
But as the sun shone brightly, providing free energy as a ceremonial switch for additional rooftop panels was thrown inside the Monolith offices, both Barone and U.S. Rep. Paul D. Tonko, D-Amsterdam, sounded a dark note on efforts by some political opponents of renewable energy to scale back public support. "This industry needs a long-term stable funding source that can be relied on," said Barone, who touted NYSERDA's decision last year to double the funding it uses to subsidize customer-site solar systems to $432 million during the next four years.
And Tonko warned that the federal sequester, a budget cutting mechanism now being applied by Washington, could dim the future for solar power. A federal subsidy program – known as Section 1603 – can pay for 30 percent of an installed system, but under the sequester rules such grants issued from mid-March through the end of September will be cut by 8.7 percent. "This is putting the continued growth of solar at risk," said Tonko.
NYSERDA also offers a solar system subsidy program that can cover 25 to 35 percent of a system.
bnearing@timesunion.com • 518-454-5094 • @Bnearing10
Four years ago, Mark Fobare and Steve Erby were starting up their new solar energy installation company in Erby's kitchen in East Greenbush. Then his wife had them move it out to the garage.
The pair worked long hours, maxed out their credit cards and found a vacant building to call home. On Monday, Fobare's and Erby's company, Monolith Solar, announced an expansion of a growing business, which they expect to hit $30 million in sales this year.
Located on Washington Street, in the shadow of the Amtrak passenger station, the company will be building a 13,000-square-foot addition, and nearly doubling its workforce with plans to hire 40 more workers, said Fobare, a Niskayuna native, during a news conference announcing the expansion.
As part of a growing market for installation of solar panels in homes and businesses, Monolith has become the third-largest installation firm in the state. With offices in Hudson and Queensbury, the company covers a territory from the Canadian border to Westchester County, and as far west as Syracuse, he said. Plans call for a new office in Buffalo by this fall, with a possible location to be added somewhere in the Midwest after that, he said.
It's a rapid rise for a company that installed its first solar collection system at the Rensselaer city library in 2010, assisted in part by a $125,000 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. "The savings are mounting up," said city Mayor Dan Dwyer, who estimated that the library's monthly utility bill went from $1,000 to about $400. He has since had panels added to City Hall, a new firehouse on Washington Avenue and the city public works garage.
"These are good-paying local jobs," said Rensselaer County Executive Kathleen Jimino. Fobare said installers can be hired at hourly wages ranging from $12 to $20, and experienced installers could earn up to $80,000 annually,
So far, the company has installed more than 200 systems at homes and businesses, said Thomas Barone, vice president of operations and energy services as NYSERDA. Those systems are producing enough power to support about 1,000 homes, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants by the equivalent of about 650 cars.
But as the sun shone brightly, providing free energy as a ceremonial switch for additional rooftop panels was thrown inside the Monolith offices, both Barone and U.S. Rep. Paul D. Tonko, D-Amsterdam, sounded a dark note on efforts by some political opponents of renewable energy to scale back public support. "This industry needs a long-term stable funding source that can be relied on," said Barone, who touted NYSERDA's decision last year to double the funding it uses to subsidize customer-site solar systems to $432 million during the next four years.
And Tonko warned that the federal sequester, a budget cutting mechanism now being applied by Washington, could dim the future for solar power. A federal subsidy program – known as Section 1603 – can pay for 30 percent of an installed system, but under the sequester rules such grants issued from mid-March through the end of September will be cut by 8.7 percent. "This is putting the continued growth of solar at risk," said Tonko.
NYSERDA also offers a solar system subsidy program that can cover 25 to 35 percent of a system.
bnearing@timesunion.com • 518-454-5094 • @Bnearing10
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Solar-energy-company-looking-at-bright-future-4480625.php#ixzz2S8svJgia
i really appreciate your blog. it is very interesting and informative.
ReplyDeleteCommercial Solar Installation
Local Solar Panel Installers