Summary

Solar installers are going into partnerships with other ventures and adding products and services like battery storage, EV charging stations, Smart Home devices and warrantied maintenance as a way to generate more profits and further the relationship with their customers.  

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More solar installers are adding products and services to their core offering, both to help customers fulfill their sustainable energy goals and to drive ancillary revenue. Products like battery storage, EV charging stations, Smart Home devices and electrical upgrades are natural add-ons for many customers. At the same time, more installers are offering extended operational monitoring and warrantied maintenance, further tightening the relationship with the customer, at greater profit.

Astounding market growth

The sustainable energy market that complements solar is sizable, if difficult to accurately value, for the residential and commercial segments alike. The residential energy storage market alone is exploding, according to a September 2018 U.S. Energy Storage Monitor from the Energy Storage Association and Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. They say 156.5 MWh of energy storage was deployed in the second quarter of 2018, triple what was deployed in the second quarter of 2017. The residential segment led the way, growing tenfold year over year.

With such awesome growth prospects, the key hurdle to such business expansion seems to be customer acquisition. In a 2018 study, the Rocky Mountain Institute found that two-thirds of U.S. homeowners consider home energy performance a top priority, but few actually take action to improve home energy use. And those who have implemented efficiency improvements seldom invest in whole-home energy upgrades, RMI reports.

Thus, much of the sustainable energy add-on market may need to be driven by product installers and service providers. In a survey by the American Institute of Architects, 51 percent of single-family homebuilders and 36 percent of remodelers surveyed for the report anticipate that green building projects will make up more than 60 percent of their residential projects by 2020.

Growth through partnerships

One way that solar installers expand their offerings and increase revenue is through strategic partnerships or acquisitions. 

For some solar installers, deciding which add-on product to pursue first can present a quandary, given the swarm of new solutions being offered at every product level. Tinkering, testing and pilot installation programs help prove what works best.

Lutron, based in Coopersburg, Pa., claims to lead the market in high-quality lighting controls for fluorescent, halogen incandescent, magnetic low-voltage, electronic low-voltage and LED light sources. The company has also led innovations in window shade technology for the control of daylight, as well as wired and wireless systems, to integrate the control of both daylight and electric light.

But you don’t need to jump right into automated window shade installs to grow your business. For some solar installers, offering O&M services for existing solar customers makes the most sense as a first step (and the biggest step) for diversification.