June 5, 2025 • 34 mins
Today on the Clean Power Hour, Tim Montague sits down with Carl Moose, partner at Greenlight Energy Solutions, to explore how businesses and homeowners in the Midwest are transforming their biggest liability, their roof, into a profitable energy asset.
Carl, a former banker turned solar developer, reveals why Illinois has become one of the top 10 distributed generation markets in the US, despite not being known as a traditional "solar state." He breaks down the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) that created a 10-year runway of healthy renewable energy credits, making solar financially compelling for residential, commercial, and community solar projects.
Key insights you'll discover:
- Why 50% of roofs need reconditioning before solar installation and how to overcome this major obstacle
- The "airline fuel futures" strategy for locking in energy costs with solar
- How space-age satellite technology is trickling down to make rooftop solar more efficient than ever
- The three-part business case: turning liabilities into assets, fixing variable expenses, and leveraging federal/state incentives
- Why net metering changes are driving the storage opportunity in Illinois
- Real-world ROI scenarios showing 4-5 year payback periods with 15+ years of additional savings
Carl also shares the evolution of Greenlight Energy Solutions, from a traditional construction company to a full-service solar EPC, and explains their "BMW not Chevrolet" approach to quality components and installation.
Whether you're a facility owner looking to reduce operating costs, a solar professional seeking market insights, or simply curious about the energy transition happening in America's heartland, this episode delivers actionable intelligence on one of the country's hottest solar markets.
Connect with Carl Moose
LinkedIn: Carl Moose
Email: carl@greenlightenergy.solar
Website: Greenlink Energy Solutions
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carl Moose (00:00):
Again, the other thing I talk about Tim is
(00:03):
freezing that variable monthlyexpense, right? If you can lock
it any business, I don't care ifit's a coffee shop, a sandwich
shop or United Airlines, right?
Why do the airlines buy futureson fuel? Because they lock in
that price. They know every timethat jet takes off, they know
exactly what their cost is. It'sthe same idea. When you go
solar, you lock in that thatvariable expense, which is just
(00:23):
smart business. So those are acouple of things that we talk
about when we talk to thebusiness owner.
intro (00:30):
Are you speeding the energy transition here at the
Clean Power Hour, our host, TimMontague, bring you the best in
solar, batteries and cleantechnologies. Every week. Want
to go deeper intodecarbonization. We do too.
We're here to help youunderstand and command the
commercial, residential andutility, solar, wind and storage
industries. So let's get to ittogether. We can speed the
(00:54):
energy transition
Tim Montague (00:57):
today on the Clean Power Hour distributed energy
here in the Midwest. Check outall of our content at
cleanpowerhour.com Please giveus a rating and a review on
Apple or Spotify, and be sure tofollow us on YouTube. My guest
today is Carl moose. He is apartner at Greenlight energy
solutions, a solar developer andinstaller based in Chicago,
(01:19):
Illinois. Welcome to the show.
Carl,
Carl Moose (01:21):
thank you, Tim, it's great to be here. It's heady
days in
Tim Montague (01:25):
the Illinois market, as many of my listeners
know, we have a about a 10 yearrunway of very healthy renewable
energy credits driving thedistributed generation or
rooftop solar market, as we callit, and this fuels residential,
commercial, small utility,meaning community solar, and
(01:48):
there are carve outs for utilityas well, but, but the main thing
is DG, and that legislation thatcreated that market is called
the Climate and equitable JOBSAct, otherwise known as Seija,
which was preceded by the futureenergy JOBS Act, which went into
(02:08):
law back in 2016 as as mylisteners also know, legislation
is the foundation. Right, youhave to have good legislation.
And many markets in the US nowhave good DG markets, but not
all. So Carl, tell our listenersa little bit about yourself. How
did you come to the solarindustry? Yeah,
Carl Moose (02:28):
no, it's, it's interesting. And we are based in
Chicago. We have an office inGlen Ellen, which is one of the
suburbs. But you know, I, I wasa banker, and I got into
commercial real estate, and backin oh four I was involved with a
renewable energy company, sat onthe board, raised some money,
was a startup, and kind of gotthe bug, learned a lot about
(02:50):
what was going on at that point.
I think Warren Buffet, at thattime, was buying farmland in the
Midwest and looking atconverting it to wind and solar
farms. So it was intriguing. Ialso have a degree from the
University of New York ingeology, so I've always been
interested in Mother Earth andEnergy and the sun and our solar
system. So that's how I got intoit. You know, Fast forward to
(03:11):
about five, six years ago. Youknow, we started green light
energy solutions, really, as aresidential, commercial solar,
you know, did you mention DG,EPC? You know, to install solar
on primarily rooftops. You know,to help homeowners and
commercial property owners takeadvantage of all the incentives.
You know, not only on thefederal level, with the ITCs,
(03:32):
but also, as you mentioned, thevery favorable environment here
in Illinois.
Tim Montague (03:40):
Yeah, and real estate is a great background for
solar, because solar is realestate, right? You're putting
solar panels on the roof or theground next to a facility, it
takes up real estate. It isthere for real estate. It
becomes part of the building.
It's a major upgrade to thebuilding if you're putting it on
as rooftop solar. And while thatworks, there are many nuances to
(04:02):
this. As our developer andinstaller friends know, the
biggest challenge in rooftopsolar, Carl, in my opinion, is
roof condition. Many rooftopsare too old to solarize, and so
you need to upgrade the roof orreplace the roof. I'm curious
right out of the gate, how doyou work with whether it's a
(04:24):
homeowner or a facility ownerfor commercial to overcome that
major obstacle?
Carl Moose (04:32):
Yeah, and it is a major obstacle. Probably 50% of
the roofs that we take a lookat, Tim do need to be
reconditioned. You know, we'renot going to put a system that's
going to be up there for 20 for2530, years on a roof that's
only got 10 years life left onit. So, you know, really, if a
roof is more than five to eightyears old, depending on the
material the roof and thecondition of the roof, we've got
(04:55):
to do something with that roof.
Because, again, the last thingyou want to do is put solar up
top, and have to. Remove that,because you have some challenges
with the roof. So it is, it is achallenge. Now we've done
correctly, depending on theoffset and how big the roof is
and how much energy andeverything else. There are some,
there are some programs whereyou can roll apart, or all of
the cost of the roof into theproject, but it has to be part
(05:16):
of the project, which means theroof has to be reflective. There
has to be some other hurdles toget over, and typically you've
got to use a bifacial panel,which is going to have some
significant benefit to thereflective nature of that roof.
So the roofs are definitely aconcern. And as I mentioned,
about half the time when we doour site survey, we recommend
(05:38):
that you, you know, we're notgoing to put solar on a roof
that's compromised Period, endof story.
Tim Montague (05:46):
Yeah. And I'm glad you mentioned integrating the
roof into the solar project, soto speak, making it a solar
roof, and then leveraging thetax credit the ITC on the roof.
You can do this. Check out aproject that we've documented on
the show here several times withMr. Murphy, the CEO of Simmons
(06:08):
knife. And saw where they did are roof. We installed a fully
attached solar array on thatroof, whereas typically we would
do ballasted flat roof in theMidwest, we did fully attached.
And what this does is it says,hey, the solar is part of the
roof, and you can then take theITC on that portion of the roof
(06:30):
that is now solarized. And it'sa good thing because an old roof
getting replaced. Okay, if youhave an old roof, that can be a
deal killer, and it does, inmany time, in many cases, kill
the deal. And then if you'regoing to re roof, that comes at
a price. It's not as expensiveas a solar array, but it's non
(06:51):
trivial to replace a roof oraugment a roof. And so being
able to take that 30% ITC asmuch as 50 or 60% even if the
stars fully align and you getthe low income and the energy
adder and the domestic contentadders. But Carl paint us a
(07:12):
picture what is going on inrooftop solar in the Midwest.
And if you want to just focus onIllinois, that's fine. But if
you're working in other markets,please comment on those as well,
just with some broad strokes,what is it that's driving the
market?
Carl Moose (07:28):
Yeah, primarily we do work in Illinois. You know
the bordering states forIllinois, you know Michigan has
some good programs. Ohio, whichis one state over, they have
some good programs. Indiana,Wisconsin, Iowa, not so much.
Kentucky, not so much. So weprimarily focus on Illinois.
And, you know, it's interesting,because, you know, most people
don't think of Illinois as agood solar state, but at the end
(07:50):
of the day, you know, I use theanalogy. If you've ever been to
Florida in July, you know, thebeaches are empty at noon
because you'll get burnt to acrisp. Or if you've ever left
your cell phone on yourdashboard, it overheats. Well,
you know, panels down in some ofthose southern areas, like
Florida, Texas, New Mexico,Arizona, Southern California,
they can overheat in the primesunshine part of the year, where
(08:14):
Illinois, we don't have thatproblem. So Illinois has a good
solar resource. At our latitude,we get a good eight months of
production. You know, fourmonths are low production, the
November, December, January,February, but we get eight
months and because in Illinois,we have that net metering
through comed, which is anExelon company, any system over
100 KW, you're still at that onefor one net metering. So you can
(08:37):
build up those credits duringthe eight months high production
months to accommodate the lowproduction months. So, you know,
definitely in the Midwest, thatlatitudinal bound, you know,
stretch, we get good solarresource across that across the
region, from coast to coast. Sothat plays into it. And as you
mentioned, Tim, you know, theincentives. You know, our
(08:58):
Springfield is our capital, ourlegislation down there is very
renewable friendly. In NorthernIllinois, we have comed, which
is an excellent company. Theyare very renewable supportive.
So, you know, all of those starsline up, certainly in Illinois.
And then we have the S Rex, youknow, Illinois as a block
methodology for the S Rex. Sothey're, they're contracted.
(09:22):
They pay out quarterly, youknow, over a seven year period,
typically. So it's just a goodenvironment for solar. And of
course, you know, if I'm abusiness person, you know, how
can I maximize my building?
Right? If I'm running a plasticinjection molding company or a
die cutting or a food warehouse,my building is a necessary evil.
So how can I maximize that?
(09:42):
Well, I tell people, take yourroof, which is typically a
liability for most buildings.
Unless you're the United Center,or, you know, the Rosemont
horizon, no one's paying you forthat real estate. So turn that
liability into an asset byproducing energy number one.
Number two, take your variablemonthly expense, your electric.
Which is oftentimes one of yourtop three to five expenses, and
fix it, because it's variable,right? It goes up based on your
(10:05):
usage and based on what theutility companies are charging
you. So take that variableexpense and fix it, and then the
third thing is use federal stateutility money to do it. So it's
liabilities becoming assetsfixed variable expenses becoming
fixed and using federal stateutility money to do it. And in
Illinois, there's just a reallygood argument to that, you know,
(10:26):
to that strategy. So for forbusiness owners, it's really a
conversation. It's not really aconversation about solar, per
se. It's a conversation about,how can you maximize your
building, right? And and again,you know, liabilities become
assets, variable expenses becomefixed using federal, state
utility money.
Tim Montague (10:46):
Yeah. So if you're listening to this and you're a
facility owner or you work for afacility owner, what Carl is
saying is that you can monetizeyour roof. Traditionally, the
roof is good for keeping rainand weather out of the building,
and everybody needs a roof ontheir building. Now you can turn
(11:08):
the roof into a cash machine,basically, and reduce your power
bill by 50 to 75% with solar PV.
This is technology that convertssunlight to electricity which
runs into the grid, and if yourbuilding over produces, let's
say, on a Sunday, when yourfacility is closed, that money
or those electrons flow onto thegrid and are used elsewhere, and
(11:31):
you get credit for those. That'scalled net metering. Now net
metering is being scaled back inIllinois, we did have a step
down here in 2025 we we had amajor step down in a couple
years ago in California, andthat caused the resi market to
for lack of a better expressiontank. So net metering is
(11:53):
influential when you reduce netmetering. And I would refer my
listeners to my conversationwith burchi Andrew birch, the
founder of Open Solar, aboutthis, but when you reduce net
metering, what that does is itincentivizes storage, and if
you're not doing commercial orresidential storage, please
(12:18):
reach out to me. I can help yougrab on to that, because storage
is a major opportunity. It is acapital expense, and it you
know, you have to figure out howto finance these projects. But
the ROI is even sweeter, and wehave a special incentive in
Illinois, $250 per kWh forstorage. But anyway, back to
(12:39):
monetizing your roof. That'swhat this is about, and it is an
important strategy for facilityowners to get into. I always
lead with this, right? If I'mtalking to a facility owner that
this is about saving you money.
Everybody wants to save money,Carl, don't they? Absolutely,
Carl Moose (12:59):
that's it. And if you're a business person, it's
all about you know how it's nothow much you make, it's how much
you keep right and if you canreduce that electric bill. And
again, where we start Tim iswith the electric bill. We
whether it's a residentialapplication or commercial, all
we need to do is take a look atyour electric bill. Our design
guys, at no cost, no obligation,will come up with a design.
They'll do a rendering yourbuilding, and we produce a six
(13:22):
or seven page document thattalks about all the incentives,
talks about the cost, talksabout the production, talks
about the warranties. You know,a 15 year projection shows you
where your break even point is,so that that business owner or
property owner or homeowner canreally take a look and make an
educated decision. And you know,it's not for everybody. I mean,
you know, there's some areas in,I don't know how familiar with
(13:42):
Chicago, but on the north shoreof Chicago you have some big
homes that have prettycomplicated roofs, and they have
big trees. So, you know, it'sjust harder to make that work up
there. You know, on theresidential side, commercial,
anybody that's ever flown intoO'Hare, all you got to do is
look out the window as you'reflying in. The airport is
surrounded by millions of squarefeet of roof space, and every
(14:05):
single one of those roofs is apotential place to put solar.
And again, you know, how do youturn that real estate, that
roof, real estate, you know,from being a liability, into an
asset? Well, one way is toenergize it with solar.
Tim Montague (14:19):
Yeah, it's, you know, it's still a minority of
facilities that have solar onthem, or have even considered
putting solar on them, but in 10and then 20 years, solar is
going to be everywhere, right?
It is going to completely gomainstream. We see this in
places like Northern Europe andeven China, where it's just
(14:44):
becoming part and parcel of thebuilt environment here in the
US. Go ahead,
Carl Moose (14:52):
yeah, one of the other things I talk about is,
you know, what's really drivingpanel technologies is satellite
technology. You know, 10 yearsago, Tim, as you. We only had
about 1000 satellites, roughlyup in space. Now there's over
10,000 and all of thosesatellites, or the vast
majority, if not all of them,are powered by solar, right? So
when you put something up inspace, it costs you 10s of
(15:12):
millions of dollars, and it'syou want it to stay up there for
a long time. Well, those solarpanels, those satellites, aren't
plugged into anything, andnobody's up there doing
maintenance on them. So thosehave to be very light, very
effective, very efficient andlong lasting. Well, all that
space age technology is nowtrickling down to the rooftop.
So the panels that we'reinstalling, you know, today are
(15:33):
space age technology from 10years ago. So it is becoming
more ubiquitous. It is becomingmore popular. And, you know,
certainly in the Midwest, peopleare starting to catch on,
because, you know, energy costsare not going down, right? I
mean, with AI and all thecomputing and the data centers
and you know, the satellites,and you know, the call that
(15:55):
we're on right now is going up,you know, the signals going to
the satellite and back, we'reusing more and more energy, and
the grid is not getting anyyounger, so the power companies
are looking for that. DG, right?
How can I take a 600,000 squarefoot facility, you know, in Elk
Grove village or bensonville,which are suburbs right by the
airport, and take it off thegrid, or have it produce energy
(16:15):
so that I don't, you know, asthe power company, I don't have
to go out and build some morecapacity, right? So the trend is
going that, you know, this hasbeen around for a long time. You
know, I think the momentum nowis greater than it's ever been,
and we're going to see more andmore of it. And certainly in the
Midwest,
Tim Montague (16:32):
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call 855-584-7168, to find outmore. So let's talk about how we
talk to customers, about thevalue proposition. We We talked
a little bit about monetizingyour roof, and then let's talk
about green light energy,because I want to hear more
about your company. But youknow, the way I I explain this
(17:37):
is, you buy some technology thatyou put on your roof, it then
produces energy, which reducesyour energy bill. And so there's
a CapEx on the front end.
There's savings over time,there's incentives that are
paying back the project is cashpositive in four or five years
now, with the incentives that wehave in Illinois, it's a
(18:00):
combination of state andfederal, right? And then it's
just a cash machine. The moneyput in is oftentimes equal to
approximately the 20 yearsavings of the project. So if
you put in half a milliondollars. It's paid back in four
years, and then you're going tosave another half a million
(18:21):
dollars over the next 15 years.
How do you like to propose this,though, or explain this in
simple terms to facility owners?
Carl Moose (18:33):
Well, you know, that's a good what you just said
is a great place to start. Youknow, one of the challenges that
capex budget, right? You know,where do you have a budget for
this? And you know, as far asthe federal tax credit, you
know, if you're at 30% or 40%you know, keep in mind that
those corporations, you know,their CFO, is escrowing,
typically, on a quarterly basis,those tax payments, right? And
(18:53):
so rather than putting thatmoney in escrow, out of your
profits, you can apply that andinvest that into a solar system,
right? And you could calculatethat so that a year from now,
when the ITCs kick in and it'stime to pay Uncle Sam, rather
than dipping into your escrow,you can use that credit. So
that's one one conversation. Theother one is, you know how long
(19:14):
you're gonna be in the building?
You know if you plan on being inthe building for 1020, years,
maybe you're going to yoursuccession plan is to give this
to the kids or sell it to theemployees. You're investing in
that piece of property to makeit more efficient. And remember,
we use a very conservative 3%escalator, but if you look
historically over the last 20years, electric rates have gone
(19:34):
up significantly more than that.
So when you project out, youknow, 10 years from now, what
your electric bill is going tobe compared to today, it really
starts to make sense. And youknow, I always use the analogy,
you know, if I could have lockedin the price of gasoline, you
know, back in when I starteddriving, back in the 70s, you
know, I, you know, I'd bepaying, you know, 30 cents a
(19:57):
gallon instead of $3 a gallon.
So it's kind of the same. Thing,you know, you're, you're making
that investment of and hedgingagainst the cost of energy,
which we know is not going down,it's going up, right? And so
that's, it's just a good move,right? It's a smart move. And
again, the other thing I talkabout Tim is, you know, freezing
that variable monthly expense,right? If you can lock it, you
know, any business, I don't careif it's a coffee shop, a
(20:18):
sandwich shop, or UnitedAirlines, right? Why do the
airlines buy futures on fuel?
Because they lock in that price.
They know every time that jettakes off, they know exactly
what their cost is. It's thesame idea. When you go solar,
you lock in that that variableexpense, which is just smart
business. So those are a coupleof things that we talk about
when we talk to the businessowner.
Tim Montague (20:42):
Yeah, you know that expression Death and Taxes
are the only certainties inlife. And in the case of taxes,
rather than pay those taxes tothe government, you can then
invest those taxes in your ownfacility as a credit, and that's
a way to reduce your tax burden,which I think is very
(21:03):
compelling. And then, of course,there's just the raw savings,
right? You're gettingelectricity from sunshine. The
fuel for that is free. It'sphotons. We're we're raining
down five to 10,000 times morephotons than all of society
consumes on an annual basis. Sowe're literally swimming in
(21:23):
energy. So, Carl, you want tosay something about that? Yeah,
there's
Carl Moose (21:28):
no lack of energy. I mean, everything in our
universe, or I'm sorry, oursolar system is derived from the
sun, including the energy ittakes for me to talk to you,
right? So why are we digging up600 million year old plants and
animals that that derive theirenergy from the sun, 600 million
years ago, we're digging it up.
We're paying whoever owns it.
We're shipping it on railroads,you know, to a processing plant.
(21:49):
We're processing it, then we'reburning it, which pollutes the
environment, to produce energy,to produce steam, to turn a
turbine that turns a generator,just to send it all the way down
and transmit it all the way downto the homeowner, which, by the
way, only 25 or 30% of thatenergy actually makes it to your
wall. So Right? It just makessense to me, like, capture it,
convert it. We're at the source.
As you mentioned. You know, inthe amount of time that we do
(22:13):
this podcast, the earth gets hitwith enough solar energy to
satisfy 100% of humanconsumption. So why not capture
it and convert it right where wehit it. And to your point, the
photons are free where you know,the energy is free. It's the
capitalization and capture. Butagain, typically five to seven
years into it, you're you're atyour break even point, so now
you're ahead of the curve.
Tim Montague (22:35):
I love it. So let's talk about green light.
You know, we have a growingcadre of solar installers here
in Illinois. Some of them areindigenous companies that have
been born and bred in Illinois,and some of them have come from
other markets. Because, let'sface it, Illinois is a growth
(22:56):
market. It's a growing solarindustry. We're a, you know,
we're in the top 10 DG marketsacross the US. Tell us about
green light. What was theinception of the company? And
when you're sitting across thetable from a facility owner, how
do you differentiate yourselvesfrom the other installers and
(23:17):
EPCs out there? Yeah, great
Carl Moose (23:19):
question. So my partner, Joe. He started green
light, green light ConstructionGroup, I believe, 22 years ago.
So Joe was my contractor when Iowned my real estate. And as you
know, when you find a goodcontractor, you stick with him.
And Joe is a he's a governmentcontractor. He does everything
from build design ground up.
He's done airports, marinas. Hegets on government contracts.
(23:39):
And he was the one thatapproached me and said, hey, you
know, and one of his businesses,by the way, is roofing, right?
So, you know, he came to me andsaid, Hey, let's go grab some
dinner. And he said, Hey, I'mgetting sick and tired every
time I put a roof on a building,I come back to do maintenance,
and there's solar up. There hegoes, I'm leaving money. I'm
losing money. I'm leaving moneyon the roof. I said, Well, yeah,
you probably are, Joe. So youknow, we took about nine months,
(24:00):
six nine months, did a lot ofresearch, kissed a lot of frogs,
talked to a lot of people, andwe launched green light energy
solutions about five, just, justunder five years ago, right?
And, you know, we're an EPC,we're we do full design, you
know, procurement, construction.
We're registered with the ICC.
We're registered with theclearing houses for the S Rex.
(24:24):
We manage all that, you know,comed. We're a certified vendor
with comed. So we went throughthe process for all that,
because, as you know, to qualifyfor the federal programs, you've
got to, you know, meet certaincriteria and thresholds. So, you
know, we took a couple yearsdoing all that. It's expensive.
It's time consuming. You got tohave the, you know, Master
(24:44):
electricians on staff, and thestructural engineers and all
that kind of thing and and then,of course, the the individuals
that that know what they'redoing when they get up on the
roof. So, you know, that's beenthe evolution of green light
energy. Green light energy is a.
A subsidiary of green lightConstruction Group. And, you
know, again, we're, you know,we're growing the residential
(25:06):
business. Joe basically managesthe residential business. I
manage a commercial business.
We've hired on a new salesmanager over there, and we've
got about eight people that areexperienced. We won't work with
anybody that doesn't have atleast three or four years track
record in solar, because we're,you know, we're interested in
dealing with, you know,professionals. They represent
our brand, and Joe and I areactive in the business. I mean,
(25:28):
this is what we do. You know, ifyou need, if you have a problem,
we can solve it again. Joe has aroofing company, so, you know,
if somebody needs a new roof, wecould certainly do that work for
them. And we can do theanalysis. If they've got their
own roofer, that's okay, too.
But at the end of the day, thetwo companies work together to
make sure that the the customerexperience is what they you know
(25:49):
upon beyond their expectations.
And again, you know we, you knowwe're we understand. You know
there's always going to beissues, there's always going to
be challenges, but you know whoyou're going to call when you
have a when you have a problem.
You can talk directly to theowners of the company.
Tim Montague (26:03):
I think having a construction background really
helps. I did not have that whenI came to the industry, and
that's why I went to work for abig contractor called
continental up in Chicagoland.
They were an electricalinstaller, electrical contractor
that got into solar, and that'snot uncommon that, you know,
because it's electricity. Butreally, no matter what the
(26:25):
trade, whether you're a generalcontractor, mechanical,
electric, even on the laborside, but knowing how to work
with, you know, designing andpermitting projects that helps
you. Mentioned technology. Carl,you know how the technology that
(26:45):
we're installing on rooftops istrickling down from the space
industry? And that's absolutelytrue. The technology is quite
different, right? We're usingmuch more mainstream, affordable
technology on rooftop solar. Thetechnology has been around for
70 plus years now. So it istruly mature technology. It's
(27:06):
always getting better. And youknow, we're in that technology
adoption curve where the morepeople that install solar, the
more affordable it gets. Butwhat do you think is important
for facility owners orprosumers, for that matter, to
understand about solartechnology. There's, you know,
there's three major components,there's the panels, there's the
(27:27):
racking, and there's theinverters that are converting
the DC power to the AC. But howdo you explain the technology
side of this industry to yourcustomers? Yeah,
Carl Moose (27:40):
well, all three of those are very important, you
know, the panels, the racking,and the inverters, and you could
certainly cut, cut corners onall those, you know, for us, we
take the approach of work. We'rethe middle of the road. We're
not going to be the leastexpensive out there. We're not
going to be the most expensive.
You know, I kind of use the caranalogy. I drive an American
car. So I, you know, I use theanalogy of a Chevrolet. And I
have nothing against Chevrolet.
I'm just simply saying, youknow, it's, it's, it's not a
(28:02):
Rolls Royce, right? Or aLamborghini. And we kind of look
at us as being the Audi or theBMW, Mercedes, you know, you
know a quality car that's goingto, you're going to pay a good
price for, but it's a qualitycar. And again, not to say that
Chevrolet's not a quality car,but you understand what I mean
with regard to panels. The way Iexplain it is, I use the analogy
of tires, right? So you've gotthe two and 300 series panels,
(28:24):
you got the 400 series panels,and then you've got the 500 and
higher series panels, kind oflike tires, you know, if you go
to a discount tire store, youknow, you might buy a 40 or
50,000 mile tire. You're goingto pay less for that, right?
That's that lower end panel,that two or 300 series you know,
you're not going to put a, youknow, an $800 tire on a car that
you're only going to keep forthree years. You know, if you
(28:46):
own a Lamborghini or a moreexpensive car, you're going to
buy that more expensive panel ortire, which, in this analogy, is
that five or 600 series. We usethe 400 series panels. It's
usually a 460 or above that, youknow, goes up maybe sometimes
the 510, series. So we use ahigh quality panel that's going
to be efficient for the squarefootage, and usually is a by
(29:07):
facial right? So that's thefirst thing. The racking is very
important as well. You know,typically we do custom racking.
We'll go out during our sitesurvey, our structural guy will
go out, our project manager willgo out. And we typically do
custom, custom panel, or, I'msorry, racking, depending on
what's the roof, what's going onwith the roof. And again, that
adds a little bit of time to thedelivery and a little bit of
(29:29):
cost, but we think it's, itmakes sense, right? Rather than
an off the shelf, cheap racking,right? And then, of course, the
inverters, you know, we use SMAand 40s, I think it is the the
French company, I can't rememberoffhand, but you know that we
use a high quality inverter,because that's, that's really
the weak link in the system,right? The panels are going to
last for a long time, right? Theracking is going to last for a
(29:51):
long time. The inverter is kindof that weak link in the chain.
You know, typically, you know,1215, years into it, you've got,
you've got a, you. Probablygonna have to repay replace an
inverter. So we, again, we weuse the highest quality
inverters that we can get,because, you know, again, we
don't want any problems for aslong as as we can
Tim Montague (30:11):
well. Carl, thank you for that explanation. I
wholeheartedly agree. Usequality products and you'll have
happy customers for a long solarproject lifetime. Carl, in our
last few minutes together, whatelse should our listeners know
about green light, or yourselfor the industry that we're all
(30:34):
in, that solar coaster thatwe're riding? What else would
you like our listeners to know?
Carl Moose (30:39):
Well, you know about green light. You know, Joe and I
take our business seriously. Ourkids are involved. You know,
we're we've been around for awhile. We're not going anywhere.
And, you know, we takeresponsibility for our projects
from start to finish. So, youknow, with regard, with that
regard, the majority of ourbusiness, Tim is referral
business. So we get a lot ofreferrals. We do a lot of
(30:59):
networking. We sit on the boardsof a couple of different
associations. And, you know,we're pretty well known in the,
you know, Northern Illinois orChicago area, you know, as far
as solar, you know, as soon asyou say solar, people, they have
some preconceived notions, youknow, and and again, at the end
of the day, I like to explain itis, it's the source of energy. I
mean, you know, the energy isthe day the sun stops shining,
(31:21):
we've got big problems, right?
So, you know, and to think aboutit, you know, if you believe the
sun's been around for four orfour and a half billion years,
it hasn't taken a day off. Imean, it's never turned its
switch off, and it's alwaysshining somewhere. So why not
capture that? Why not convertthat and turn that into
electricity? Because it'savailable, you know, to almost
everybody. Now, of course,there's scenarios where you
(31:41):
don't get good sun, or you'vegot shading, or, you know, what
have you, but for Mo, for mostpeople, it's something to
consider. And again, as Imentioned earlier, you know,
there are some installationswhere it just doesn't pan out.
It doesn't work because the rooforientation, or the size of the
roof, or the design of the roof,or there may be trees and
shading, but it's worth taking alook at. You know, for most
(32:02):
people that own their home or ontheir their business, because
for most of it, it does makesense.
Tim Montague (32:09):
Well said, Well, I want to thank Carl moose of
green light energy solutions forcoming on the show. Please check
out all of our content atcleanpowerhour.com Give us a
rating and review. Tell a friendabout the show, follow me on
YouTube and reach out to me onLinkedIn. I love connecting with
my listeners. Carl, how can ourlisteners find you?
Carl Moose (32:28):
Yeah, so our website is www dot Greenlight energy,
dot solar, and my email issimply my first name. Carl, with
a C at Greenlightenergy.solar,you know, feel free to send us
an email again. If you're inNorthern Illinois, Michigan or
Ohio and you want us to take alook at a project, all we really
need is is the address and yourelectric bill, and we can do a
(32:51):
no cost, no obligationassessment and give you the
information so that you can makean educated decision.
Tim Montague (32:57):
Thank you so much.
I'm Tim Montague, let's growsolar and storage. Take care.
Thank you, Tim, the Clean PowerHour is brought to you by CPS
America, maker of NorthAmerica's number one three phase
string inverter with over eightgigawatts shipped in the US. The
CPS product lineup includesstring inverters ranging from 25
(33:20):
kW to 350 kW, their flagshipinverter, the CPS, 350 KW is
designed to work with solarplants ranging from two
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(33:44):
balance of system requirementsgo to Chintpowersystems.com or
call 855-584-7168, to find outmore, you.
Again, the other thing I talk about Tim is
(00:03):
freezing that variable monthlyexpense, right? If you can lock
it any business, I don't care ifit's a coffee shop, a sandwich
shop or United Airlines, right?
Why do the airlines buy futureson fuel? Because they lock in
that price. They know every timethat jet takes off, they know
exactly what their cost is. It'sthe same idea. When you go
solar, you lock in that thatvariable expense, which is just
(00:23):
smart business. So those are acouple of things that we talk
about when we talk to thebusiness owner.
intro (00:30):
Are you speeding the energy transition here at the
Clean Power Hour, our host, TimMontague, bring you the best in
solar, batteries and cleantechnologies. Every week. Want
to go deeper intodecarbonization. We do too.
We're here to help youunderstand and command the
commercial, residential andutility, solar, wind and storage
industries. So let's get to ittogether. We can speed the
(00:54):
energy transition
Tim Montague (00:57):
today on the Clean Power Hour distributed energy
here in the Midwest. Check outall of our content at
cleanpowerhour.com Please giveus a rating and a review on
Apple or Spotify, and be sure tofollow us on YouTube. My guest
today is Carl moose. He is apartner at Greenlight energy
solutions, a solar developer andinstaller based in Chicago,
(01:19):
Illinois. Welcome to the show.
Carl,
Carl Moose (01:21):
thank you, Tim, it's great to be here. It's heady
days in
Tim Montague (01:25):
the Illinois market, as many of my listeners
know, we have a about a 10 yearrunway of very healthy renewable
energy credits driving thedistributed generation or
rooftop solar market, as we callit, and this fuels residential,
commercial, small utility,meaning community solar, and
(01:48):
there are carve outs for utilityas well, but, but the main thing
is DG, and that legislation thatcreated that market is called
the Climate and equitable JOBSAct, otherwise known as Seija,
which was preceded by the futureenergy JOBS Act, which went into
(02:08):
law back in 2016 as as mylisteners also know, legislation
is the foundation. Right, youhave to have good legislation.
And many markets in the US nowhave good DG markets, but not
all. So Carl, tell our listenersa little bit about yourself. How
did you come to the solarindustry? Yeah,
Carl Moose (02:28):
no, it's, it's interesting. And we are based in
Chicago. We have an office inGlen Ellen, which is one of the
suburbs. But you know, I, I wasa banker, and I got into
commercial real estate, and backin oh four I was involved with a
renewable energy company, sat onthe board, raised some money,
was a startup, and kind of gotthe bug, learned a lot about
(02:50):
what was going on at that point.
I think Warren Buffet, at thattime, was buying farmland in the
Midwest and looking atconverting it to wind and solar
farms. So it was intriguing. Ialso have a degree from the
University of New York ingeology, so I've always been
interested in Mother Earth andEnergy and the sun and our solar
system. So that's how I got intoit. You know, Fast forward to
(03:11):
about five, six years ago. Youknow, we started green light
energy solutions, really, as aresidential, commercial solar,
you know, did you mention DG,EPC? You know, to install solar
on primarily rooftops. You know,to help homeowners and
commercial property owners takeadvantage of all the incentives.
You know, not only on thefederal level, with the ITCs,
(03:32):
but also, as you mentioned, thevery favorable environment here
in Illinois.
Tim Montague (03:40):
Yeah, and real estate is a great background for
solar, because solar is realestate, right? You're putting
solar panels on the roof or theground next to a facility, it
takes up real estate. It isthere for real estate. It
becomes part of the building.
It's a major upgrade to thebuilding if you're putting it on
as rooftop solar. And while thatworks, there are many nuances to
(04:02):
this. As our developer andinstaller friends know, the
biggest challenge in rooftopsolar, Carl, in my opinion, is
roof condition. Many rooftopsare too old to solarize, and so
you need to upgrade the roof orreplace the roof. I'm curious
right out of the gate, how doyou work with whether it's a
(04:24):
homeowner or a facility ownerfor commercial to overcome that
major obstacle?
Carl Moose (04:32):
Yeah, and it is a major obstacle. Probably 50% of
the roofs that we take a lookat, Tim do need to be
reconditioned. You know, we'renot going to put a system that's
going to be up there for 20 for2530, years on a roof that's
only got 10 years life left onit. So, you know, really, if a
roof is more than five to eightyears old, depending on the
material the roof and thecondition of the roof, we've got
(04:55):
to do something with that roof.
Because, again, the last thingyou want to do is put solar up
top, and have to. Remove that,because you have some challenges
with the roof. So it is, it is achallenge. Now we've done
correctly, depending on theoffset and how big the roof is
and how much energy andeverything else. There are some,
there are some programs whereyou can roll apart, or all of
the cost of the roof into theproject, but it has to be part
(05:16):
of the project, which means theroof has to be reflective. There
has to be some other hurdles toget over, and typically you've
got to use a bifacial panel,which is going to have some
significant benefit to thereflective nature of that roof.
So the roofs are definitely aconcern. And as I mentioned,
about half the time when we doour site survey, we recommend
(05:38):
that you, you know, we're notgoing to put solar on a roof
that's compromised Period, endof story.
Tim Montague (05:46):
Yeah. And I'm glad you mentioned integrating the
roof into the solar project, soto speak, making it a solar
roof, and then leveraging thetax credit the ITC on the roof.
You can do this. Check out aproject that we've documented on
the show here several times withMr. Murphy, the CEO of Simmons
(06:08):
knife. And saw where they did are roof. We installed a fully
attached solar array on thatroof, whereas typically we would
do ballasted flat roof in theMidwest, we did fully attached.
And what this does is it says,hey, the solar is part of the
roof, and you can then take theITC on that portion of the roof
(06:30):
that is now solarized. And it'sa good thing because an old roof
getting replaced. Okay, if youhave an old roof, that can be a
deal killer, and it does, inmany time, in many cases, kill
the deal. And then if you'regoing to re roof, that comes at
a price. It's not as expensiveas a solar array, but it's non
(06:51):
trivial to replace a roof oraugment a roof. And so being
able to take that 30% ITC asmuch as 50 or 60% even if the
stars fully align and you getthe low income and the energy
adder and the domestic contentadders. But Carl paint us a
(07:12):
picture what is going on inrooftop solar in the Midwest.
And if you want to just focus onIllinois, that's fine. But if
you're working in other markets,please comment on those as well,
just with some broad strokes,what is it that's driving the
market?
Carl Moose (07:28):
Yeah, primarily we do work in Illinois. You know
the bordering states forIllinois, you know Michigan has
some good programs. Ohio, whichis one state over, they have
some good programs. Indiana,Wisconsin, Iowa, not so much.
Kentucky, not so much. So weprimarily focus on Illinois.
And, you know, it's interesting,because, you know, most people
don't think of Illinois as agood solar state, but at the end
(07:50):
of the day, you know, I use theanalogy. If you've ever been to
Florida in July, you know, thebeaches are empty at noon
because you'll get burnt to acrisp. Or if you've ever left
your cell phone on yourdashboard, it overheats. Well,
you know, panels down in some ofthose southern areas, like
Florida, Texas, New Mexico,Arizona, Southern California,
they can overheat in the primesunshine part of the year, where
(08:14):
Illinois, we don't have thatproblem. So Illinois has a good
solar resource. At our latitude,we get a good eight months of
production. You know, fourmonths are low production, the
November, December, January,February, but we get eight
months and because in Illinois,we have that net metering
through comed, which is anExelon company, any system over
100 KW, you're still at that onefor one net metering. So you can
(08:37):
build up those credits duringthe eight months high production
months to accommodate the lowproduction months. So, you know,
definitely in the Midwest, thatlatitudinal bound, you know,
stretch, we get good solarresource across that across the
region, from coast to coast. Sothat plays into it. And as you
mentioned, Tim, you know, theincentives. You know, our
(08:58):
Springfield is our capital, ourlegislation down there is very
renewable friendly. In NorthernIllinois, we have comed, which
is an excellent company. Theyare very renewable supportive.
So, you know, all of those starsline up, certainly in Illinois.
And then we have the S Rex, youknow, Illinois as a block
methodology for the S Rex. Sothey're, they're contracted.
(09:22):
They pay out quarterly, youknow, over a seven year period,
typically. So it's just a goodenvironment for solar. And of
course, you know, if I'm abusiness person, you know, how
can I maximize my building?
Right? If I'm running a plasticinjection molding company or a
die cutting or a food warehouse,my building is a necessary evil.
So how can I maximize that?
(09:42):
Well, I tell people, take yourroof, which is typically a
liability for most buildings.
Unless you're the United Center,or, you know, the Rosemont
horizon, no one's paying you forthat real estate. So turn that
liability into an asset byproducing energy number one.
Number two, take your variablemonthly expense, your electric.
Which is oftentimes one of yourtop three to five expenses, and
fix it, because it's variable,right? It goes up based on your
(10:05):
usage and based on what theutility companies are charging
you. So take that variableexpense and fix it, and then the
third thing is use federal stateutility money to do it. So it's
liabilities becoming assetsfixed variable expenses becoming
fixed and using federal stateutility money to do it. And in
Illinois, there's just a reallygood argument to that, you know,
(10:26):
to that strategy. So for forbusiness owners, it's really a
conversation. It's not really aconversation about solar, per
se. It's a conversation about,how can you maximize your
building, right? And and again,you know, liabilities become
assets, variable expenses becomefixed using federal, state
utility money.
Tim Montague (10:46):
Yeah. So if you're listening to this and you're a
facility owner or you work for afacility owner, what Carl is
saying is that you can monetizeyour roof. Traditionally, the
roof is good for keeping rainand weather out of the building,
and everybody needs a roof ontheir building. Now you can turn
(11:08):
the roof into a cash machine,basically, and reduce your power
bill by 50 to 75% with solar PV.
This is technology that convertssunlight to electricity which
runs into the grid, and if yourbuilding over produces, let's
say, on a Sunday, when yourfacility is closed, that money
or those electrons flow onto thegrid and are used elsewhere, and
(11:31):
you get credit for those. That'scalled net metering. Now net
metering is being scaled back inIllinois, we did have a step
down here in 2025 we we had amajor step down in a couple
years ago in California, andthat caused the resi market to
for lack of a better expressiontank. So net metering is
(11:53):
influential when you reduce netmetering. And I would refer my
listeners to my conversationwith burchi Andrew birch, the
founder of Open Solar, aboutthis, but when you reduce net
metering, what that does is itincentivizes storage, and if
you're not doing commercial orresidential storage, please
(12:18):
reach out to me. I can help yougrab on to that, because storage
is a major opportunity. It is acapital expense, and it you
know, you have to figure out howto finance these projects. But
the ROI is even sweeter, and wehave a special incentive in
Illinois, $250 per kWh forstorage. But anyway, back to
(12:39):
monetizing your roof. That'swhat this is about, and it is an
important strategy for facilityowners to get into. I always
lead with this, right? If I'mtalking to a facility owner that
this is about saving you money.
Everybody wants to save money,Carl, don't they? Absolutely,
Carl Moose (12:59):
that's it. And if you're a business person, it's
all about you know how it's nothow much you make, it's how much
you keep right and if you canreduce that electric bill. And
again, where we start Tim iswith the electric bill. We
whether it's a residentialapplication or commercial, all
we need to do is take a look atyour electric bill. Our design
guys, at no cost, no obligation,will come up with a design.
They'll do a rendering yourbuilding, and we produce a six
(13:22):
or seven page document thattalks about all the incentives,
talks about the cost, talksabout the production, talks
about the warranties. You know,a 15 year projection shows you
where your break even point is,so that that business owner or
property owner or homeowner canreally take a look and make an
educated decision. And you know,it's not for everybody. I mean,
you know, there's some areas in,I don't know how familiar with
(13:42):
Chicago, but on the north shoreof Chicago you have some big
homes that have prettycomplicated roofs, and they have
big trees. So, you know, it'sjust harder to make that work up
there. You know, on theresidential side, commercial,
anybody that's ever flown intoO'Hare, all you got to do is
look out the window as you'reflying in. The airport is
surrounded by millions of squarefeet of roof space, and every
(14:05):
single one of those roofs is apotential place to put solar.
And again, you know, how do youturn that real estate, that
roof, real estate, you know,from being a liability, into an
asset? Well, one way is toenergize it with solar.
Tim Montague (14:19):
Yeah, it's, you know, it's still a minority of
facilities that have solar onthem, or have even considered
putting solar on them, but in 10and then 20 years, solar is
going to be everywhere, right?
It is going to completely gomainstream. We see this in
places like Northern Europe andeven China, where it's just
(14:44):
becoming part and parcel of thebuilt environment here in the
US. Go ahead,
Carl Moose (14:52):
yeah, one of the other things I talk about is,
you know, what's really drivingpanel technologies is satellite
technology. You know, 10 yearsago, Tim, as you. We only had
about 1000 satellites, roughlyup in space. Now there's over
10,000 and all of thosesatellites, or the vast
majority, if not all of them,are powered by solar, right? So
when you put something up inspace, it costs you 10s of
(15:12):
millions of dollars, and it'syou want it to stay up there for
a long time. Well, those solarpanels, those satellites, aren't
plugged into anything, andnobody's up there doing
maintenance on them. So thosehave to be very light, very
effective, very efficient andlong lasting. Well, all that
space age technology is nowtrickling down to the rooftop.
So the panels that we'reinstalling, you know, today are
(15:33):
space age technology from 10years ago. So it is becoming
more ubiquitous. It is becomingmore popular. And, you know,
certainly in the Midwest, peopleare starting to catch on,
because, you know, energy costsare not going down, right? I
mean, with AI and all thecomputing and the data centers
and you know, the satellites,and you know, the call that
(15:55):
we're on right now is going up,you know, the signals going to
the satellite and back, we'reusing more and more energy, and
the grid is not getting anyyounger, so the power companies
are looking for that. DG, right?
How can I take a 600,000 squarefoot facility, you know, in Elk
Grove village or bensonville,which are suburbs right by the
airport, and take it off thegrid, or have it produce energy
(16:15):
so that I don't, you know, asthe power company, I don't have
to go out and build some morecapacity, right? So the trend is
going that, you know, this hasbeen around for a long time. You
know, I think the momentum nowis greater than it's ever been,
and we're going to see more andmore of it. And certainly in the
Midwest,
Tim Montague (16:32):
the Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS
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plants, now offering solutionsfor commercial utility ESS and
balance of system requirementsgo to Chintpowersystems.com or
(17:15):
call 855-584-7168, to find outmore. So let's talk about how we
talk to customers, about thevalue proposition. We We talked
a little bit about monetizingyour roof, and then let's talk
about green light energy,because I want to hear more
about your company. But youknow, the way I I explain this
(17:37):
is, you buy some technology thatyou put on your roof, it then
produces energy, which reducesyour energy bill. And so there's
a CapEx on the front end.
There's savings over time,there's incentives that are
paying back the project is cashpositive in four or five years
now, with the incentives that wehave in Illinois, it's a
(18:00):
combination of state andfederal, right? And then it's
just a cash machine. The moneyput in is oftentimes equal to
approximately the 20 yearsavings of the project. So if
you put in half a milliondollars. It's paid back in four
years, and then you're going tosave another half a million
(18:21):
dollars over the next 15 years.
How do you like to propose this,though, or explain this in
simple terms to facility owners?
Carl Moose (18:33):
Well, you know, that's a good what you just said
is a great place to start. Youknow, one of the challenges that
capex budget, right? You know,where do you have a budget for
this? And you know, as far asthe federal tax credit, you
know, if you're at 30% or 40%you know, keep in mind that
those corporations, you know,their CFO, is escrowing,
typically, on a quarterly basis,those tax payments, right? And
(18:53):
so rather than putting thatmoney in escrow, out of your
profits, you can apply that andinvest that into a solar system,
right? And you could calculatethat so that a year from now,
when the ITCs kick in and it'stime to pay Uncle Sam, rather
than dipping into your escrow,you can use that credit. So
that's one one conversation. Theother one is, you know how long
(19:14):
you're gonna be in the building?
You know if you plan on being inthe building for 1020, years,
maybe you're going to yoursuccession plan is to give this
to the kids or sell it to theemployees. You're investing in
that piece of property to makeit more efficient. And remember,
we use a very conservative 3%escalator, but if you look
historically over the last 20years, electric rates have gone
(19:34):
up significantly more than that.
So when you project out, youknow, 10 years from now, what
your electric bill is going tobe compared to today, it really
starts to make sense. And youknow, I always use the analogy,
you know, if I could have lockedin the price of gasoline, you
know, back in when I starteddriving, back in the 70s, you
know, I, you know, I'd bepaying, you know, 30 cents a
(19:57):
gallon instead of $3 a gallon.
So it's kind of the same. Thing,you know, you're, you're making
that investment of and hedgingagainst the cost of energy,
which we know is not going down,it's going up, right? And so
that's, it's just a good move,right? It's a smart move. And
again, the other thing I talkabout Tim is, you know, freezing
that variable monthly expense,right? If you can lock it, you
know, any business, I don't careif it's a coffee shop, a
(20:18):
sandwich shop, or UnitedAirlines, right? Why do the
airlines buy futures on fuel?
Because they lock in that price.
They know every time that jettakes off, they know exactly
what their cost is. It's thesame idea. When you go solar,
you lock in that that variableexpense, which is just smart
business. So those are a coupleof things that we talk about
when we talk to the businessowner.
Tim Montague (20:42):
Yeah, you know that expression Death and Taxes
are the only certainties inlife. And in the case of taxes,
rather than pay those taxes tothe government, you can then
invest those taxes in your ownfacility as a credit, and that's
a way to reduce your tax burden,which I think is very
(21:03):
compelling. And then, of course,there's just the raw savings,
right? You're gettingelectricity from sunshine. The
fuel for that is free. It'sphotons. We're we're raining
down five to 10,000 times morephotons than all of society
consumes on an annual basis. Sowe're literally swimming in
(21:23):
energy. So, Carl, you want tosay something about that? Yeah,
there's
Carl Moose (21:28):
no lack of energy. I mean, everything in our
universe, or I'm sorry, oursolar system is derived from the
sun, including the energy ittakes for me to talk to you,
right? So why are we digging up600 million year old plants and
animals that that derive theirenergy from the sun, 600 million
years ago, we're digging it up.
We're paying whoever owns it.
We're shipping it on railroads,you know, to a processing plant.
(21:49):
We're processing it, then we'reburning it, which pollutes the
environment, to produce energy,to produce steam, to turn a
turbine that turns a generator,just to send it all the way down
and transmit it all the way downto the homeowner, which, by the
way, only 25 or 30% of thatenergy actually makes it to your
wall. So Right? It just makessense to me, like, capture it,
convert it. We're at the source.
As you mentioned. You know, inthe amount of time that we do
(22:13):
this podcast, the earth gets hitwith enough solar energy to
satisfy 100% of humanconsumption. So why not capture
it and convert it right where wehit it. And to your point, the
photons are free where you know,the energy is free. It's the
capitalization and capture. Butagain, typically five to seven
years into it, you're you're atyour break even point, so now
you're ahead of the curve.
Tim Montague (22:35):
I love it. So let's talk about green light.
You know, we have a growingcadre of solar installers here
in Illinois. Some of them areindigenous companies that have
been born and bred in Illinois,and some of them have come from
other markets. Because, let'sface it, Illinois is a growth
(22:56):
market. It's a growing solarindustry. We're a, you know,
we're in the top 10 DG marketsacross the US. Tell us about
green light. What was theinception of the company? And
when you're sitting across thetable from a facility owner, how
do you differentiate yourselvesfrom the other installers and
(23:17):
EPCs out there? Yeah, great
Carl Moose (23:19):
question. So my partner, Joe. He started green
light, green light ConstructionGroup, I believe, 22 years ago.
So Joe was my contractor when Iowned my real estate. And as you
know, when you find a goodcontractor, you stick with him.
And Joe is a he's a governmentcontractor. He does everything
from build design ground up.
He's done airports, marinas. Hegets on government contracts.
(23:39):
And he was the one thatapproached me and said, hey, you
know, and one of his businesses,by the way, is roofing, right?
So, you know, he came to me andsaid, Hey, let's go grab some
dinner. And he said, Hey, I'mgetting sick and tired every
time I put a roof on a building,I come back to do maintenance,
and there's solar up. There hegoes, I'm leaving money. I'm
losing money. I'm leaving moneyon the roof. I said, Well, yeah,
you probably are, Joe. So youknow, we took about nine months,
(24:00):
six nine months, did a lot ofresearch, kissed a lot of frogs,
talked to a lot of people, andwe launched green light energy
solutions about five, just, justunder five years ago, right?
And, you know, we're an EPC,we're we do full design, you
know, procurement, construction.
We're registered with the ICC.
We're registered with theclearing houses for the S Rex.
(24:24):
We manage all that, you know,comed. We're a certified vendor
with comed. So we went throughthe process for all that,
because, as you know, to qualifyfor the federal programs, you've
got to, you know, meet certaincriteria and thresholds. So, you
know, we took a couple yearsdoing all that. It's expensive.
It's time consuming. You got tohave the, you know, Master
(24:44):
electricians on staff, and thestructural engineers and all
that kind of thing and and then,of course, the the individuals
that that know what they'redoing when they get up on the
roof. So, you know, that's beenthe evolution of green light
energy. Green light energy is a.
A subsidiary of green lightConstruction Group. And, you
know, again, we're, you know,we're growing the residential
(25:06):
business. Joe basically managesthe residential business. I
manage a commercial business.
We've hired on a new salesmanager over there, and we've
got about eight people that areexperienced. We won't work with
anybody that doesn't have atleast three or four years track
record in solar, because we're,you know, we're interested in
dealing with, you know,professionals. They represent
our brand, and Joe and I areactive in the business. I mean,
(25:28):
this is what we do. You know, ifyou need, if you have a problem,
we can solve it again. Joe has aroofing company, so, you know,
if somebody needs a new roof, wecould certainly do that work for
them. And we can do theanalysis. If they've got their
own roofer, that's okay, too.
But at the end of the day, thetwo companies work together to
make sure that the the customerexperience is what they you know
(25:49):
upon beyond their expectations.
And again, you know we, you knowwe're we understand. You know
there's always going to beissues, there's always going to
be challenges, but you know whoyou're going to call when you
have a when you have a problem.
You can talk directly to theowners of the company.
Tim Montague (26:03):
I think having a construction background really
helps. I did not have that whenI came to the industry, and
that's why I went to work for abig contractor called
continental up in Chicagoland.
They were an electricalinstaller, electrical contractor
that got into solar, and that'snot uncommon that, you know,
because it's electricity. Butreally, no matter what the
(26:25):
trade, whether you're a generalcontractor, mechanical,
electric, even on the laborside, but knowing how to work
with, you know, designing andpermitting projects that helps
you. Mentioned technology. Carl,you know how the technology that
(26:45):
we're installing on rooftops istrickling down from the space
industry? And that's absolutelytrue. The technology is quite
different, right? We're usingmuch more mainstream, affordable
technology on rooftop solar. Thetechnology has been around for
70 plus years now. So it istruly mature technology. It's
(27:06):
always getting better. And youknow, we're in that technology
adoption curve where the morepeople that install solar, the
more affordable it gets. Butwhat do you think is important
for facility owners orprosumers, for that matter, to
understand about solartechnology. There's, you know,
there's three major components,there's the panels, there's the
(27:27):
racking, and there's theinverters that are converting
the DC power to the AC. But howdo you explain the technology
side of this industry to yourcustomers? Yeah,
Carl Moose (27:40):
well, all three of those are very important, you
know, the panels, the racking,and the inverters, and you could
certainly cut, cut corners onall those, you know, for us, we
take the approach of work. We'rethe middle of the road. We're
not going to be the leastexpensive out there. We're not
going to be the most expensive.
You know, I kind of use the caranalogy. I drive an American
car. So I, you know, I use theanalogy of a Chevrolet. And I
have nothing against Chevrolet.
I'm just simply saying, youknow, it's, it's, it's not a
(28:02):
Rolls Royce, right? Or aLamborghini. And we kind of look
at us as being the Audi or theBMW, Mercedes, you know, you
know a quality car that's goingto, you're going to pay a good
price for, but it's a qualitycar. And again, not to say that
Chevrolet's not a quality car,but you understand what I mean
with regard to panels. The way Iexplain it is, I use the analogy
of tires, right? So you've gotthe two and 300 series panels,
(28:24):
you got the 400 series panels,and then you've got the 500 and
higher series panels, kind oflike tires, you know, if you go
to a discount tire store, youknow, you might buy a 40 or
50,000 mile tire. You're goingto pay less for that, right?
That's that lower end panel,that two or 300 series you know,
you're not going to put a, youknow, an $800 tire on a car that
you're only going to keep forthree years. You know, if you
(28:46):
own a Lamborghini or a moreexpensive car, you're going to
buy that more expensive panel ortire, which, in this analogy, is
that five or 600 series. We usethe 400 series panels. It's
usually a 460 or above that, youknow, goes up maybe sometimes
the 510, series. So we use ahigh quality panel that's going
to be efficient for the squarefootage, and usually is a by
(29:07):
facial right? So that's thefirst thing. The racking is very
important as well. You know,typically we do custom racking.
We'll go out during our sitesurvey, our structural guy will
go out, our project manager willgo out. And we typically do
custom, custom panel, or, I'msorry, racking, depending on
what's the roof, what's going onwith the roof. And again, that
adds a little bit of time to thedelivery and a little bit of
(29:29):
cost, but we think it's, itmakes sense, right? Rather than
an off the shelf, cheap racking,right? And then, of course, the
inverters, you know, we use SMAand 40s, I think it is the the
French company, I can't rememberoffhand, but you know that we
use a high quality inverter,because that's, that's really
the weak link in the system,right? The panels are going to
last for a long time, right? Theracking is going to last for a
(29:51):
long time. The inverter is kindof that weak link in the chain.
You know, typically, you know,1215, years into it, you've got,
you've got a, you. Probablygonna have to repay replace an
inverter. So we, again, we weuse the highest quality
inverters that we can get,because, you know, again, we
don't want any problems for aslong as as we can
Tim Montague (30:11):
well. Carl, thank you for that explanation. I
wholeheartedly agree. Usequality products and you'll have
happy customers for a long solarproject lifetime. Carl, in our
last few minutes together, whatelse should our listeners know
about green light, or yourselfor the industry that we're all
(30:34):
in, that solar coaster thatwe're riding? What else would
you like our listeners to know?
Carl Moose (30:39):
Well, you know about green light. You know, Joe and I
take our business seriously. Ourkids are involved. You know,
we're we've been around for awhile. We're not going anywhere.
And, you know, we takeresponsibility for our projects
from start to finish. So, youknow, with regard, with that
regard, the majority of ourbusiness, Tim is referral
business. So we get a lot ofreferrals. We do a lot of
(30:59):
networking. We sit on the boardsof a couple of different
associations. And, you know,we're pretty well known in the,
you know, Northern Illinois orChicago area, you know, as far
as solar, you know, as soon asyou say solar, people, they have
some preconceived notions, youknow, and and again, at the end
of the day, I like to explain itis, it's the source of energy. I
mean, you know, the energy isthe day the sun stops shining,
(31:21):
we've got big problems, right?
So, you know, and to think aboutit, you know, if you believe the
sun's been around for four orfour and a half billion years,
it hasn't taken a day off. Imean, it's never turned its
switch off, and it's alwaysshining somewhere. So why not
capture that? Why not convertthat and turn that into
electricity? Because it'savailable, you know, to almost
everybody. Now, of course,there's scenarios where you
(31:41):
don't get good sun, or you'vegot shading, or, you know, what
have you, but for Mo, for mostpeople, it's something to
consider. And again, as Imentioned earlier, you know,
there are some installationswhere it just doesn't pan out.
It doesn't work because the rooforientation, or the size of the
roof, or the design of the roof,or there may be trees and
shading, but it's worth taking alook at. You know, for most
(32:02):
people that own their home or ontheir their business, because
for most of it, it does makesense.
Tim Montague (32:09):
Well said, Well, I want to thank Carl moose of
green light energy solutions forcoming on the show. Please check
out all of our content atcleanpowerhour.com Give us a
rating and review. Tell a friendabout the show, follow me on
YouTube and reach out to me onLinkedIn. I love connecting with
my listeners. Carl, how can ourlisteners find you?
Carl Moose (32:28):
Yeah, so our website is www dot Greenlight energy,
dot solar, and my email issimply my first name. Carl, with
a C at Greenlightenergy.solar,you know, feel free to send us
an email again. If you're inNorthern Illinois, Michigan or
Ohio and you want us to take alook at a project, all we really
need is is the address and yourelectric bill, and we can do a
(32:51):
no cost, no obligationassessment and give you the
information so that you can makean educated decision.
Tim Montague (32:57):
Thank you so much.
I'm Tim Montague, let's growsolar and storage. Take care.
Thank you, Tim, the Clean PowerHour is brought to you by CPS
America, maker of NorthAmerica's number one three phase
string inverter with over eightgigawatts shipped in the US. The
CPS product lineup includesstring inverters ranging from 25
(33:20):
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(33:44):
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