July 1, 2025 • 37 mins
Today on the Clean Power Hour, we reconnect with Kiya Segni, founder of Aduu Solar, who has successfully made the leap from engineering consultant to full-fledged solar installer in the lucrative DMV market (DC, Maryland, Virginia).
🔧 Business Transformation Insights: Kiya shares the critical differences between running an engineering firm versus a construction company, from managing installation crews to implementing comprehensive business systems. Learn how his 3+ years of consulting experience with contractors across all 50 states gave him invaluable insights into what works and what doesn't in solar installation.
💰 DMV Market Deep Dive: Discover why the DMV area is one of the strongest solar markets in the country, with Washington DC's Solar for All program offering SREC payments so high that some investors provide electricity for free just to capture the credits. Kiya breaks down Maryland's new Solar Access Program, which provides up to $7,500 in incentives, and explains how homeowners can earn $3,000-$5,000 annually from SRECs.
🏗️ Operational Excellence: Get insider knowledge on equipment selection (why Kiya chose microinverters over string inverters), licensing requirements across different states, and the logistics of equipment procurement. Learn about the systems and processes essential for scaling from 0 to 30+ installations per month.
🌍 Immigration & Entrepreneurship: Kiya opens up about his journey as an Ethiopian immigrant, from arriving in the US at 18 barely speaking English to working for the Department of Defense with top-secret clearance, and ultimately building his own successful solar company. His perspective on current immigration policies and the immigrant contribution to American business is both personal and profound.
⚡ Industry Challenges Ahead: With potential ITC elimination looming, Kiya discusses the real impact on residential solar and his strategic pivot toward commercial projects. Despite policy uncertainties, he remains committed to renewable energy for both business and environmental reasons.
Connect wih
Connect with Tim
Clean Power Hour
Clean Power Hour on YouTube
Tim on Twitter
Tim on LinkedIn
Email tim@cleanpowerhour.com
Review Clean Power Hour on Apple Podcasts
The Clean Power Hour is produced by the Clean Power Consulting Group and created by Tim Montague. Contact us by email: CleanPowerHour@gmail.com
Corporate sponsors who share our mission to speed the energy transition are invited to check out https://www.cleanpowerhour.com/support/
The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America’s number one 3-phase string inverter, with over 6GW shipped in the US. With a focus on commercial and utility-scale solar and energy storage, the company partners with customers to provide unparalleled performance and service. The CPS America product lineup includes 3-phase string inverters from 25kW to 275kW, exceptional data communication and controls, and energy storage solutions designed for seamless integration with CPS America systems. Learn more at www.chintpowersystems.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kiya Segni (00:00):
We've been designing a solar project for so many
(00:02):
companies. So we do haveexperience with any material
that's out there in the market,because this company uses other
one, this company uses differentracking, this company used
different inverter, this companyused different modules or
optimizers and all this kind ofstuff. So we had so much
experience in in the materialaspect. So what we came up with
(00:22):
is that price and reliability isthe most important for picking
because if I can get a goodprice on the material, I may be
able to give a discount for thehomeowner. So the whole idea of
solar is not only about buildingit also the saving.
intro (00:37):
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 into decarbonization.
We do too. We're here to helpyou understand and command the
commercial, residential andutility, solar, wind and storage
industries. So let's get to ittogether. We can speed the
(00:59):
energy transition
Tim Montague (01:03):
today on the Clean Power Hour, how a solar
entrepreneur has grown hiscompany from being a solar
consultant engineering firm tobeing a full fledged solar
installer. Welcome back to theshow Kiya Segni,
Kiya Segni (01:18):
thank you, Tim, thanks for having me again. I
think we circling back afterthink 2022 so it's always
pleasure to see you. Thanks forhaving me again. It's
Tim Montague (01:27):
great to see you and how you have grown your
company, Aduu solar. A D, U. Uis the name of the company just
and that is the URL,Aduusolar.com and check out
episode 114 where we did a fulllength interview with you about
how you grew into the solarindustry. So we won't dwell too
(01:52):
long on that backstory, Kiya,but give us a refresher. How did
you get into solar? And fastforward to 2025 how's it going?
Kiya Segni (02:04):
Yeah, basically we talked about about this loan, I
think, on the first episode. Butjust a quick rundown. Basically,
out of college, I had someinternship in renewable energy,
and I had the experience ofbecoming i My background is
electrical engineering, so I hadthat experience. But once I
graduated, I went off to workfor Department of Defense as a
(02:25):
nuclear submarine engineer. ThenI had to, I always wanted to be
renewable energy, so I wentstarted my own solar company
because of the collegeexperiences that I had in terms
of TV design, engineeringdesigns, we started the company,
and we grow into consulting somany contractors in across the
United States and all 50 states.
We started from residentialbranch out to commercial designs
(02:47):
make our projects, and bit bybit, we got we grow into a big
consulting company. We've beendoing that for last three years.
We have significant amount ofcontractors under us that we do
the engineering work for them,even permitting interconnection,
all the process. Then now wetransition into installers
ourselves. So we just startedinstalling in Washington, DC,
(03:09):
Virginia, Maryland. So that'show I transitioned into the
installation from engineeringfirm. The ADO solar engineering
is a separate company, and thenthere is ADO solar company, this
installer, an installationcompany. So that's how we got
into it.
Tim Montague (03:24):
I remember three years ago, when we first met
that you had the aspiration ofbecoming an installer. I think
it is quite different being anengineering firm versus being a
construction company, right? Ifyou're an installer, you're
running crews that are walkingon people's rooftops, and it's
(03:47):
just a totally differentbusiness. You have to procure
equipment, you have to havesafety plans, you have to train
your staff to install solarpanels. No, this is no ding
against the industry, right? Wehave room for all kinds of
people, and there's tremendousgrowth in the solar industry. I
(04:10):
like to say, no matter what, weare going to a 50% grid in the
coming decades. Will it be 2050will it be 2070 that is TBD, but
we're going there. So we'regoing to 10x the solar industry.
This is a great economicopportunity for anyone who's
already in solar and storage orthinking about getting in. So
(04:33):
Kiya. Tell us about the market,DC, Maryland and Virginia. Yep,
Kiya Segni (04:38):
obviously the Washington DC is one of the
strongest extract credits in thecountry. So it's there is so
many programs in Diem V area,specifically Washington DC,
there is a solar for allprogram, which means that the
district supports everybody togo solar. So the extract payment
is so high, investors areactually giving electric. City
(05:00):
for free for homeowners as aPPA, so that they can get all
the extract credits andincentives. And obviously, any
homeowner that finance inWashington, DC will make three
to $5,000 a month from s trackalone a year. So it's a most
lucrative truck program in thecountry, in Washington, in
Maryland, before there used tobe a rebate of $1,000 for
(05:23):
anybody that goes solar, andthen on top of that, obviously
there is a federal incentives.
But now the new governor ofMaryland came up with a program
called solar access program,which actually gives homeowners
up to $7,500 for going solar isincome based depends on family
numbers, but more or less, ifyou make less than $200,000 a
year, you qualify for the $7,500it's basically one kW will give
(05:48):
you $750 if you have 10 kilowatthour on your roof, you get that
7500 grand. So that's calledsolar access program Virginia.
It's not so much. It's notgetting there, but they're
actually coming along. There's atruck payment. Obviously, there
is federal incentives. Sothey're going well also. So DMV
area in general are actuallymoving very well in terms of
(06:11):
going to solar and producing.
Maryland have a program in 2040to go 50% energy, green energy.
So basically, they're reallytrying to get that 50% of their
electricity coming from solarand other renewable programs. So
far, people are. It's kind ofwarming up in DMV area right
now, solar is a thing.
Everybody's going solar becauseof all this incentives, and it
(06:33):
financially makes sense for thehomeowner. So it's very was
going well until this ITC came,and we don't know. Now,
everybody's panicking,obviously, but as of right now,
it's the market is very good,and homeowners are happy to go
solar and invest their money.
This is not free. They stillhave to finance pay partially,
but it helps them in savingmoney.
Tim Montague (06:55):
Yeah, as you've pointed out here, incentives
like renewable energy credits orother incentives. There's half a
dozen ways that local and stategovernment can incentivize clean
energy, and so there's not onesize that fits all every every
region likes to do their ownthing. Here in Illinois, we
(07:17):
designed a program that's anamalgam of what's happening in
New Jersey, New York,Massachusetts, and I love high
priced recs. I think that's avery simple way to understand
the incentive, right? Onemegawatt hour of electricity is
one wreck. You put a specialprice on that. So let's say in
(07:39):
Illinois, we might pay ninecents for grid power, we get
five cent Rex or seven cent Rex,and so you can get a lot of free
solar for that wreck, and itincreases the payback period
significantly. We have a five toseven year payback period. I'm
(08:00):
curious now that you're kneedeep in in running a solar
company, is it payback periodthat consumers want, or what is
it that consumers want? Andwhat's driving consumers to sign
on the dotted line?
Kiya Segni (08:13):
It's very interesting. So in Washington,
DC is different for every state,right? Like you said, different
states do have differentincentives in their own ways.
Obviously the Washington DC isimmediate, the S track payment
is so high, immediately you'resaving completely. You can
offset 100% of your payment,because extract so high is 400
plus dollars. But 1s track, sofor one megawatt hour in
(08:35):
Maryland, there is incentivethat are actually motivating
people to go solar, made mainly,like I said, the solar access
program, having a support ofabout $7,500 for your home to go
solar will have a significantimpact on your on your bill or
when you go solar. On top ofthat, if you get the federal tax
credit, obviously almost 50% ofyour solar project is covered
(08:58):
for you, and then you just onlyhave to finance for 50% so for
everybody is different. Theextract in Maryland is not too
bad. It's not too great, but theincentives are actually long and
just compensating for the forthe savings. So for Washington,
like I said, You will not onlysaving. You probably would make
money if you go solar. There isincentives, grants and there is
(09:20):
extracts. Both are both do playa significant role in saving
your bill and motivates you togo solar. It has to make sense,
right? Solar has to sell itselfwhen you finance. So when you go
to a Deb, you probably will haveto see the investment will put
the you look at the paperpayback period, you look at the
the immediate incentive that youget from s rack. All of those
(09:42):
things are combined andmotivates homeowners to go
solar. And a lot of homeownersnowadays are believing in solar
because they see the immediatesaving that everybody's
benefiting. So that's basicallywhat is looking like in DMV
area.
Tim Montague (09:57):
So if you're listening to this and you're
thinking about. So becoming asolar installer, what is your
experience on that journey, andwhat's your advice to others?
Kiya Segni (10:09):
That's a very interesting one for me. I had so
much experience of consultingsolar contractors as an
engineering firm, so in the backend, I had a lot of experience,
right? I was in a position to dotheir system design, and I've
seen a company as I consult themand do their engineering, they
grow and become a very bigcompany with, like few people
(10:29):
from starting from few people inlast three years, there are
bigger companies that also wentdown. There's a lot of companies
like that also. So from thoseexperiences, I took so much
knowledge and how solarinstallation has to be run.
Obviously, having a network ofthose installers would also give
you access to a lot ofinformation. So for me, was that
the first thing is that we hadto make sure that we provide a
(10:50):
quality service. The secondthing is the price. Third thing
is the financing. So thosecombined are the key to
succeeding in solarinstallation. Obviously, running
a team, making sure thateverything is material has been
ordered, is an operation. Thirdthing is, first thing is a
system in place. A homeownershould have a way to contact you
(11:12):
easily. Simply the projectmanager has to be reached
easily. So those things sort ofhelped us. We started, like six,
seven months ago now as aninstallation company. So we're
extremely doing very well, morethan my expectations in this
market. And I think for us it'sgoing to be a very great years
ahead if those incentives areintact and in place in 2025 26
Tim Montague (11:36):
so when it comes to customer communication, do
you use any third partyapplications for that, or you
have a homegrown
Kiya Segni (11:44):
tool, we developed everything on Zoho ourselves. So
basically on Zoho, everything isdone on Zoho, basically from
communications, from cells tomaterial order, from a design
for financing, everything isintegrated to client
communication. So all of it isin one place. That makes it a
lot easier. If you don't have asystem in place, if you're
(12:04):
managing 30 installations amonth, there's a lot of there's
a lot of work. The operations byitself. It's, this is a labor.
It's not a software company.
It's, you have to go, you haveto build it. You have to it's a
lot of physical stuff involved.
There collateral, communicationinvolved, a lot of financing
involved. So unless you have asystem in place, you cannot even
grow and then you cannot evenbring the client satisfaction
that you want to bring before.
See, those are the experiencesthat I took from consulting
(12:26):
solarizer contractors. Right?
There are companies that have asystem in place that I had to,
even when I design, I had to loginto their portal make sure that
I put everything in there forthem. There are companies that
does everything on Excel. Sothose experiences helped me. So
before I even announced myinstallation company, I built
all those systems first, beforeanything, I had to put system in
(12:50):
place so that when I go to themarket, anybody that comes there
is a system that, like, walksthem through and get them to the
other end with quality workbeing done. So that's basically
the my experience, and that'show we've been doing.
Tim Montague (13:03):
I love it. I love it. I think about getting
licensed as a contractor. Also,how difficult was that, and was
it significantly different inthe different jurisdictions?
Kiya Segni (13:14):
If you are in Maryland, if you you have a
license and contractor licensein Maryland, obviously you
don't. You do not have to take atest in Washington, DC, okay,
but you have to apply thecompany in the state in tax
revenue and all those paperwork.
But for Maryland, obviouslythere is an experience needed,
at least two years of experienceto take to even sit on the exam.
(13:34):
For me, as I had a consultingcompany, I was in industry for
more than three years, by thetime I was applying, then we
might took a test, obviously.
Then you become, you get yourlicense. Once you get your
license, then you set up withthe financing, everything in
place, all the other things thatyou need. So it's not so much
difficult if you haveexperience. What helped me, for
(13:56):
me is not anybody that can walkin and say, Oh, I'm going to
become a solar installer. Isgoing to be quite difficult,
because you, first of all, youhave to have the experience of
three years of working inindustry, at least in Maryland,
right then you have to take theexam. You have to have the
knowledge of how solar works andall the other stuff. So you have
to take exam. Virginia. You haveto take even if you have a
license in Maryland, you stillhave to take exam. And then
(14:19):
there is, they have three levelsof contractor license, A, B, C,
so it depends on what yourrevenue is going to be. If you
have a b c, you cannot. There isa threshold how bigger project
you can take based on yourlicense level. So it's a bit
different, but you still have totake exam in the state of
Virginia, but the exams aresimilar to Maryland. It's not a
big difference, but there's alot of code and contractor laws
(14:42):
that are slightly different, butmore or less, if you pass one
exam, you will pass the otherone. So that's the way it works
in this area, but Washington, DCand Maryland is more or less the
same.
Tim Montague (14:53):
So dealing with equipment is, I think, quite a
challenge and an opportunity.
Community. It's a challengebecause there's so many options
for racking, modules, inverters.
How did you think about that?
And how have you streamlinedyour equipment procurement and
what you're offering toconsumers for the residential
solar market?
Kiya Segni (15:15):
That's where my expertise come in, right? That's
basically what we've beendesigning a solar project for so
many companies. So we do haveexperience with any material
that's out there in the market,because this company uses other
one, this company uses differentracking, this company uses
different inverters, thiscompany use different modules or
optimizers and all this kind ofstuff. So we had so much
(15:35):
experience in in the materialaspect. So what we came up with
is that a price and reliabilityis the most important for
picking because if I can get agood price on the material, I
may be able to give a discountfor the homeowner. So the whole
idea of solar is not only aboutbuilding, it also the saving. So
(15:55):
if I'm going to go extremelyhigh on a material, obviously is
not going to make sense for thehomeowner. But at the same time,
you don't want to get a cheapmaterial that is not going to
work 30 that's not going to staythere for next 3030, years
minimum, right? That's awarranty. So you just have to
find a balance of good materialwith a good price that is
reliable and efficient for thehomeowner. The way we
(16:17):
streamlined it is that wethere's a lot of distributors in
DMV area. CED is one. There'sanother one. There's a bigger
companies that are ourdistributors. So basically, you
set up an account or creditaccount with them, and then
obviously you order. And thenthe way I do it is that in the
day of the installs, myinstallers picks it up from the
distributors, because it's verynearby. It's about 30 minute
(16:40):
drive, so it's much easier.
Instead of coordinating withhomeowner that a the material is
coming today to be dropped andthe homeowner might not be home,
all of that. So we don't want toignore all of that. So the day
of installs, early in themorning, 5am we pick up our
material, be at the homeownerand just get it done. That's
basically the way we're doingit. So we've seen other
companies do a delivery. So thisis the best way to do it, and
(17:01):
it's working perfectly for us,because of we're local, we're
nearby, and it's the homeowner.
Don't have to worry and wasteanother extra day. But ahead of
time, four or five days, we makesure that all the materials are
in place. We got all everythingis being paid for. Then the day
of the install, the installer isgoing to be at the at the gate.
So that's the way. But this isalso part of our Zoho. It's
(17:23):
already done on our system. Thisis we don't do any other
communications. Everything isdone on the system. So it's much
easier. It's just clicks awayand send a bill of material and
get everything done.
Tim Montague (17:33):
So do you have any favorite type of equipment,
either brands or type like, forexample, in racking, you have
rail less racking, or railedracking. You have micro
inverters, or string inverters.
Was this subtle but somewhatapples and oranges. What have
you settled on? We do
Kiya Segni (17:50):
use, we do not use a string inverter. We just use a
micro inverters, because microone micro inverters will allow
you to look at each panelproduction. Or if you use a
string inverter, basicallyyou're putting everything into
one one inverter, so you don'tknow which panel is producing
how much, and all that stuff. Soit's costly for us when we use a
(18:10):
micro inverter, M phase is whatwe use. There are other string
inverters, like solar edge.
There's a lot of newtechnologies that they're coming
up with. But for us, we likemicro inverters. That's it's
costly, obviously, right, butit's good for homeowners. Can
actually at least see what theywhat their solar is producing.
And then there's a lot of railsand iron ridge and other
rockings that we use. Based onour experience for so many
(18:33):
different companies, we do haverecommendations, and we do have
a tier, tier one, tier two, tierthree based on we give
homeowners an option for panels.
We give them like five differentpanels, like Jenko, Hyundai,
Ari, C, different differentpanels. Obviously their price is
slightly different. So it wouldgive, first, it will give a
(18:55):
homeowner an option, and thenit's okay. What's the difference
between this and that? Becauseyou cannot have just one,
because people might have adifferent recommendations based
on their experience or fromfriend or something. So we do
have our standard is Genco microinverters phase. So that's
basically our standard, but ifhomeowner want to change it to
(19:15):
string inverter, we're more thanhappy to do it as an engineers.
What do we recommend? Is thatSure, obviously, where we are
the experts, and we would loveto give the best service to our
plan. So basically, we do have arecommendation that we put in
place, and we give homeowners tochoose from our list that will
be their favorite. Yeah, so
Tim Montague (19:34):
let's, let's pivot a little bit Kiya and talk about
two other things. What's goingon in the solar industry with
the big, beautiful bill thatmight devastate the tax
incentive the ITC forresidential solar and I want to
talk about the immigrantexperience, because you're
clearly an immigrant. We talkeda fair amount about that
(19:57):
backstory on our first interviewback in 2022 check out episode.
114 but let's talk about thatfirst Kiya, actually the
immigrant experience, becausethere's a lot going on in the US
right now with the ICE raids andthe protests. And I'm just
curious how you see this, howyou see the landscaping the
(20:18):
United States, obviously, wehave been the land of
opportunity for you and yourfamily. You have built a great
life here, and you're on afantastic journey, but it's not
without its challenges. So I'mjust curious what you have to
say to Americans at large andother immigrants.
Kiya Segni (20:37):
Yeah, just to give a little bit of background about
myself I was. I grew up in rulerEthiopian side called walanga in
the city of necam. So it's moreor less about 100,000 100,000
people live in that city. Ingeneral. My father came in 2015
he's been prosecuted politicallyin Ethiopia for different
reasons. He I'm a son of ateacher, a elementary school
(20:59):
teacher, and they gave me. Icame from a good people and
hardworking people, but they hadnothing. So my father came and
obviously did the process ofgetting us here, because he got
here first, and after separationof eight, seven years, he had to
get his paper in America gothrough the immigration
everything. I came when I was 18years old, and when I came I
(21:21):
barely spoke English. I had togo through education system,
follow the rules in the statesand be a good citizen and
contributing citizen. Obviously,I went to college, I got my
degree, and I'm where I amtoday, and others other people's
story is not no different. Itdoesn't matter where you come
from. Nobody wants to leavetheir country if they had a good
life and peaceful and everythingis there for them, right?
(21:43):
There's so many things that arepeople, forces people to leave
their homeland, because that's acountry that you have, your
uncles, your cousins, andeverybody is there. Why would
you want to leave thatenvironment, unless you're being
prosecuted? Is so manychallenges with what's happening
in us right now, there's twosides to it, right? Obviously,
you don't want just people justwalk into the country. If the
(22:07):
whole world, America is thegreatest country in the world,
that's fast, right? So everybodywants to come here. That's
understandable and but thatdoesn't mean that anybody just
can walk in come here. But oncethey come in, you look at their
case, if they have legitimatecase, even whether they walk in
or they came with a plane, therehas to be judicial system that's
(22:27):
gonna filter it out and makesure that people who need the
protection should stay the wayit is happening right now, just
going to, like elementary schooland taking families out of kids.
It's sad. It's this is not ruleof law the way I look at it at
the same time, I'm not sayingthat criminals should stay in
this country. That's not whatI'm saying. I'm just saying that
there has to be a fair judicialsystem in place for immigration.
(22:50):
And the way everything ishappening right now is there's
no, it seems like there's norule of law, and also there are
obviously bad actors in damagingthings. And I don't support that
also, right? It has to be a fairprocess for everybody. It's very
sad, and the way the Trumpadministration is handling this
is very bad. In my opinion.
There has to be a legal way thishas been done. And obviously
there are people who are comingto this country for various
(23:12):
reasons, and they should belooked properly and then given
the rights to stay, if they'relegit, if not, they can be sent
away, but the whole process, Ihave a problem with the process,
because as an American, I'm anAmerican today. I worked for
Department of Defense. I am animmigrant. This country gave me
the opportunity to serve thiscountry as I had a top secret
(23:33):
clearance working for Departmentof Defense, and I'm grateful for
this country right as animmigrant, I was contributing to
my best of ability for thiscountry. And everybody that
comes to this country will havesignificant role in playing in
America's economy. And a lot of40% of American businesses are
incorporated by immigrants,according to data. So it's good
(23:56):
for the country. You cannot justkeep people away, but there has
to be a process in place, and ithas to be fair for everybody.
There are there people do have aconcern about immigrants coming
to this country. So
Tim Montague (24:10):
on that point of for example, asylum seekers.
There are many places asylumseekers could go, but there are
not necessarily many good placeswhere they'll have good economic
opportunity. And I'm curious,how do you think a country like
(24:30):
the United States should decidehow many asylum seekers we're
going to let in? This is not anarea of my expertise, but it
does seem like a verychallenging decision and policy,
and then, yes, we should set apolicy and follow it and be
rigorous about that. And thechaos that ice has created right
(24:53):
now doesn't seem very conduciveto a systematic approach, but
yeah, and. We have cases nowwhere citizens have been
deported, and that's highlyproblematic. But see, this is
Kiya Segni (25:07):
this has to be a bipartisan issue, right when it
comes to the determining thenumbers of immigrants that can
stay, or how many immigrants canwe asylum seekers? Can we give
the permanent residence permit?
This has to be a partisan. Butright now, what is happening is
fighting a fighting ground onboth sides, right? And it's
that's why I'm just saying thatthis is not fair, because if
United States can take number ofasylum seekers that should be
(25:32):
done in the Congress and Senate,and okay, this year this we open
for this amount. But obviouslyRepublicans don't want any of
that, and Democrats are goingtoo extreme. And it's in
between, this is becoming afighting ground for political
gains. And in between, theimmigrants, obviously, the
asylum seekers, are not gettingjustice, and there's a
distractions happening, like inCalifornia, there's so many
(25:55):
things going on. So this has tobe a bipartisan i It is not my
expert as an immigrant. I'mtalking because I know the
experience of being immigrant,just I'm not an expert in any
way in this matter, but I canspeak for myself. And so many
immigrants are like me, right?
We do have somewhat very similarexperience. There has to be a
(26:17):
fear, because there are, let metell you one experience. This
may be a very good example.
There is some political memberin Ethiopia called bathe or
Gesa. So he was trying to, hegot sick, and he was being
jailed. So many times he wantedto flee the country. So he went
to, obviously, from here, wesent him an invitation to come
for his medical also, that hecan get here and seek asylum. So
(26:40):
he went to the embassy.
Obviously, they, they refused togive him a visa, and two months
later, he's been killed by thegovernment. The BBC has reported
on this. This, you know, theEuropean government, by
Ethiopian government. Oh,correct. So I'm, this is an,
like, a real person that I know,I'm telling you about where did
(27:01):
that happen? This is last year,May of 2024 I think you can
search him on BBC reported onit, but they were guessed as his
name. So I'm just giving anexample. Where was he? Where was
he killed? He was killed inEthiopia, a city called, I think
Tim Montague (27:18):
okay, so he came, he came to the US, and then he
went back. Nope,
Kiya Segni (27:23):
they refused to give him a visa to come to us. Okay,
that's basically what I'msaying. So if he came and had
for asylum, he would havesurvived and be living today.
Those are experiences that are,there are people like that.
There are, there's a lot ofpolitical asylums from Ethiopia
that are here, and they'restaying here. I know if they go
back, they may be killed. Sothose are the experiences that
(27:43):
people do have, sure, and that'swhy I'm just saying that there
has to be a fair judicial systemin place so that those people
can actually put their case infront of the judge, and the
judge should decide. Andobviously this is a policy
matter, but obviously this is avery wide topic, but that's just
an experience, my experience ofbeing an immigrant.
Tim Montague (28:02):
Thank you for sharing that. I wish we had more
time, but let's talk briefly inthe last few minutes together
about what's happening to theIRA. Potentially, we have a 30%
tax credit with several addersfor Energy Communities Low
Income and made in Americaequipment, but the 30% ITC could
(28:22):
be phased out at the end of 2025for residential solar. A, what
would the impact be onresidential solar in your
market, in in DC, Virginia andMaryland, and B, what? Yeah, I
guess. What are your thoughts ingeneral about what is happening
(28:43):
in Congress right now, aroundthe IRA, there's
Kiya Segni (28:46):
so many things going on. I mean, Washington, DC and
DMV area, so there's a lot ofrenewable tech leaders are in
Washington, just lobbying anddoing different things just few
days. This is going to have asignificant impact in so many
ways, on the nations, on theconsumers. Obviously, the
homeowners. And China isundisputedly a leader in
(29:06):
renewable energy, right? 80% ofthe supply chain is controlled
by China. So this is just in away that's giving up to China's
race in renewable energyleadership. This is if you look
at in in the last two, threeyears, China had over three,
3000 terawatt hour renewableenergy being there in 2023
(29:29):
right? And then also they hadabout 350, gigawatt in renewable
capacity in 2023 that's morethan any other country in the
world. So ITC is significant forAmerican future plan, I think,
in my opinion, in relations toenergy independence, sustainable
growth, there's so many thingsin the argument within the Trump
administration is that a we'regoing to cut the deficit, and in
(29:51):
the long run, how much doesAmerica put in environmental
protection, significant solarand renewable energy. Is going
to reduce that. In other hand,at the same time, energy
independent for homeowners.
Homeowners will be able to savemoney instead of renting their
energy. They may be able to owntheir own energy, and they can
produce on their owninvestments. So in our market,
(30:13):
obviously, is going to have asignificant impact. Is going to
increase about 30% the solarprojects, not only that, we are
not considering the tariffs thathave been added. We cannot even
get a material from outside ofus so that we can compensate the
on the price also, right?
(30:33):
Because there's a tariff on thematerials now, there is no
incentives that ITC is going tobe removed, it's going to it's
solar has to make sense forhomeowners. I'm talking
specifically about residentialsolar, and obviously, how would
have a significant impact on thecommercial also, because this,
ITC is a driving force inallowing homeowners to go solar,
(30:55):
and if this ITC is beingremoved, it will have a
significant impact, and it'sgonna put out at least 300,000
people out of work because welose renewable energy
leaderships, because this is alot of people are gonna leave
this industry.
Tim Montague (31:12):
So what's your plan B key? I'm just curious, as
residential installer, what doyou think about in as a Plan B,
in the event that the ITC goesaway at the end of 2025 between
now and then, would be a goldrush, right? A lot that would
incentivize a lot of people tobuy solar, but before, but here
we are in June. You only have acouple of months, really, to do
(31:33):
that sale and make the installby the end of the year. But what
is the plan B for you?
Kiya Segni (31:39):
I'm not leaving renewable energy, that's for
sure, because this is not onlyabout financial gain, right?
We're contributing to thisplanet. So we're this is about
sustainability. This is aboutenvironment protections. So this
is about so many things. So Iwill definitely say in the
industry, I'm not going to leavethe industry because of the ITC,
like you said earlier in thisepisode, that we're going to get
(31:59):
that to 50% solar grid, exactly.
This is not a for us. It's goingto be a challenge. It's going to
be a very bumpy but we just haveto fight it back, because this
is not only about the business,also it would have a significant
impact on the future of thisplanet. Definitely, My Plan B is
staying in solar. There's noPlan B is Plan A, and that's it.
That's that should be theanswer.
Tim Montague (32:20):
Some installers are leaning into commercial. The
runway is longer there. It's aless crowded space. It's a
longer sales cycle. It is a verydifferent segment of the
industry. The ticket, the pricetag, the capex of a commercial
project, is much bigger, and soit's a much slower decision. And
so you have to have a bigpipeline, and you have to have
(32:43):
cash flow to ride through theups and downs, but you can build
a nice snowball of business inCNI. I'm curious if you think
about getting into CNI.
Kiya Segni (32:54):
Yeah, that was basically my one step at a time.
That was just basically my plantransitioning into the
commercial was also in mystrategic growth plan as a
company. We have that planalready in place, but it may be
earlier than we thought, becauseof this. ITC, but definitely my
journey was towards thecommercial solar projects
(33:17):
anyway, but this is residential.
Would have been stepping stone.
But this is the residential alsoplays a big role in in
everybody's life, at least forconsumer homeowners also. So
it's good stepping stone for us,but definitely, if this ITC is
in place, we automatically haveto move to the commercial space.
And I know you're big in thecommercial industry too. So
(33:39):
Mike, come for some advice toyou
Tim Montague (33:42):
all right. Kiya segments, thank you so much for
telling your story. I reallyappreciate it. Check out all of
our content atcleanpowerhour.com. Tell a
friend about the show, reach outto me on LinkedIn. I love
hearing from my listeners. Checkout our merch. Stop Shop. Just
go on the the shop link. We nowhave a big catalog of
merchandise, including Nike golfshirts, like the shirt I'm
(34:04):
wearing today. It's lovely gear.
Check it out. And Kiya. How canour listeners find you?
Kiya Segni (34:10):
They can find us at www at Aduu solar for
installations, for installers,the contractors that want to be
consulted on the engineeringaspect. They can reach out to us
at aduusolarengineering.com and,yeah, the rest of the contact I
think you're going to put in thedescription anyway, so they can
find us on the website. Andevery contact information is on
(34:30):
there. And I thank you, Tim forhaving me on. I hope to see you
in RE Plus, I don't know ifyou're going this year, but last
I'll be in Vegas. Yep, I'll bein Vegas also. So it's been
quite some time since we met inperson. So all
Tim Montague (34:44):
right, I'm Tim Montague, let's grow solar. Take
care. You.
We've been designing a solar project for so many
(00:02):
companies. So we do haveexperience with any material
that's out there in the market,because this company uses other
one, this company uses differentracking, this company used
different inverter, this companyused different modules or
optimizers and all this kind ofstuff. So we had so much
experience in in the materialaspect. So what we came up with
(00:22):
is that price and reliability isthe most important for picking
because if I can get a goodprice on the material, I may be
able to give a discount for thehomeowner. So the whole idea of
solar is not only about buildingit also the saving.
intro (00:37):
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 into decarbonization.
We do too. We're here to helpyou understand and command the
commercial, residential andutility, solar, wind and storage
industries. So let's get to ittogether. We can speed the
(00:59):
energy transition
Tim Montague (01:03):
today on the Clean Power Hour, how a solar
entrepreneur has grown hiscompany from being a solar
consultant engineering firm tobeing a full fledged solar
installer. Welcome back to theshow Kiya Segni,
Kiya Segni (01:18):
thank you, Tim, thanks for having me again. I
think we circling back afterthink 2022 so it's always
pleasure to see you. Thanks forhaving me again. It's
Tim Montague (01:27):
great to see you and how you have grown your
company, Aduu solar. A D, U. Uis the name of the company just
and that is the URL,Aduusolar.com and check out
episode 114 where we did a fulllength interview with you about
how you grew into the solarindustry. So we won't dwell too
(01:52):
long on that backstory, Kiya,but give us a refresher. How did
you get into solar? And fastforward to 2025 how's it going?
Kiya Segni (02:04):
Yeah, basically we talked about about this loan, I
think, on the first episode. Butjust a quick rundown. Basically,
out of college, I had someinternship in renewable energy,
and I had the experience ofbecoming i My background is
electrical engineering, so I hadthat experience. But once I
graduated, I went off to workfor Department of Defense as a
(02:25):
nuclear submarine engineer. ThenI had to, I always wanted to be
renewable energy, so I wentstarted my own solar company
because of the collegeexperiences that I had in terms
of TV design, engineeringdesigns, we started the company,
and we grow into consulting somany contractors in across the
United States and all 50 states.
We started from residentialbranch out to commercial designs
(02:47):
make our projects, and bit bybit, we got we grow into a big
consulting company. We've beendoing that for last three years.
We have significant amount ofcontractors under us that we do
the engineering work for them,even permitting interconnection,
all the process. Then now wetransition into installers
ourselves. So we just startedinstalling in Washington, DC,
(03:09):
Virginia, Maryland. So that'show I transitioned into the
installation from engineeringfirm. The ADO solar engineering
is a separate company, and thenthere is ADO solar company, this
installer, an installationcompany. So that's how we got
into it.
Tim Montague (03:24):
I remember three years ago, when we first met
that you had the aspiration ofbecoming an installer. I think
it is quite different being anengineering firm versus being a
construction company, right? Ifyou're an installer, you're
running crews that are walkingon people's rooftops, and it's
(03:47):
just a totally differentbusiness. You have to procure
equipment, you have to havesafety plans, you have to train
your staff to install solarpanels. No, this is no ding
against the industry, right? Wehave room for all kinds of
people, and there's tremendousgrowth in the solar industry. I
(04:10):
like to say, no matter what, weare going to a 50% grid in the
coming decades. Will it be 2050will it be 2070 that is TBD, but
we're going there. So we'regoing to 10x the solar industry.
This is a great economicopportunity for anyone who's
already in solar and storage orthinking about getting in. So
(04:33):
Kiya. Tell us about the market,DC, Maryland and Virginia. Yep,
Kiya Segni (04:38):
obviously the Washington DC is one of the
strongest extract credits in thecountry. So it's there is so
many programs in Diem V area,specifically Washington DC,
there is a solar for allprogram, which means that the
district supports everybody togo solar. So the extract payment
is so high, investors areactually giving electric. City
(05:00):
for free for homeowners as aPPA, so that they can get all
the extract credits andincentives. And obviously, any
homeowner that finance inWashington, DC will make three
to $5,000 a month from s trackalone a year. So it's a most
lucrative truck program in thecountry, in Washington, in
Maryland, before there used tobe a rebate of $1,000 for
(05:23):
anybody that goes solar, andthen on top of that, obviously
there is a federal incentives.
But now the new governor ofMaryland came up with a program
called solar access program,which actually gives homeowners
up to $7,500 for going solar isincome based depends on family
numbers, but more or less, ifyou make less than $200,000 a
year, you qualify for the $7,500it's basically one kW will give
(05:48):
you $750 if you have 10 kilowatthour on your roof, you get that
7500 grand. So that's calledsolar access program Virginia.
It's not so much. It's notgetting there, but they're
actually coming along. There's atruck payment. Obviously, there
is federal incentives. Sothey're going well also. So DMV
area in general are actuallymoving very well in terms of
(06:11):
going to solar and producing.
Maryland have a program in 2040to go 50% energy, green energy.
So basically, they're reallytrying to get that 50% of their
electricity coming from solarand other renewable programs. So
far, people are. It's kind ofwarming up in DMV area right
now, solar is a thing.
Everybody's going solar becauseof all this incentives, and it
(06:33):
financially makes sense for thehomeowner. So it's very was
going well until this ITC came,and we don't know. Now,
everybody's panicking,obviously, but as of right now,
it's the market is very good,and homeowners are happy to go
solar and invest their money.
This is not free. They stillhave to finance pay partially,
but it helps them in savingmoney.
Tim Montague (06:55):
Yeah, as you've pointed out here, incentives
like renewable energy credits orother incentives. There's half a
dozen ways that local and stategovernment can incentivize clean
energy, and so there's not onesize that fits all every every
region likes to do their ownthing. Here in Illinois, we
(07:17):
designed a program that's anamalgam of what's happening in
New Jersey, New York,Massachusetts, and I love high
priced recs. I think that's avery simple way to understand
the incentive, right? Onemegawatt hour of electricity is
one wreck. You put a specialprice on that. So let's say in
(07:39):
Illinois, we might pay ninecents for grid power, we get
five cent Rex or seven cent Rex,and so you can get a lot of free
solar for that wreck, and itincreases the payback period
significantly. We have a five toseven year payback period. I'm
(08:00):
curious now that you're kneedeep in in running a solar
company, is it payback periodthat consumers want, or what is
it that consumers want? Andwhat's driving consumers to sign
on the dotted line?
Kiya Segni (08:13):
It's very interesting. So in Washington,
DC is different for every state,right? Like you said, different
states do have differentincentives in their own ways.
Obviously the Washington DC isimmediate, the S track payment
is so high, immediately you'resaving completely. You can
offset 100% of your payment,because extract so high is 400
plus dollars. But 1s track, sofor one megawatt hour in
(08:35):
Maryland, there is incentivethat are actually motivating
people to go solar, made mainly,like I said, the solar access
program, having a support ofabout $7,500 for your home to go
solar will have a significantimpact on your on your bill or
when you go solar. On top ofthat, if you get the federal tax
credit, obviously almost 50% ofyour solar project is covered
(08:58):
for you, and then you just onlyhave to finance for 50% so for
everybody is different. Theextract in Maryland is not too
bad. It's not too great, but theincentives are actually long and
just compensating for the forthe savings. So for Washington,
like I said, You will not onlysaving. You probably would make
money if you go solar. There isincentives, grants and there is
(09:20):
extracts. Both are both do playa significant role in saving
your bill and motivates you togo solar. It has to make sense,
right? Solar has to sell itselfwhen you finance. So when you go
to a Deb, you probably will haveto see the investment will put
the you look at the paperpayback period, you look at the
the immediate incentive that youget from s rack. All of those
(09:42):
things are combined andmotivates homeowners to go
solar. And a lot of homeownersnowadays are believing in solar
because they see the immediatesaving that everybody's
benefiting. So that's basicallywhat is looking like in DMV
area.
Tim Montague (09:57):
So if you're listening to this and you're
thinking about. So becoming asolar installer, what is your
experience on that journey, andwhat's your advice to others?
Kiya Segni (10:09):
That's a very interesting one for me. I had so
much experience of consultingsolar contractors as an
engineering firm, so in the backend, I had a lot of experience,
right? I was in a position to dotheir system design, and I've
seen a company as I consult themand do their engineering, they
grow and become a very bigcompany with, like few people
(10:29):
from starting from few people inlast three years, there are
bigger companies that also wentdown. There's a lot of companies
like that also. So from thoseexperiences, I took so much
knowledge and how solarinstallation has to be run.
Obviously, having a network ofthose installers would also give
you access to a lot ofinformation. So for me, was that
the first thing is that we hadto make sure that we provide a
(10:50):
quality service. The secondthing is the price. Third thing
is the financing. So thosecombined are the key to
succeeding in solarinstallation. Obviously, running
a team, making sure thateverything is material has been
ordered, is an operation. Thirdthing is, first thing is a
system in place. A homeownershould have a way to contact you
(11:12):
easily. Simply the projectmanager has to be reached
easily. So those things sort ofhelped us. We started, like six,
seven months ago now as aninstallation company. So we're
extremely doing very well, morethan my expectations in this
market. And I think for us it'sgoing to be a very great years
ahead if those incentives areintact and in place in 2025 26
Tim Montague (11:36):
so when it comes to customer communication, do
you use any third partyapplications for that, or you
have a homegrown
Kiya Segni (11:44):
tool, we developed everything on Zoho ourselves. So
basically on Zoho, everything isdone on Zoho, basically from
communications, from cells tomaterial order, from a design
for financing, everything isintegrated to client
communication. So all of it isin one place. That makes it a
lot easier. If you don't have asystem in place, if you're
(12:04):
managing 30 installations amonth, there's a lot of there's
a lot of work. The operations byitself. It's, this is a labor.
It's not a software company.
It's, you have to go, you haveto build it. You have to it's a
lot of physical stuff involved.
There collateral, communicationinvolved, a lot of financing
involved. So unless you have asystem in place, you cannot even
grow and then you cannot evenbring the client satisfaction
that you want to bring before.
See, those are the experiencesthat I took from consulting
(12:26):
solarizer contractors. Right?
There are companies that have asystem in place that I had to,
even when I design, I had to loginto their portal make sure that
I put everything in there forthem. There are companies that
does everything on Excel. Sothose experiences helped me. So
before I even announced myinstallation company, I built
all those systems first, beforeanything, I had to put system in
(12:50):
place so that when I go to themarket, anybody that comes there
is a system that, like, walksthem through and get them to the
other end with quality workbeing done. So that's basically
the my experience, and that'show we've been doing.
Tim Montague (13:03):
I love it. I love it. I think about getting
licensed as a contractor. Also,how difficult was that, and was
it significantly different inthe different jurisdictions?
Kiya Segni (13:14):
If you are in Maryland, if you you have a
license and contractor licensein Maryland, obviously you
don't. You do not have to take atest in Washington, DC, okay,
but you have to apply thecompany in the state in tax
revenue and all those paperwork.
But for Maryland, obviouslythere is an experience needed,
at least two years of experienceto take to even sit on the exam.
(13:34):
For me, as I had a consultingcompany, I was in industry for
more than three years, by thetime I was applying, then we
might took a test, obviously.
Then you become, you get yourlicense. Once you get your
license, then you set up withthe financing, everything in
place, all the other things thatyou need. So it's not so much
difficult if you haveexperience. What helped me, for
(13:56):
me is not anybody that can walkin and say, Oh, I'm going to
become a solar installer. Isgoing to be quite difficult,
because you, first of all, youhave to have the experience of
three years of working inindustry, at least in Maryland,
right then you have to take theexam. You have to have the
knowledge of how solar works andall the other stuff. So you have
to take exam. Virginia. You haveto take even if you have a
license in Maryland, you stillhave to take exam. And then
(14:19):
there is, they have three levelsof contractor license, A, B, C,
so it depends on what yourrevenue is going to be. If you
have a b c, you cannot. There isa threshold how bigger project
you can take based on yourlicense level. So it's a bit
different, but you still have totake exam in the state of
Virginia, but the exams aresimilar to Maryland. It's not a
big difference, but there's alot of code and contractor laws
(14:42):
that are slightly different, butmore or less, if you pass one
exam, you will pass the otherone. So that's the way it works
in this area, but Washington, DCand Maryland is more or less the
same.
Tim Montague (14:53):
So dealing with equipment is, I think, quite a
challenge and an opportunity.
Community. It's a challengebecause there's so many options
for racking, modules, inverters.
How did you think about that?
And how have you streamlinedyour equipment procurement and
what you're offering toconsumers for the residential
solar market?
Kiya Segni (15:15):
That's where my expertise come in, right? That's
basically what we've beendesigning a solar project for so
many companies. So we do haveexperience with any material
that's out there in the market,because this company uses other
one, this company uses differentracking, this company uses
different inverters, thiscompany use different modules or
optimizers and all this kind ofstuff. So we had so much
(15:35):
experience in in the materialaspect. So what we came up with
is that a price and reliabilityis the most important for
picking because if I can get agood price on the material, I
may be able to give a discountfor the homeowner. So the whole
idea of solar is not only aboutbuilding, it also the saving. So
(15:55):
if I'm going to go extremelyhigh on a material, obviously is
not going to make sense for thehomeowner. But at the same time,
you don't want to get a cheapmaterial that is not going to
work 30 that's not going to staythere for next 3030, years
minimum, right? That's awarranty. So you just have to
find a balance of good materialwith a good price that is
reliable and efficient for thehomeowner. The way we
(16:17):
streamlined it is that wethere's a lot of distributors in
DMV area. CED is one. There'sanother one. There's a bigger
companies that are ourdistributors. So basically, you
set up an account or creditaccount with them, and then
obviously you order. And thenthe way I do it is that in the
day of the installs, myinstallers picks it up from the
distributors, because it's verynearby. It's about 30 minute
(16:40):
drive, so it's much easier.
Instead of coordinating withhomeowner that a the material is
coming today to be dropped andthe homeowner might not be home,
all of that. So we don't want toignore all of that. So the day
of installs, early in themorning, 5am we pick up our
material, be at the homeownerand just get it done. That's
basically the way we're doingit. So we've seen other
companies do a delivery. So thisis the best way to do it, and
(17:01):
it's working perfectly for us,because of we're local, we're
nearby, and it's the homeowner.
Don't have to worry and wasteanother extra day. But ahead of
time, four or five days, we makesure that all the materials are
in place. We got all everythingis being paid for. Then the day
of the install, the installer isgoing to be at the at the gate.
So that's the way. But this isalso part of our Zoho. It's
(17:23):
already done on our system. Thisis we don't do any other
communications. Everything isdone on the system. So it's much
easier. It's just clicks awayand send a bill of material and
get everything done.
Tim Montague (17:33):
So do you have any favorite type of equipment,
either brands or type like, forexample, in racking, you have
rail less racking, or railedracking. You have micro
inverters, or string inverters.
Was this subtle but somewhatapples and oranges. What have
you settled on? We do
Kiya Segni (17:50):
use, we do not use a string inverter. We just use a
micro inverters, because microone micro inverters will allow
you to look at each panelproduction. Or if you use a
string inverter, basicallyyou're putting everything into
one one inverter, so you don'tknow which panel is producing
how much, and all that stuff. Soit's costly for us when we use a
(18:10):
micro inverter, M phase is whatwe use. There are other string
inverters, like solar edge.
There's a lot of newtechnologies that they're coming
up with. But for us, we likemicro inverters. That's it's
costly, obviously, right, butit's good for homeowners. Can
actually at least see what theywhat their solar is producing.
And then there's a lot of railsand iron ridge and other
rockings that we use. Based onour experience for so many
(18:33):
different companies, we do haverecommendations, and we do have
a tier, tier one, tier two, tierthree based on we give
homeowners an option for panels.
We give them like five differentpanels, like Jenko, Hyundai,
Ari, C, different differentpanels. Obviously their price is
slightly different. So it wouldgive, first, it will give a
(18:55):
homeowner an option, and thenit's okay. What's the difference
between this and that? Becauseyou cannot have just one,
because people might have adifferent recommendations based
on their experience or fromfriend or something. So we do
have our standard is Genco microinverters phase. So that's
basically our standard, but ifhomeowner want to change it to
(19:15):
string inverter, we're more thanhappy to do it as an engineers.
What do we recommend? Is thatSure, obviously, where we are
the experts, and we would loveto give the best service to our
plan. So basically, we do have arecommendation that we put in
place, and we give homeowners tochoose from our list that will
be their favorite. Yeah, so
Tim Montague (19:34):
let's, let's pivot a little bit Kiya and talk about
two other things. What's goingon in the solar industry with
the big, beautiful bill thatmight devastate the tax
incentive the ITC forresidential solar and I want to
talk about the immigrantexperience, because you're
clearly an immigrant. We talkeda fair amount about that
(19:57):
backstory on our first interviewback in 2022 check out episode.
114 but let's talk about thatfirst Kiya, actually the
immigrant experience, becausethere's a lot going on in the US
right now with the ICE raids andthe protests. And I'm just
curious how you see this, howyou see the landscaping the
(20:18):
United States, obviously, wehave been the land of
opportunity for you and yourfamily. You have built a great
life here, and you're on afantastic journey, but it's not
without its challenges. So I'mjust curious what you have to
say to Americans at large andother immigrants.
Kiya Segni (20:37):
Yeah, just to give a little bit of background about
myself I was. I grew up in rulerEthiopian side called walanga in
the city of necam. So it's moreor less about 100,000 100,000
people live in that city. Ingeneral. My father came in 2015
he's been prosecuted politicallyin Ethiopia for different
reasons. He I'm a son of ateacher, a elementary school
(20:59):
teacher, and they gave me. Icame from a good people and
hardworking people, but they hadnothing. So my father came and
obviously did the process ofgetting us here, because he got
here first, and after separationof eight, seven years, he had to
get his paper in America gothrough the immigration
everything. I came when I was 18years old, and when I came I
(21:21):
barely spoke English. I had togo through education system,
follow the rules in the statesand be a good citizen and
contributing citizen. Obviously,I went to college, I got my
degree, and I'm where I amtoday, and others other people's
story is not no different. Itdoesn't matter where you come
from. Nobody wants to leavetheir country if they had a good
life and peaceful and everythingis there for them, right?
(21:43):
There's so many things that arepeople, forces people to leave
their homeland, because that's acountry that you have, your
uncles, your cousins, andeverybody is there. Why would
you want to leave thatenvironment, unless you're being
prosecuted? Is so manychallenges with what's happening
in us right now, there's twosides to it, right? Obviously,
you don't want just people justwalk into the country. If the
(22:07):
whole world, America is thegreatest country in the world,
that's fast, right? So everybodywants to come here. That's
understandable and but thatdoesn't mean that anybody just
can walk in come here. But oncethey come in, you look at their
case, if they have legitimatecase, even whether they walk in
or they came with a plane, therehas to be judicial system that's
(22:27):
gonna filter it out and makesure that people who need the
protection should stay the wayit is happening right now, just
going to, like elementary schooland taking families out of kids.
It's sad. It's this is not ruleof law the way I look at it at
the same time, I'm not sayingthat criminals should stay in
this country. That's not whatI'm saying. I'm just saying that
there has to be a fair judicialsystem in place for immigration.
(22:50):
And the way everything ishappening right now is there's
no, it seems like there's norule of law, and also there are
obviously bad actors in damagingthings. And I don't support that
also, right? It has to be a fairprocess for everybody. It's very
sad, and the way the Trumpadministration is handling this
is very bad. In my opinion.
There has to be a legal way thishas been done. And obviously
there are people who are comingto this country for various
(23:12):
reasons, and they should belooked properly and then given
the rights to stay, if they'relegit, if not, they can be sent
away, but the whole process, Ihave a problem with the process,
because as an American, I'm anAmerican today. I worked for
Department of Defense. I am animmigrant. This country gave me
the opportunity to serve thiscountry as I had a top secret
(23:33):
clearance working for Departmentof Defense, and I'm grateful for
this country right as animmigrant, I was contributing to
my best of ability for thiscountry. And everybody that
comes to this country will havesignificant role in playing in
America's economy. And a lot of40% of American businesses are
incorporated by immigrants,according to data. So it's good
(23:56):
for the country. You cannot justkeep people away, but there has
to be a process in place, and ithas to be fair for everybody.
There are there people do have aconcern about immigrants coming
to this country. So
Tim Montague (24:10):
on that point of for example, asylum seekers.
There are many places asylumseekers could go, but there are
not necessarily many good placeswhere they'll have good economic
opportunity. And I'm curious,how do you think a country like
(24:30):
the United States should decidehow many asylum seekers we're
going to let in? This is not anarea of my expertise, but it
does seem like a verychallenging decision and policy,
and then, yes, we should set apolicy and follow it and be
rigorous about that. And thechaos that ice has created right
(24:53):
now doesn't seem very conduciveto a systematic approach, but
yeah, and. We have cases nowwhere citizens have been
deported, and that's highlyproblematic. But see, this is
Kiya Segni (25:07):
this has to be a bipartisan issue, right when it
comes to the determining thenumbers of immigrants that can
stay, or how many immigrants canwe asylum seekers? Can we give
the permanent residence permit?
This has to be a partisan. Butright now, what is happening is
fighting a fighting ground onboth sides, right? And it's
that's why I'm just saying thatthis is not fair, because if
United States can take number ofasylum seekers that should be
(25:32):
done in the Congress and Senate,and okay, this year this we open
for this amount. But obviouslyRepublicans don't want any of
that, and Democrats are goingtoo extreme. And it's in
between, this is becoming afighting ground for political
gains. And in between, theimmigrants, obviously, the
asylum seekers, are not gettingjustice, and there's a
distractions happening, like inCalifornia, there's so many
(25:55):
things going on. So this has tobe a bipartisan i It is not my
expert as an immigrant. I'mtalking because I know the
experience of being immigrant,just I'm not an expert in any
way in this matter, but I canspeak for myself. And so many
immigrants are like me, right?
We do have somewhat very similarexperience. There has to be a
(26:17):
fear, because there are, let metell you one experience. This
may be a very good example.
There is some political memberin Ethiopia called bathe or
Gesa. So he was trying to, hegot sick, and he was being
jailed. So many times he wantedto flee the country. So he went
to, obviously, from here, wesent him an invitation to come
for his medical also, that hecan get here and seek asylum. So
(26:40):
he went to the embassy.
Obviously, they, they refused togive him a visa, and two months
later, he's been killed by thegovernment. The BBC has reported
on this. This, you know, theEuropean government, by
Ethiopian government. Oh,correct. So I'm, this is an,
like, a real person that I know,I'm telling you about where did
(27:01):
that happen? This is last year,May of 2024 I think you can
search him on BBC reported onit, but they were guessed as his
name. So I'm just giving anexample. Where was he? Where was
he killed? He was killed inEthiopia, a city called, I think
Tim Montague (27:18):
okay, so he came, he came to the US, and then he
went back. Nope,
Kiya Segni (27:23):
they refused to give him a visa to come to us. Okay,
that's basically what I'msaying. So if he came and had
for asylum, he would havesurvived and be living today.
Those are experiences that are,there are people like that.
There are, there's a lot ofpolitical asylums from Ethiopia
that are here, and they'restaying here. I know if they go
back, they may be killed. Sothose are the experiences that
(27:43):
people do have, sure, and that'swhy I'm just saying that there
has to be a fair judicial systemin place so that those people
can actually put their case infront of the judge, and the
judge should decide. Andobviously this is a policy
matter, but obviously this is avery wide topic, but that's just
an experience, my experience ofbeing an immigrant.
Tim Montague (28:02):
Thank you for sharing that. I wish we had more
time, but let's talk briefly inthe last few minutes together
about what's happening to theIRA. Potentially, we have a 30%
tax credit with several addersfor Energy Communities Low
Income and made in Americaequipment, but the 30% ITC could
(28:22):
be phased out at the end of 2025for residential solar. A, what
would the impact be onresidential solar in your
market, in in DC, Virginia andMaryland, and B, what? Yeah, I
guess. What are your thoughts ingeneral about what is happening
(28:43):
in Congress right now, aroundthe IRA, there's
Kiya Segni (28:46):
so many things going on. I mean, Washington, DC and
DMV area, so there's a lot ofrenewable tech leaders are in
Washington, just lobbying anddoing different things just few
days. This is going to have asignificant impact in so many
ways, on the nations, on theconsumers. Obviously, the
homeowners. And China isundisputedly a leader in
(29:06):
renewable energy, right? 80% ofthe supply chain is controlled
by China. So this is just in away that's giving up to China's
race in renewable energyleadership. This is if you look
at in in the last two, threeyears, China had over three,
3000 terawatt hour renewableenergy being there in 2023
(29:29):
right? And then also they hadabout 350, gigawatt in renewable
capacity in 2023 that's morethan any other country in the
world. So ITC is significant forAmerican future plan, I think,
in my opinion, in relations toenergy independence, sustainable
growth, there's so many thingsin the argument within the Trump
administration is that a we'regoing to cut the deficit, and in
(29:51):
the long run, how much doesAmerica put in environmental
protection, significant solarand renewable energy. Is going
to reduce that. In other hand,at the same time, energy
independent for homeowners.
Homeowners will be able to savemoney instead of renting their
energy. They may be able to owntheir own energy, and they can
produce on their owninvestments. So in our market,
(30:13):
obviously, is going to have asignificant impact. Is going to
increase about 30% the solarprojects, not only that, we are
not considering the tariffs thathave been added. We cannot even
get a material from outside ofus so that we can compensate the
on the price also, right?
(30:33):
Because there's a tariff on thematerials now, there is no
incentives that ITC is going tobe removed, it's going to it's
solar has to make sense forhomeowners. I'm talking
specifically about residentialsolar, and obviously, how would
have a significant impact on thecommercial also, because this,
ITC is a driving force inallowing homeowners to go solar,
(30:55):
and if this ITC is beingremoved, it will have a
significant impact, and it'sgonna put out at least 300,000
people out of work because welose renewable energy
leaderships, because this is alot of people are gonna leave
this industry.
Tim Montague (31:12):
So what's your plan B key? I'm just curious, as
residential installer, what doyou think about in as a Plan B,
in the event that the ITC goesaway at the end of 2025 between
now and then, would be a goldrush, right? A lot that would
incentivize a lot of people tobuy solar, but before, but here
we are in June. You only have acouple of months, really, to do
(31:33):
that sale and make the installby the end of the year. But what
is the plan B for you?
Kiya Segni (31:39):
I'm not leaving renewable energy, that's for
sure, because this is not onlyabout financial gain, right?
We're contributing to thisplanet. So we're this is about
sustainability. This is aboutenvironment protections. So this
is about so many things. So Iwill definitely say in the
industry, I'm not going to leavethe industry because of the ITC,
like you said earlier in thisepisode, that we're going to get
(31:59):
that to 50% solar grid, exactly.
This is not a for us. It's goingto be a challenge. It's going to
be a very bumpy but we just haveto fight it back, because this
is not only about the business,also it would have a significant
impact on the future of thisplanet. Definitely, My Plan B is
staying in solar. There's noPlan B is Plan A, and that's it.
That's that should be theanswer.
Tim Montague (32:20):
Some installers are leaning into commercial. The
runway is longer there. It's aless crowded space. It's a
longer sales cycle. It is a verydifferent segment of the
industry. The ticket, the pricetag, the capex of a commercial
project, is much bigger, and soit's a much slower decision. And
so you have to have a bigpipeline, and you have to have
(32:43):
cash flow to ride through theups and downs, but you can build
a nice snowball of business inCNI. I'm curious if you think
about getting into CNI.
Kiya Segni (32:54):
Yeah, that was basically my one step at a time.
That was just basically my plantransitioning into the
commercial was also in mystrategic growth plan as a
company. We have that planalready in place, but it may be
earlier than we thought, becauseof this. ITC, but definitely my
journey was towards thecommercial solar projects
(33:17):
anyway, but this is residential.
Would have been stepping stone.
But this is the residential alsoplays a big role in in
everybody's life, at least forconsumer homeowners also. So
it's good stepping stone for us,but definitely, if this ITC is
in place, we automatically haveto move to the commercial space.
And I know you're big in thecommercial industry too. So
(33:39):
Mike, come for some advice toyou
Tim Montague (33:42):
all right. Kiya segments, thank you so much for
telling your story. I reallyappreciate it. Check out all of
our content atcleanpowerhour.com. Tell a
friend about the show, reach outto me on LinkedIn. I love
hearing from my listeners. Checkout our merch. Stop Shop. Just
go on the the shop link. We nowhave a big catalog of
merchandise, including Nike golfshirts, like the shirt I'm
(34:04):
wearing today. It's lovely gear.
Check it out. And Kiya. How canour listeners find you?
Kiya Segni (34:10):
They can find us at www at Aduu solar for
installations, for installers,the contractors that want to be
consulted on the engineeringaspect. They can reach out to us
at aduusolarengineering.com and,yeah, the rest of the contact I
think you're going to put in thedescription anyway, so they can
find us on the website. Andevery contact information is on
(34:30):
there. And I thank you, Tim forhaving me on. I hope to see you
in RE Plus, I don't know ifyou're going this year, but last
I'll be in Vegas. Yep, I'll bein Vegas also. So it's been
quite some time since we met inperson. So all
Tim Montague (34:44):
right, I'm Tim Montague, let's grow solar. Take
care. You.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.