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Helping homeowners go green
Brian Fabiano is the CEO of Evergreen Solar in Pawtucket, RI. The company serves homeowners in Rhode Island and Massachusetts and will service Connecticut. Fabiano and his brother started the solar panel business in 2019, and Brian Fabiano shared the backstory of why they went into the business.
“I'm partners with my brother, and he and I worked together in the past. I was in the home security industry, and there are a lot of similarities between how the solar and home security industries sell products to consumers. My previous experience was a good fit for the solar business. With solar and home security, many companies take the door-to-door sales approach. My brother and I decided to get into the solar industry because we thought we could take a different sales approach to deliver a better end result to the customer,” Fabiano said.
When they launched their company, the brothers decided not to sell door-to-door. “We didn't want to knock on people's doors to sell solar. My background is in marketing. We decided to only work with people who are interested in solar by marketing our company 100-percent online. And because we don't have door-to-door sales representatives, it allows us to keep our pricing competitive,” the business owner said.
According to Fabiano, there are two models for purchasing solar for a home—leasing the panels or buying them outright, and some homeowners secure loans to finance their panels. “There are lending opportunities in the solar world for both ownership and leasing. And for a long time, owning made more financial sense to the homeowner. Up until recently, ownership always made more sense because you would see greater savings over leasing. With our company, no matter if you own or lease your panels, you get the same warranty, the same quality of product, the same production guarantee. What it comes down to is how much your solar bill is compared to what you were paying your electric company. Because of the recent federal rate hikes that have been going on to stabilize the economy, leasing is actually better than ownership. This is the first time in a long time that it's been like that. It's getting more expensive to get a loan because of the federal rate increases,” Fabiano said.
When asked to share Evergreen Solar’s process for working with new clients, the CEO said, “We usually have a 15-minute phone call with you to learn about your home. We can give you the high-level on how solar works, and we will do some discovery on that call. First, it's to qualify your home. It doesn't make sense for all homes to go solar, which is unfortunate. What it comes down to is how much sun your roof is going to get throughout the year. And that changes month to month to month or day to day because the time of year impacts how much electricity the panels produce.”
After the initial phone call, Evergreen Solar’s engineering department will create a preliminary design. “It is preliminary because we need to take measurements to be very accurate. The preliminary design includes a shading report so we know how much electricity the panels are going to produce throughout the year. We also work with a software program that shows us the lidar of the trees around your property,” Fabiano explained. After the initial report, a member of Evergreen Solar’s team meets with the homeowner to go “through solar 101,” he said.
Fabiano also provided an overview of how solar panels work. “When you put panels on your roof, they take in sunlight and convert it to direct current (DC) power. That DC power then gets processed through an inverter to convert it to electricity, which is known as alternating current (AC). Once that electricity goes through the inverter, it goes through a meter that the electric company puts on your house, and that meter tracks all of the electricity that your home is producing. The electricity your home produces goes into the grid.”
Fabiano shared that many homeowners are surprised that the energy produced goes into the power line before it goes into their homes. “It seems counterintuitive, but on a really sunny day, your home is producing a lot more electricity than it actually uses. In the middle of June, your home is probably cranking out about three times more electricity from the panels than you need. So that's why the electricity always goes into the grid first. It’s almost like you're depositing it into a bank. When it's in the middle of winter, and the sun is lower in the sky, you're panels are not making as much electricity. That's when you're pulling those credits back that you made in the summer. At the end of a 12-month period, our goal is to make you net even. So in the course of 12 months, your panels will produce what your home is going to use in those same 12 months. There are some months that you're making more than you need, and there are some months that you’re taking more than you made, but it should net out to be zero, so you won't have an electric bill over the course of 12 months.”
Fabiano also mentioned that his company only installs solar panels on newer roofs for practical reasons, and Evergreen Solar partners with a roofing company. “We have a roofing partner. And we keep them very busy because when people decide to go solar, they realize that they need to get a new roof first. If your roof is more than 15 years old, we will not put solar on it because we know that in 10 years, you're going to need a new roof, and then you're going to have to pay to have the panels taken off and put back on, and that can be expensive. We were working with so many people that needed a new roof that we partnered up with a roofing company in Massachusetts, and they give us wholesale prices on roofs so we can pass that on to our customers. And with solar, you're able to actually put the cost of the roof into your solar package and bundle it up, which is fantastic.”
When asked what he likes best about his job, Fabiano said, “I love the solar industry. I mean, think the biggest thing is it's one of the few ways right now where you can go green, and it actually saves you money. Typically going green costs more—organic food costs more, electric cars cost more right now. This is one of those things where it saves you so much, and it's so nice sitting with homeowners and watching their eyes light up. It’s such a good feeling knowing we're doing great for the environment and we're really helping homeowners save so much on their electricity costs. And that's why I love the industry.”
For more information about Evergreen Solar, check out their BBB Business Profile. To learn more about BBB and read more stories like this, visit Behind the Business Stories with BBB in Eastern MA, ME, RI & VT.
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