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We love to give solar thermal marketing advice at Free Hot Water. We’re a manufacturer and a distributor of solar hot water equipment, so our job isn’t to sell solar thermal jobs, but to support our installers with engineering, equipment, and marketing.
So, your success is our success, and right now, we’re anxious to see solar thermal grow as fast as solar PV has grown. So here are 3 tips that you can use to sell some solar thermal commercial jobs.
1) Go to events where your customers are. And by customers, I mean your apartment building owners, hospital administrators, Laundromat owners, hotel owners, nursing home owners, and all of the other businesses that use a lot of hot water. And where are they?
They’re at their own trade shows, talking about their challenges. Solar thermal is a solution for all of the above businesses. Invest in a booth at their respective trade shows and perhaps even participate in a panel discussion about plumbing, energy efficiency, etc. You’ll be seen as an authority and owners will want more information from you.
2) Do a case study for each of the above market segments. Yes, every solar thermal job is different. (That being said, there are some that are right for pre-engineered commercial systems too.) So, you’ll have to mention in your case study how usage, utility prices, state rebates, existing pipes, different solar collectors and tanks can all make prices go up or down. Nevertheless, show the incentives applied, and perhaps give a range of prices. Do this for a hotel with so many rooms, for example, and an apartment with so many units, etc. A case study for each segment. If you have some type of financing to go along with it, mention that too.
Once put together in a PDF, offer these case studies to prospects by making them available on your web page or as a free download. Don’t hide them! Have a “case study” link to them on your website’s home page.
3) Offer prospects a tour of a similar business that you’ve done. By now, you have happy commercial solar water heating customers, right? You’re a Free Hot Water installer, so of course you do. See if you can’t strike up some kind of co-marketing arrangement to have a tour of the finished installation with new prospects.
People respond to examples. This is an excellent touch-feel moment, where you can not only explain how solar thermal works, but also show it working, while answering real time-live questions.
Bonus, you could even have someone videotape the tour and then post this very visual, educational (edited) video on your website and on YouTube.
What’s in it for the existing customer? Marketing and branding, for one. Second, you can offer some kind of referral fee on any closed sale. Up to you how much you want to give, but that fee should be worked into your margins.
Solar thermal works. If you’re a Free Hot Water solar pro, you know that. But we have to continue to get the word out to everyone else. Here are three tips to help do that, and we sincerely hope you’ll use them.
There is no dispute that solar PV has grown faster than solar thermal in the United States. Why? I think there are three basic reasons.
1) More and better financing for PV than solar thermal
Banks and venture capitalists have loved solar PV for quite some time, and the reason is that solar PV projects are profitable with solar power purchase agreements (PPAs).
Solar PPA’s for solar PV are a win-win. They provide low-upfront costs to the customer while also reducing energy costs. At the same time, banks and financiers are able to recoup profits over time by capturing all of the available solar incentives, plus charging the customer a discounted rate for the power that they consume.
What’s odd is that solar thermal applications have not attracted the same win-win attention from banks and finance people. Just as with solar PV, it’s possible to meter and measure solar hot water production and reduce the gas utility bills of large commercial applications, such as hotels, condos, apartment buildings, hospitals, laundromats, nursing homes, and so much more.
The bottom line is that bankers and other financiers need to become better informed about solar thermal applications, economics, and to develop more ways to finance projects.
2) More and better subsidies for PV than solar thermal
Clean solar energy is clean solar energy, and yet governments seem to be more amenable to subsidizing solar electric clean energy than solar water heating applications. If you run down the list of all of the subsidies available on the DSIRE database, you’ll find many more—and richer—solar PV subsidies than for solar thermal.
Once again, I think the reason behind this tilt against solar thermal is the lack of awareness and understanding from legislators about the benefits of solar thermal applications. From hot water and heat, to air conditioning, solar thermal installations could be saving consumers, businesses, and government facilities thousands of dollars over the system’s lifetime. In large installations, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Environmentally, solar thermal can not only reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, but also decrease the currently trend in hydrofracking, a process that may not only damage the environment, but also contaminate drinking water.
The solar industry needs better solar thermal lobbyists. Lobbyists are a dirty word, I know, and yet, they are effective getting in front of legislators and explaining the benefits of solar.
3) Subsidized low gas prices
Subsidizing the exploration of natural gas and other fossil fuels are not helping any consumer or business to consider purchasing renewable solar PV or solar thermal.
It’s hypocritical for the Federal government to say that it wants to move the nation towards clean, renewable, non-polluting energy while encouraging the development of natural gas, enabling natural gas prices to remain artificially low. Meanwhile, utilities are raising their coal-fired electric rates between 3% and 5% a year, making solar PV increasingly competitive.
I’m not saying that gas won’t play a role in our nations near-term energy portfolio, but the sooner our legislators encourage more renewable solar alternatives by leveling the playing field and eliminating gas subsidies, the more solar jobs will be created, and of course, the more energy independent our country will be.
Once again, the solution is better solar thermal lobbying. Solar PV and wind companies all have policy people who are constantly talking to legislators. Solar thermal needs that same face-to-face representation.
We hate to be the bearer of solar bad news…. So, first we’ll be the bearer of solar hot water good news!
In the great state of Idaho, the Questar gas utility has just launched a new residential and multifamily incentives for installing solar water heating systems.
Customers of Questar who have a current gas backup water heating system will receive a maximum $750 rebate. Unlike many solar water heating rebates, the Questar rebate can also be applied to solar pool heating. On top of that, customers can also receive the 30% Federal Investment Tax credit (ITC); however, this Federal incentive will only apply for home water heating, not for the pool heating.
The only other requirement is that the system needs to be SRCC OG-300 rated. As it happens, Free Hot Water’s OG-300 lines are all on the utility’s list of qualifying OG-300 systems. Go figure.
As for Texas, well that’s the bad rebate news. Solar hot water installers have until December 9, 2011 to complete all installations and submit paperwork to be eligible for an Oncor Electric rebate. The program is no longer accepting any more applications and is being discontinued for 2012.
That’s a significant incentive loss for Texas businesses and residents that heat their water through electric water heating tanks. The incentive gave customers between $1,400 and $2,700 for an OG-300 installation, while commercial entities could receive up to $6,500 for larger OG-100 systems.
Federal incentives, such as the 30% Federal ITC, still remain in effect, but once again, this incentive can only be applied to residential or commercial solar water heating applications, not for pool heating.
We urge Oncor to consider refunding this program, since electric water heating is an expensive and inefficient way to heat water.
The 1603 Treasury Grant Program (TGP) is set to expire at the end of 2011, although it is still uncertain whether Congress will renew the program for another year or longer. Cross your fingers.
For those unfamiliar with the 1603 program, it is a law that was passed at the end of 2008 as part of the original economic stimulus bill. The 1603 provision essentially allowed commercial companies to receive a cash grant of 30% of the cost of a commercial solar PV or solar thermal system instead of the 30% Federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) – also part of that law.
This cash grant was a huge help to large scale solar developers, who would normally leverage the 30% ITC to finance their solar projects. Keep in mind that a tax credit is like an IRS gift card: It can be used to pay one’s taxes or a portion of taxes. Profitable banks, venture capitalists, and tax equity investors loved these credits to offset their very large tax bills. However, with the economy struggling, there were relatively few tax equity partners who could actually use the tax credits. Instead, banks and investors wanted to hold on to their cash on hand.
Enter the 1603 cash grant, which re-opened the doors to large scale solar financing. Now, investors and developers could immediately recoup their 30% incentive in cash, rather wait to use the 30% ITC to pay their taxes—if they owed taxes. If the company owed no taxes, the 30% ITC was not refundable; rather, the unused balance could be used towards paying corporate taxes for up to 5 years.
The other advantage of the 1603 was that financiers could use the grant to help fund solar PPA and solar lease projects, making it easier for businesses to go solar with little to no upfront payment.
As expected, the 1603 is widely credited for the large scale and solar boom in recent years. A recent report from SEIA projects that with another extension of 1603 in 2012:
An additional 37,000 jobs would be supported by the solar energy industry in 2012, a 12% increase over baseline.
18,000 will be directly employed by solar companies or indirectly employed by firms that support the solar industry.
An additional 19,000 jobs would be induced by the industry’s economic activity.
Remember that 1603 is not just for solar PV. Developers of commercial solar hot water applications are also eligible for the grant. That means apartment building owners, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, laundry facilities, condominiums, private colleges, and other industries can utilize the program…at least until the end of the year.
So, will Congress act to extend the program? At this point, nothing is certain in the halls of Congress, but sources at SEIA tell Free Hot Water that they are “optimistic” that there will eventually be an extension.
The tricky part is packaging the 1603 extension with some type of bill that must be passed by both houses of Congress, such as a military spending bill or a general government funding bill. These bills don’t come along often, but they do come.
So, keep those fingers crossed that the 1603 gets into one of those bills sooner than later. Couldn’t hurt.
We often talk about how social media can help your solar business here on the Free Hot Water blog. At SPI 2011, Free Hot Water helped to organize what’s called a “Tweet-up,” where solar people who know each other on Twitter gather at a bar at a certain place and time and meet each other, many for the first time.
We help organize Tweet-ups at every SPI and Intersolar. This year, the folks at RenewableEnergyWorld.com were also there to videotape our gathering and ask solar people how social media can affect their solar business. (I’m the one in the baseball cap, and the Twitter stats that I mention are from my personal account.)
Solar Hot Water companies need to step up their social media game. We’re on Twitter at @FreeHotWater. If you are too, send us a Tweet and we’ll be sure to follow you and support our collective efforts to spread the word about solar thermal applications for homes and businesses.
It’s nice to be recognized…by Google’s search engine.  How so?
Recently, if you do a search on Google for “solar water heating for apartment buildings” or “solar hot water for apartment buildings,” or “solar thermal apartment buildings,” Free Hot Water comes up in the first page of search results.
How? Why? Does it work for anyone? Let’s take those questions one by one:
How did Free Hot Water Get on the first page of search results?
Excellent question. The short answer is because we dedicate a great deal of this blog and a lot of other information to helping apartment building owners and their solar installers to go solar.
For example, in past blog posts, we’ve given several economic case studies about apartment buildings going solar, and that organically tells Google that one of our specialties is providing solar thermal equipment and design services for installing solar for ….wait for it…apartment buildings. Very simple. But that’s only part of the story.
We also provide our registered solar partner installers with apartment building resources, such as a down-loadable, apartment building solar thermal site assessment form, not to mention our online slate of solar thermal calculators.
Bottom line: Google search engines reward solar businesses for telling people what you do and sharing specific, useful information.
Why did Free Hot Water get on the first page of search results?
Short answer: Obviously, to grow our business, but also to grow yours. Let me explain:
There are essentially two ways to get attention for your solar water heating business. Advertising or social media efforts.
Advertising, the old way, requires the least amount of effort, but it’s also costly, since it involves a lot of repetitive advertising dollars spent on Google, news papers, magazines, etc. Plus, despite this increased cost, ads provides little or no service to you, our customers. It’s a one-way, “Hey, look at our solar products!” conversation. Actually, it’s not even a conversation. It’s just telling you information.
The second way to market solar is through the new world of “social media.” That is, writing this blog , interacting on Twitter, being on Facebook and other sites. Sure, we still talk about our products here, but it’s not a one-way street. Instead, we can have a two-way dialog through your comments, reaching out to both our professional installer customers and to apartment building consumers who are searching the internet for more information about going solar.
Bottom line: Instead of focusing on advertising, we use social media to provide customers with useful solar information—like this solar marketing related post or last month’s solar thermal state incentives update. We also enable people to interact with us here or on Facebook or Twitter and respond as quickly as possible. So, this is more than just “marketing.” It’s a new form of customer service.
Does it work for anyone?
Absolutely. We’re not Heliodyne or Schuco … but we are on the first page of Google for certain search results—and you can be too.
Want more useful info? Sign up for our monthly e-newsletter, and if you’re not already, become a Free Hot Water solar partner installer. (Also, don’t forget to drop by and say hello at Intersolar! Booth 8111.)
Don't cry over silent solar system failures...Use SunReports
The following is a shortened version of an interview with Tom Dinkel, the president and CEO of our solar monitoring partner SunReports. The interview originally appeared on SmartPlanet.com.
Tom is not only the CEO of SunReports, but he’s also a strong solar energy advocate for both PV and solar hot water. In the interview below, he discusses the advantage for solar hot water installers offering an easy to install monitoring system for customers.
***
SmartPlanet: What happens when we don’t monitor solar installations?
Tom Dinkel: The failure of the system is very quiet. There’s no smoke, klaxon horn, no flashing lights.
The problem is that you still have power — for hot water, you still are taking warm showers — but your solar generation system could be down weeks ormonths before you notice. That’s not a very good return on investment; that would be zero.
The homeowner gets a bill. They might notice that their first bill is a little higher than normal, but they pay it. The second month that it’s out of whack, it’s “Honey, why is this bill so high?” You’ve just wasted more energy than the thing costs.
We know for sure that over the course of the system — these panels live 25 years plus, inverters live maybe 8 or 10 years — you’re going to have one, probably two inverter failures. I would want to know when my inverter has pooped out.
Free Ho Water's SR1000
It’s ironic: you’ve spent more on your solar array than your [Toyota] Prius, but there’s no dashboard on it.
Installers in California are required to provide a 10-year warranty on these systems. But they have no risk mitigation strategy. So we give them one dashboard, one Google Maps-based portal, where they can see their entire installed base. They can manage their entire installed base by exception. It’s a really useful tool.
SmartPlanet: How do you get installers to bite?
Tom Dinkel: It hasn’t been particularly hard. The hardest thing has been getting word out that the technology exists. Traditional monitoring has a power supply, web server and data logger that all have to get pinned together. The typical installer does not know what a subnet mask is.
We’ve designed a plug-in process. Our most common call from the field is, “I just did this really quickly, did I miss a step?”
The solar hot water guys have never thought of solar monitoring. The solar panel guys generally don’t unless they’re vertically aligned. It’s the inverter guys that have baked-in solutions. Where it falls down is when the customer calls. A visit by a repairman costs more than my product does.
***
In addition to being part of our online catalog, Free Hot Water is using SunReports’ solar thermal monitoring system for our own installations.
To see how easy it is to track solar thermal performance with SunReports, check out our live data feed from our recent solar thermal installation at Toadal Fitness center, a gym in downtown Santa Cruz, California.
No matter what you think about the current presidential administration, the current US Department of Energy is huge proponent of solar technologies under Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize winning scientist. Case in point is the DOE’s development of Solar Heating and Cooling Roadmap, which should be released in its final version this year.
We wanted to share a few of the charts in the draft of the roadmap, which show how solar is being used around the world, its potential in the U.S., and our “take-away” from these graphics.
Chart 1: First, let’s look at the number of solar hot water installations in the U.S., from 1974 to 2010. As many solar water heating veterans and arm chair historians recall, there was a big boom and a bust in solar water heating in the 1970’s and early 1980’s. The boom was driven by energy independence incentives driven by the OPEC oil embargo. The bust was a result of the embargo ending and President Reagan ending those subsidies. The take away: The US needs pro-solar policies and incentives in order to grow solar water heating consistently.That’s why Free Hot Water is a member of SEIA, and we urge you to support them, as well.
Chart 2: Now, let’s look at the water heating energy sources in the U.S. As we can see, solar is a sliver in the chart, natural gas takes up 54%, but there’s that 39% of the U.S. who are using inefficient and expensive electricity to heat their water. The take away:There’s a huge untapped electric water heating market ready to be replaced by solar water heating. Build a marketing message to those customers.
Chart 3: Let’s move on to energy usage for residential energy. Between space heating, space cooling, and water heating, there’s an amazing 72% of the pie chart that could be replaced with various solar thermal technologies. The take away:Again, the U.S. has so much potential for clean solar water heating technology, but they just don’t know it. More marketing and strong solar policies are needed to help grow demand.
Chart 4: We love this one: A survey of 21 countries by the International Energy Agency, Solar Heating and Cooling. Program shows actual uses of industrial solar thermal systems, demonstrating the wide range of potential uses for solar thermal technologies. The take away:If you’re looking for commercial solar thermal applications in the US, here are some of the industries to target.
Need some feel-good solar video PR for your solar thermal website? The Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) produced a series of promotional webisodes last year around the time of Solar Power International. These videos clocked in about 5 or 6 minutes and briefly mentioned/showed solar water heating systems.
Now SEIA has taken those webisodes and chopped them down to 15 second, 30 second, and 1-minute public service announcements (PSAs) that you can re-purpose for your own website.
Now, none of these segments include mentioning solar hot water, but you do get a glimpse of an evacuated tube system in all of them…behind PV panels. Even so, the images may inspire your website visitors to go ahead and contact you for a quote. They’re well done, brief, and attractive, so it certainly can’t hurt if to post somewhere in your blog or website. Every bit of positive solar PR helps.
Below are the 3 shortened videos. Simply click on the video. It will take you to You-Tube, where you can hit the “embed” button. Copy that code of your selected video and then paste it somewhere into the code of your own solar website.
Of course, you can certainly use the full, longer versions, as well. They’re available on SEIA’s You-Tube channel–along with other solar-related news videos. Enjoy.
The good news: The U.S. saw close to 30,000 solar pool heating systems installed and 35,500 solar water heating systems were installed.
The okay news: The entire solar thermal industry grew, but not by much. In the end, the 2010 saw a modest 5% growth of installations compared to 2009. Solar pool heating had much better numbers, growing 13% over 2009.
Nevertheless, the report attributes the weak growth of solar hot water in 2010 to several factors: First, the sluggish economy isn’t helping solar hot water or pool heating. Second, the price for gas, solar hot water’s main carbon fuel competitor, has also been fairly low in 2010.
After hitting a peak of over $20/thousand cubic feet (Mcf), residential retail natural gas prices have hovered between $10-$15/thousand cubic feet (Mcf) in the past year. The bottom line is that the return on investment on small residential systems is going to be slower with gas prices so low. However, it should be noted that gas is a commodity, and prices could rise unexpectedly for any number of reasons, making residential more attractive.
In addition, higher volume commercial systems have very attractive incentives right now, especially in California and New York.
SEIA’s report expects the domestic solar water heating market to continue to grow in 2011, but the actual growth rate will be tied to gas and heating oil prices, and they even suggest that if gas prices remain relatively low or go lower, there may be no growth at all, especially for the residential sector. The trend in solar thermal PPA’s (power purchase agreements) may also help to grow the commercial side, and eventually grow the residential market too.
Similarly, the report says that solar pool heating has been hit by the economy and especially the housing bust. As the economy and housing markets recover, especially in solar leading states like California, Florida and Arizona, the report expects the solar pool heating market also to recover.
The top ten states for solar water heating in 2010 were, in order: California, Hawaii, Florida, Arizona, Puerto Rico, Massachusetts, Colorado, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and New York.
The top ten states for solar pool heating installations in 2010 were, in order: Florida, California, Arizona, Oregon, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey and Nevada.
The full executive summary of the solar report–which covers solar PV, solar CSP, and solar thermal–is available to be downloaded free here. Enjoy.
In the mean time, let’s keep working towards terrific solar thermal numbers for 2011! As always, let Free Hot Water know if we can help.
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We love to give solar thermal marketing advice at Free Hot Water. We’re a manufacturer and a distributor of solar hot water equipment, so our job isn’t to sell solar thermal jobs, but to support our installers with engineering, equipment, and marketing.
It’s nice to be recognized…by Google’s search engine.  How so?
