We are proud to announce that Sunetric CEO Alex Tiller has been named a finalist for the Business Executive of the Year category at the 2nd Annual Pacific Edge Magazine Business Achievement Awards! The Business Achievement Awards are designed to “spotlight those businesses who have made a difference in business and the community.”

The red-carpet awards gala will be on Thursday, May 31st from 5:30pm to 9:00pm at the Waterfront at Aloha Tower Marketplace.

Kailua, HI — Sunetric, Hawaii’s leading solar design and installation company, is pleased to announce the appointment of two new personnel to its staff.

Paul Craig has been appointed Electrical Engineer, PE and Robert Branson as Warehouse Manager.

Paul Craig, an Electrical Engineer, PE, and Project Manager licensed in Hawaii and Colorado with more than 17 years of engineering experience joins Sunetric as Electrical Engineer, PE, and will be responsible for the design and engineering components of the company’s residential and commercial jobs. Craig received his Bachelor’s in Science from the United States Air Force Academy, a Master’s in Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Robert Branson brings over 15 years of experience to his new role as Sunetric’s Warehouse Manager. As the Warehouse Manager, Branson will be responsible for ensuring proper inventory of the company’s products and ensuring that solar modules are in stock for projects. Prior to moving to Hawaii in 2010, Branson spent over 10 years working for various companies in Indiana.

Energy financing and trading news source SparkSpread covered our recent hiring of Tyler Fauerbach:

Sunetric, a Kailua, Hawaii-based solar power developer, has hired Tyler Fauerbach, v.p. power finance at U.S. Bank.

Fauerbach recently joined Sunetric in Denver as managing director of project finance & strategic development, SparkSpread has learned.

He is responsible for raising debt, tax equity and cash equity for Sunetric’s residential, commercial and utility-scale solar projects in the U.S., according to an industry source.

Sunetric’s completed projects include a 600 kW roof-mounted photovoltaic system on a warehouse owned by Y. Hata & Co., a food service distributor; and a 229 kW roof-mounted PV system for Kona Brewing Co., a Hawaiian brewing company.

Prior to a five-year stint at U.S. Bank, Fauerbach was an energy banker at CoBank.

Kailua, HI – Sunetric, Hawaii’s leading solar design and installation company, is spearheading a new social media effort to highlight the 13 beneficiaries of the 17th-annual Kona Brewers Festival, a celebration of beer and cuisine held on the Big Island on March 10, 2012.

Sunetric is posting extensive interviews with each beneficiary on its blog (sunetric.com/blog) and Facebook page (facebook.com/sunetricsolar), and is raising awareness by giving away prizes throughout February and March, including 13 iPod Shuffles, and a grand prize microbrew kit and stereo cooler.

The Brewers Festival raises funds for environmental, educational and cultural causes, donating $475,000 over the past 16 years to Big Island charitable organizations. This year’s beneficiaries include: The Aloha Performing Arts Company; ACF Chefs de Cuisine Kona Kohala Chapter; Hawaii Montessori School at Kona; Honaunau Elementary School; Hualalai Academy; Innovations Public Charter School; Kealakehe Project Grad; the Donkey Mill Art Center; Kona Historical Society; Kona Pacific Public Charter School; the Peoples Advocacy for Trails Hawaii; the Society for Kona’s Education and Art; and the Na Wai Iwi Ola Foundation.

“This is Sunetric’s third year serving as the Community Champion Sponsor of the festival,” said Sunetric CEO Alex Tiller. “We are proud to help put a spotlight on these vital Big Island organizations that contribute so much to our communities, and also educate the public about solar technologies.”

Sunetric has donated $30,000 in the past three years of the festival. The company will also provide the popular Watt Wheels mobile solar energy station – a bright blue Honda Element that has been retrofitted with three 230-watt SunPower modules – to power one of the festival’s stages. Watt Wheels is provided at events as a community service by Sunetric.

“We couldn’t host the Kona Brewers Festival without the generous continuing support of Sunetric and other sponsors,” said Kona Brewers Festival Executive Director Kate Jacobson. “Each year, Sunetric steps up and provides the seed money to get things rolling for this extraordinary community celebration and benefit.”

Solar Beer Production

Sunetric is committed to brewing with solar power. In 2010, Sunetric installed a 229-kilowatt (kW) solar energy system for Kona Brewing Company, which started the Brewers Festival in 1996. The system now offsets nearly half of the annual energy consumption at the company’s Kailua-Kona flagship brewery and pub. The brewery is the first in Hawaii to produce beer using solar power, and has one of the largest solar arrays of any craft brewer in the United States.

The Kona Brewing Company solar array has:

• Produced 314,563 pints, or 2,537 kegs, of hand-crafted brew to date.
• Produced enough wattage to power 76 average residences each day.
• Conserved 734 barrels of oil to date; the equivalent of 4,498 trips around the Big Island.
• Prevented 691,132 pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere – the equivalent of taking 2,425 mid-sized cars off the road.
• Saved Kona Brewing Company $209,416 in electric costs in 2011 alone.

Pacific Business News is reporting that the HSEA has announced their new board of directors, with Sunetric’s own special project manager Gabriel Chong as President.

After a shakeup in the Hawaii Solar Energy Association’s leadership that included the ouster of board President Mark Duda, the trade group has announced its 2012 board of directors.

Board members are:

• President Gabriel Chong, who is special projects manager for Sunetric

…

Read more.

Sunetric rallies with fellow solar companies in opposition to HB 2417

Kailua, HI – Sunetric, Hawaii’s leading solar design and installation company, joins fellow local solar companies and renewable energy organizations in their opposition against House Bill 2417, which will limit the number of claimable renewable energy technology system tax credits. Sunetric employees will be joining industry representatives in opposing HB 2417 which is scheduled to be heard by the House of Representatives’ Finance Committee at 2pm today.

“At a time when Hawaii’s solar industry is expanding, House Bill 2417, in its current form proposes changes that are too abrupt for both residential and commercial customers,” said Sunetric CEO Alex Tiller. “Additionally, reducing the impact of renewable technology credits will negatively impact future investments by residents and local companies in renewable energy.”

House Bill 2417, House Draft 1 currently proposes to do the following:

1. Limit the claimable tax credit for each subject tax map key\
2. Allow nonresidential tax map keys to claim a tax credit instead of commercial properties
3. Change the tax credit cap for photovoltaic solar energy systems on each nonresidential tax map key number to $1,500 per kilowatt for the first 300 kilowatts and unspecified amount per kilowatt for the next 4,700 kilowatts

“We are just now getting traction and becoming successful in reducing this state’s dependence on imported oil, and the result of being successful in our efforts to date has been explosive job growth and increased tax revenues to the state. This proposed legislation is contrary to two of the state’s most important goals,” said Tiller.

Honor and integrity are integral guiding principles at Sunetric. As the company’s CEO, I feel it is equally important to step up and assume responsibility when a mistake is made.

Earlier this year, we mistakenly submitted our 2011 sales figure of $132 million instead of our revenue figure which is $42 million, for PBN’s annual survey of photovoltaic providers. Both figures are important in measure success as revenue indicates last year’s results and sales is a good indicator of forthcoming revenue.

Fortunately, our ranking was based on the accurately reported installed kilowatts metric, and not financial measures. It is important to use that we don’t misrepresent ourselves, or our industry, so I want to personally take this opportunity to formally apologize to the team at PBN and to the paper’s readership for the error. It was not intentional. It was genuinely a mistake which I am deeply embarrassed by.

In 2004, Sunetric was founded on the belief that people should leave the world a much better place than how they found it and that the company would strive to build a more sustainable, energy-independent future for us all. We are devoted to these ideals and believe our values contribute to our rapid growth and continued success. Sunetric is continuing to blaze ahead as the industry leader here at home and now on the U.S. Mainland. No matter how big the company gets, or how far it goes, Sunetric will continue working to make the world a better place, which includes being the first to admit when a mistake has been made and then setting forth to correct it.

Sunetric’s mainland expansion was profiled in the Friday, February 24, 2012 edition of the Washington Business Journal. The article can be read by subscribers on the Washington Business Journal website, and we’ve included the full text of the piece is below:

Bill Flook, Staff Reporter

Sunetric Inc., Hawaii’s biggest homegrown clean energy company, is establishing a District presence as part of a broader expansion onto the continental U.S..

The Kailua-based company, which already does substantial business with the U.S. military in Hawaii, is setting up shop in D.C. to capture a greater share of federal contracts.

“We think that’s a good sweet spot for us, from a growth standpoint,” said Sunetric CEO Alex Tiller, who cited clean energy mandates for Defense Department facilities as a potential source of contracts.

Sunetric has 140 employees in its Hawaiian headquarters and only a handful in its D.C. branch.

The solar company has also set up offices in Denver and Pittsburgh, which is serving as its launching ground for East Coast commercial operations, Tiller said.

The company designs and builds roof-mounted photovoltaic installations for homes, businesses and government buildings.

“We know that energy is on the minds of our government,” Tiller said. “We know that there is going to be a large federal market in the solar space over the next five years.”

President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget, for example, carves out $27.2 billion for the Energy Department, including $6.7 billion on clean energy programs and cash grants for wind and solar companies.

Sunetric is, however, stepping into a tougher political climate for federal clean energy spending after the collapse of solar panel maker Solyndra LLC, which put taxpayers on the hook for $535 million in loan guarantees.

Though, Tiller said, Solyndra “is proof positive that the federal government isn’t trying to pick particular technologies.”

Sunetric’s continued and marked success over eight years in business was profiled in the Business Briefs section of the Saturday, February 18, 2012 edition of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Kailua-based Sunetric, one of Hawaii’s leading renewable energy and solar installation companies, said sales in 2011 rose fivefold to $132 million from a year earlier. Sunetric said it was the company’s strongest year since launching in 2004.

“By focusing on exceptional customer service and the use of the most efficient and affordable photovoltaic modules, we anticipate continued strength in 2012, especially with our expansion to the mainland U.S.,” said Sunetric CEO Alex Tiller.

Sunetric recently became the first and exclusive Hawaii dealer of Suniva, considered one of the most affordable and efficient photovoltaic systems available.

In November, Sunetric opened three new mainland offices in Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh and Denver. Due in part to this expansion, as well as continued growth in Hawaii, the company expects to have 240 full-time employees by the end of 2012, a 71 percent increase from its current 140 employees.

Sunetric installed 505 residential and 42 commercial photovoltaic systems in 2011, which are estimated to generate 45,911 kilowatt-hours daily, totaling $2.3 million in savings per year, bringing its total customer savings for 2011 to $12 million.

Sunetric recently installed its sixth PV system on an auto dealership in the state and second BMW location. The 153-kilowatt solar array at BMW’s 777 Kapiolani Blvd. location will generate more than 21,000 kilowatt hours of energy per month and offset 20 percent of the dealership’s electrical use, saving an estimated 420 barrels of oil annually.

The article may also be read on the Star-Advertiser website.

Sunetric was mentioned and CEO Alex Tiller was quoted in the front-page article of the Friday, February 17, 2012 edition of Pacific Business News. The article centers around the adjustments being made by local PV companies in response to the potential tariff on Chinese-made silicon modules and cells:

The U.S. Department of Commerce could enact a tariff on Chinese-made silicon modules and cells as soon as next month that would raise the price of the raw material used for photovoltaic panels by as much as 200 percent. As a result, many Hawaii PV contractors are considering new panel suppliers, and some industry leaders say any increase in prices or disruption of crucial materials will slow the state’s fastest-growing industry.

Sunetric CEO Alex Tiller explained Sunetric’s position:

“Right now we do not offer Chinese-made panels,” said Alex Tiller, CEO of Sunetric, the state’s largest PV provider, according to PBN research. “We pulled back because of this issue, and we have such a variety of other panels we offer.” The dispute began last year when some U.S. PV manufacturers accused Chinese companies of getting subsidies from their government that resulted in unfair competition.

Tiller was also quoted later in the article:

For Kailua-based Sunetric, it expects the tariff to be a nonissue for the local market, except for larger-scale utility work. “Our energy prices in Hawaii are high enough that price parity can be achieved with non-Chinese panels, unlike on the Mainland where they have to have the cheapest panel,” Tiller said. “We’re quite fortunate here that it shouldn’t be a problem, as we have always been a fan of carrying an American-made product.”

The article may be read in full here.

Sunetric was mentioned as a leader in Hawaiian Island solar at the outset of this article about record-setting solar and PV installation and revenues by Lynn Nakagawa in the Friday, February 17, 2012 edition of Pacific Business News.

Hawaii’s solar-energy industry had its best year ever in 2011 as the state’s top 25 photovoltaic providers installed about 44,000 kilowatts of solar power, more than double what was reported in 2009.

Revenue also increased by up to 400 percent from 2010 to 2011 for companies such as Sunetric, one of Hawaii’s largest photovoltaic system providers. Sunetric’s revenue increased from $24 million in 2010 to $132 million last year.

The article may be read in full here.

Successful Urban Corps Program continues

Kailua, HI – February 1st, 2012 – Kupu is proud to announce that Sunetric, Hawaii’s leading solar design and installation company, will continue sponsoring solar installation training for corps members of Kupu’s programs. Kupu seeks to train and educate Hawaii’s youth in the growing green job sector. Having completed orientations on product safety and installation protocol, corps member will be on site all day (8am to 4pm) with Sunetric installation teams on the following days:

• February 1st: Whole Sale Unlimited in Waipahu
• February 8th: residential apartment complex in Makiki
• February 16th: residential apartment complex in Makiki
• February 29th: Pacific Fish Instruction off of Nimitz Highway

If you’re interested in doing a site visit, please contact Laura Poirier, Sunetric Marketing Coordinator, at 262-6600 ext. 233.

This partnership will run until May 11, 2012. Kupu and Sunetric launched a pilot program last year, with Sunetric donating materials and staff time to run weekly labs that introduced corps members to a range of job opportunities at Sunetric, from initial sales to actual installations. After corps members gained foundational skills, they joined Sunetric field crews to assist with residential and commercial installations.

“Kupu is excited to be continuing our partnership with Sunetric,” said Kupu Executive Director John Leong. “Our pilot partnership last year with Sunetric revealed numerous benefits for our corps members including character building as well as on the job skills training; we thank Sunetric for their commitment and look forward to another successful year.”

“Sunetric continues to explore opportunities to invest in our local community” said Sunetric CEO Alex Tiller. “Partnerships with organizations like Kupu is especially important because while we’re providing real life jobs training for corps members, we’re also educating them about the importance of creating a clean, renewable energy future for Hawaii.”

Sunetric is currently conducting a weekly job training class that consists of 10 youth from Kupu programs. The youth receiving this training are being educated on the installation of photovoltaic panels. Members from Kupu’s Urban Corps and Youth Energy Assessment Hawaii (YEAH) programs are gaining a unique experience through this Sunetric training. Provided that positions are available, there may be the possibility of employment when the class is completed.

Kailua, HI — January 31st, 2012 — Sunetric (sunetric.com), Hawaii’s first Elite SunPower dealer, is now offering Hawaii homeowners the planet’s most powerful solar for $0 down. With the SunPower Lease, now available through Sunetric, homeowners can go solar and start saving on their electricity bill immediately without a large up-front expense.

SunPower Lease is made possible through funding from Citi, the leading global financial services company with approximately 200 million customer accounts in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Because SunPower has over 25 years of experience and a proven record of industry leadership, homeowners can rest assured knowing they will have the best solar technology from one of the most financially stable solar companies in the world powering their home.

SunPower Lease Benefits

• Homeowners are having the planet’s most powerful solar, installed on their home- backed by a financially sound, stable company that is the number one choice of U.S. homeowners and businesses.
• System maintenance, insurance and performance is guaranteed by SunPower.
• Low monthly payments with a zero down option.
• Option to buy your system after six years or at the end of your lease term.
• Most offer the ability to expand your system later to meet your future energy needs (electric vehicles, home addition).
• Flexible end of lease options: Renew the lease, purchase the system, or request removal at no cost.
• Professional installation with the highest standard of quality and customer service from Hawaii’s largest locally owned and operated solar company

In order for Sunetric to earn their Elite Dealer title, they achieved a 90% or greater customer satisfaction scores on past installations and successfully completed two advanced certification courses in topics such as the installation and design of SunPower products. Sunetric has demonstrated its dedication to customer service with fast turnaround on customer inquiries, customer satisfaction tracking, and a post- installation site inspection program.

“SunPower Elite Dealers are selected for their commitment to providing customers with outstanding service in delivering the most efficient and reliable solar technology available today,” said SunPower President Jim Pape. “Together, Sunetric and SunPower Elite Dealers are raising the bar in the solar industry with unparalleled, high quality products and services.”