Prospects for solar power never brighter: Olive
Charlotte Business Journal - by Susan Stabley Staff writer
Chatham Olive brings the passion of environmental commitment to his job at Argand Energy Solutions. The former head of the local Sierra Club office is now vice president of marketing and business development for the Charlotte-based installer of sun- and wind-powered systems.
His involvement in finding customers for his company’s sun-powered systems was shaped by activism. Earlier this year, for example, he led Sierra Club’s efforts for the first Charlotte Clean and Green event, a series of education programs tied to Earth Day celebrations.
The change in jobs does create some awkward situations. At the Sierra Club, he advocated against regulatory approval for Duke Energy Corp.’s Cliffside coal-burning plant. Today, he’s an official for a company that works with Duke to expand the use of alternative sources of energy. But he’s finding common ground.
Olive recently spoke with the Charlotte Business Journal about the business of energy conservation and environmental issues. Following are edited excerpts from that conversation:
Tell us about Argand Energy Solutions. How has the company gained from the push for cleaner energy? What kinds of alternative-energy systems do you install and how large is your company’s footprint?
Argand Energy Solutions has 15 employees and is based in Charlotte. We doubled the growth of the company in the past year.
We do solar energy primarily. That’s solar thermal, which is hot-water systems, and also photovoltaic.
We do commercial installations and residential installations. We design and install solar energy systems.
And we do a little bit of wind. We’ve got two smaller wind projects in Charleston, S.C.
Our main geographic territories are central South Carolina, the coast of South Carolina and all of North Carolina.
Why doesn’t the company do more with wind?
There’s not that much wind in the Carolinas except in the mountains and off the coast. So our concentration is on solar.
What is your client mix? Do you have more customers for solar systems for homes or for commercial buildings?
The customer mix is about 65% commercial, institutional and governmental and about 35% residential.
What kind of commercial properties?
Like an office complex or a warehouse. We are looking at one manufacturing facility right now. Wherever there is some unobstructed roof space is where people like to see some solar. You can take a roof that’s basically a nonperforming asset that just keeps the rain out and turn it into a performing asset that makes electricity for your company for 25 years.
Why has your business picked up so much in the last year?
The utilities (Progress Energy Inc. and Duke Energy) have more progressive proposals out there, and we are bidding for a lot of that.
There’s much more interest now that the federal tax credits have been renewed and the caps on installation have been lifted.
There’s more market acceptance in general. Green is in, especially renewable energy and most especially solar. Everyone’s looking to do it.
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