Sunny Side Up: Springfield company reaches upward to generate business

Nathan Jones is basking in the glow of a new Missouri law he’s sought after since entering the solar power business a decade ago.

In late June, Gov. Matt Blunt signed a broad piece of legislation designed to cut pollution and encourage various forms of renewable energy. But for Jones, who owns and operates Springfield-based Power Source Solar Inc., the focal point of Senate Bill 54 is the Net Metering and Easy Connection Act.

Much to his delight, the act has legitimized – or more importantly, legalized – the practice of selling solar energy back to utility companies and electric cooperatives, known as net metering. Installing solar panels that generate enough electricity to run the meter backward is sweet revenge for Jones, who has long squabbled with utility officials over technical nuances of connecting his customers to the power grid.

“The utilities have just closed ranks,” he said.

But the business climate seems to be improving for solar companies. Power Source Solar recently installed a 2,000-watt, grid-tied system at a 2,800-square-foot getaway home on 26 wooded acres near Bellair, south of Boonville. The home is owned by Kansas City pulmonologist Everett Murphy.

“In building this house, we thought whatever we could do to reduce our energy utilization would be to our benefit and to other people’s benefits,” said Murphy, 62.

Jones believes Murphy’s residential solar power system will be the first to hook up to a grid in Missouri under the new law, and Jones is hopeful it will “net out” when activated this fall.

“The goal is to net out your electrical footprint,” Jones said. “It’s not common, but it’s doable.”

Seeking a solar solution

Murphy hired Power Source Solar to install the $18,000, 16-panel system, but tracking down the company took some work.

In November, Murphy and wife Corva began researching solar-panel systems and companies that install them. The trail of phone calls and e-mails eventually led them to Jones.

“Immediately, it was obvious that Nathan knew a lot about a lot,” Murphy said.

But Jones wasn’t always so knowledgeable about solar power. In the 15 years before he started Power Source Solar, 2026 W. Vista Ave., Ste. A, Jones was a life insurance agent who sold pension plans. Then, in 1997, he experienced a rolling blackout while traveling by RV in Oregon.

Upon returning to Missouri, Jones read that energy deregulation behind the blackouts on the West Coast was coming to Missouri. He promptly quit the insurance business, read everything he could find about solar power, and applied what he had learned by installing a “guerilla solar” system at his home near Fellows Lake north of Springfield. A decade and dozens of solar panels later, the system is still working.

Murphy said he’s been impressed with Jones’ professionalism and the quality of work by Power Source Solar, a Kyocera Solar Panel distributor. Although the system was expensive, the Murphys emphasize the long-term benefits of solar technology.

“If you expect to pay yourself back in the next five years or so, I think that would be the wrong thing to do,” Murphy said. “It’s really something where you want to have less of an imprint on this society. So anybody that can afford to do it, I think, has some social obligation to do it.”

The ability to independently generate electricity pays off the first time an extended power outage occurs, Jones said, pointing to the historic January ice storm that paralyzed the Ozarks.

“All the people that laughed at me for the last 10 years showed up for a shower, something to eat, to warm up,” he said.

Business behind the door

Jones views the net metering law as a door that’s been locked for years, keeping his company from a wealth of business opportunities in the residential market.

In the late 1990s, Power Source Solar rode the Y2K paranoia wave, installing solar panels for people hunkering down in the Ozarks and “hiding for the end of the world,” Jones said.

After the turn-of-the-century scare passed, Jones turned his attention to overhauling dangerous owner-installed systems done by amateurs. And when business really began to wane, Power Source Solar began manufacturing solar-powered boat docks. Batteries in the marine units, which retail for $3,000 to $5,700 plus installation costs, have a six-hour storage capacity of at least 5,280 watts.

Power Source Solar has installed thousands of the solar boat dock units, primarily in the Midwest. Jones said units kept the company afloat when residential installation projects were rare.

The upfront cost of the technology and hassle of dealing with utility companies that require engineering and feasibility studies before allowing a grid connection have long been obstacles, he said. But more people are considering solar power these days, said Jones, who attributed the curiosity to a combination of rising utility costs, media coverage of renewable energy options and old-fashioned self-reliance.

Despite the challenges, 2006 was a banner year for Power Source Solar, which now has four full-time employees. Jones estimated annual revenues were around $700,000 last year, noting that his wife, Comilla, keeps the books. He hopes to add two more full-time staff members and possibly a part-time employee soon.

The company, which is preparing to expand its business nationwide, is building a manufacturing facility in Fordland and expects to start working out of the new location early next year.

Net Metering vs. Tax Credits

Net metering requirements weren’t always a part of state Sen. Chris Koster’s renewable energy bill.

Koster, a Kansas City Democrat who recently left the Republican Party, said utility companies and electric co-ops originally shunned the idea two years ago. But when the net metering concept resurfaced earlier this year, Koster said investor-owned utilities helped craft the language for an amendment offered by Sen. Joan Bray, D-St. Louis.

Bray said she suggested to Koster that her amendment might make his bill, which lacked mandates, more attractive.

“And (the utility companies) didn’t really oppose it, so we kind of seized on that,” she said.

Koster said state lawmakers ultimately decided net metering was a better approach than a solar power tax credit, a provision included in the bill’s first incarnation.

“Expanding net metering in the long run is the best avenue we have to promote solar panel usage,” he said. “Tax credit policy in this area is largely symbolic.”[[In-content Ad]]