“The technology has come leaps and bounds from the 80s and 90s,” says Dan Conant of Solar Holler. (Photo: Dawid Zawiła)
Perhaps surprisingly, much of West Virginia enjoys about 85 percent as much sunlight as Miami, Florida, which means it’s ideally suited to solar energy use, says the founder and CEO of West Virginia-based Solar Holler.
Thanks to technological advances, Dan Conant says solar energy is now an affordable and viable option for many residents of the Mountain State.
An installation at Kenova takes advantage of sunny conditions in the Ohio Valley.
“The technology has come leaps and bounds from the ’80s and ’90s,” Conant said, though he emphasizes that each solar install depends on various factors.
“The exact numbers depend, of course, on where you are, shading, what angle your roof is pointing—all those different variables,” he said.
Solar Holler’s team creates 3D models of every rooftop they work on for those interested in switching to solar energy.
“I’m really proud of our team for what we do,” Conant said. “If someone says, ‘Hey, I’m interested in seeing what this could look like for me,’ we will create a 3D model of your roof, the chimneys, the trees, nearby buildings and hillsides and mountains.”
Rooftop panels take advantage of solar energy on a home in north-central West Virginia. (Photo courtesy Teresa Pershing)
After the model is created, the team will run sunlight simulations so they know where the sun is every hour of every day of the year. They also study how the shading of nearby obstacles impacts how much sunlight will hit every square inch of the roof at every hour of the year.
“Then we run that through all of our electrical simulations so that we know exactly how much energy your system is going to produce as we’ve designed it,” Conant said.
While not every home may be a good candidate—a cabin situated in the middle of the forest, for example—Solar Holler is still able to give precise models and analyses for what the financial impacts will be, to put that information in front of folks to let them decide if that’s what they want to pursue, Conant said.
A Solar Holler crew installs panels on the Atlas Building.
Headquartered in Shepherdstown with other offices and bases in Huntington, Parkersburg, Fayetteville, and Morgantown, Solar Holler’s employees live and work in West Virginia, building solar projects all across the state.
Conant said he is proud that Solar Holler unionized its crews in 2020. They’re members of the IBEW electrical union.
“That’s just huge from the state’s perspective, putting electricians to work and keeping jobs local—they’re also union jobs,” he said.
Aside from job creation—Solar Holler …….