News > Solar in Maryland Made Easy: Ryan’s Solar Switch Success Story

Solar in Maryland Made Easy: Ryan’s Solar Switch Success Story

• Stories

August 22, 2024

Solar United Neighbors sat down with Ryan in Gaithersburg, MD to learn more about his recent experience going solar through the Fall 2023 Capital Area Solar Switch Program. Read on to learn more about Ryan’s journey.

This solar story was transcribed from a live interview recording. Photo credit: Gayatri D.Malhotra

How did you hear about Solar Switch? 

I had been interested in putting up solar for a while. I think the Capital Area Switch program was what got me over the hump because I signed up for that to find out more. Signing up didn’t cost me anything, and it gave me the nudge that I needed. I think people have busy lives and it’s a hard thing to ask someone to do the research that they have to do. If they want to do it right there’s a lot to learn and a lot of research to do and signing up through that program gave me the nudge that I needed to go through with that part of it. 

Also, the gentleman at Solar Energy World that I talked with did such an incredible job of walking me through a 101 course of everything that I needed to know and answering all my questions. Between him and Energy Sage, I felt like I went through a crash course. 

What was your motivation to go solar? 

I would say my motivation for going solar was climate change related. I certainly saw ads all the time that would say “you can save money with solar,” but I don’t know how much attention I paid to those. For me, my interest in going solar was really about addressing climate change. Now, I try to explain to people, like my friends and family, that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), took solar from making sense financially to a no-brainer. Before that, my panels would have cost $22,000 to $23,000, but they were $15,000 instead because of the IRA tax credit. That made it so that my solar payment over the course of 10 years, even with the high interest rate, is about 15 to 20% cheaper than I was paying for electricity on average. And that’s electricity in 2023. Forget about what I would be paying for electricity in 2030. Then on top of that, I’ve got two electric vehicles (EVs), so I’m powering them with free sunshine. That is what I try to impress upon other people: the financial incentive is very compelling, as well as the appeal of addressing climate change. 

How was your experience with the installer? Could you share a bit about what that process was like? 

The good points were the comprehensiveness with which their rep explained everything I needed to know.  There was so much that I didn’t understand, like, how much I might expect the array to produce, or what the microinverters were or how they worked. The initial conversation I had with him was over an hour so that I could go through all the different questions I had. He did such a good job helping me with the research. They made it really easy. I’m in sales, so I understand the idea of selling without selling and I thought they did a really good job of that. I thought the turnaround time was reasonably quick, but I think I might’ve just been lucky with that. 

Would you recommend Solar Switch to others who are considering going solar? 

Yes. The biggest take away to me was that it saved money off of what the installer would have quoted me otherwise. Also, when I was researching solar on my own, there were one or two price points that seemed either too good to be true or straight up sketchy. However, the fact that the installer Solar Switch used has been around for two decades or so was encouraging. I wanted to know that I was going with an installer that is going to be around 10 to 15 years down the road. So the trust factor and price point were the best parts of this program, for me. 

Since going solar, have you participated in any solar advocacy? 

I took a course through Rewiring America to become a Home Electrification Coach. My whole goal for going through that course was to help friends, family, people in the community make the energy transition over time. The more that I espouse it, I have people coming and asking me about it. It’s hard for me to know what to tell them because most people don’t want to think about their utilities. If they can find a way to save money on them, awesome. If it helps the climate emergency out, great. But the idea of figuring out your electric loads currently and learning about different technical elements is hard for most folks, and all it’s geeky stuff. At the beginning of my process to go solar, I was not prepared for it. A lot of it went right over my head, so I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to talk to other people about it, too. 

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