Joining the growing solar market

By Emma Peterson.

Whether you want to start a solar division or partner with a solar company, SRS Distribution can get you the resources you need.

In 2024, the U.S. Energy Information Association forecasted that “U.S. solar power generation will grow 75% from 163 billion kilowatthours (kWh) in 2023 to 286 billion kWh in 2025.” With this rise in popularity and interest, the solar market has expanded rapidly, with no sign of slowing down. For many roofing contractors out there, this is a lucrative opportunity to expand their service offerings. But finding a place to start can be a challenge. In this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Heidi J. Ellsworth sits down with Jess Cress, branch manager of SRS Distribution’s Athens, Georgia location and Bill Eitenmiller, director of solar sales for SRS Distribution, to talk about how SRS is helping roofing contractors expand into solar.  

There are two main ways that contractors can get involved in solar. The first is becoming vertically integrated by building their own solar division withing their company. Bill explained, “These companies want to do it on their own, they want to bootstrap it, figure it out and hire an electrician. They control their own destiny and they want to do everything underneath their name and we're going to support that.” Starting a solar department is a large undertaking, but it’s one that SRS is there to help contractors start! Jess explained a bit of how they help contractors interested in taking on solar themselves, saying, “We can connect these contractors with someone that we're already talking to, servicing, have a partnership with. Some guys are actually setting up training programs as we speak. They have people coming in and training them on how to go from 0 to 100.”

The other option is to partner with a separate solar company. Bill shared a bit about how SRS supports this option, saying, “We have some partnerships out there with folks that effectively help them close those deals as either passing off a lead and they get a little piece of the pie or they can get taught how to do the sales component and then kind of work with this other organization on the side, so there's a number of pathways to get through this.” This makes it so that a contractor in the field can bring solar to the customer, even if they don’t have their own solar department.  

Read the transcript or Listen to the podcast to learn more about how SRS is helping contractors expand into the solar energy sector.