(303) 447-0300
Publish Date: January 6th, 2025
Namaste Solar turns 20 years old next month! That is a BIG milestone in the solar industry! When we started in 2005, residential solar was still a relatively fringe idea. It’s been incredible to watch the industry, and our business, mature since then. For this year’s reflections and resolutions blog, we caught up with three of our longest standing co-owners to hear what they had to say about the current, past, and future states of the industry and Namaste Solar.
In one word, how would you describe the current state of the solar industry?
Jason Sharpe, Co-Owner and CEO: Maturing. Solar is no longer a niche or early adopter technology. It's now becoming more mainstream. For example, Xcel Energy is now planning for a close to zero carbon electricity future. And when we started, that was crazy talk.
Matt Johnson, Co-Owner and Vice President of Residential: Growing. I think the acceptance of solar and now increasing acceptance of battery storage systems is pushing the industry forward. They’re also able to push the grid forward into the next generation of power. Solar was the starting point. Now solar plus storage is that next generation, and it will help to increase the longevity of our market because it'll help take pressure off the grid and off utilities.
Teri Lema, Co-Owner and Chief of Staff: Opportunity. There’s a lot of change with how we provide energy to citizens in this country, and I think storage is an opportunity. Virtual power plants are opportunities. And there’s a lot of change coming.
In one word, how would you describe the current state of Namaste Solar?
Jason Sharpe: Evolving. I think for many years we've just been a solar company, and I feel like electrification and technology is advancing in a way that we're now evolving beyond just solar.
Matt Johnson: Maturing. We’re maturing as a business and are looking at how we can become a leaner, better business. We’re focusing on improving our internal processes and the customer experience. We’re taking the next steps in our evolution to move beyond just being a solar provider. We’re considering what the additional electrification services we can offer are, including battery storage, and asking how we fit into EV charging, home electrical updates, and other electrification. As the industry continues to evolve and change, we have to evolve and change with it.
Teri Lema: Stimulating. We are excited to see all the new technology emerge. Battery storage being a game changer.
What’s your favorite thing about working in renewable energy right now?
Jason Sharpe: I decided in 1989 that energy was one of the biggest issues for the future of humanity, and I decided to study electrical engineering. I wasn’t sure if I’d see significant change in renewable energy in my lifetime, but now I’m seeing significant change. My start in the industry was building a solar electric car. It was in 1994, and we drove that electric vehicle from the World Trade Center to the Liberty Bell. And that was considered sort of a fringe technology. Now, my family and I just bought our second electric car.
Matt Johnson: I think the adoption and interest in battery storage is exciting, and it's something that I think we're seeing finally hit a critical mass that is, in my experience, five to seven years in the making. We've started and stopped with battery storage several times. And with the latest generation of products, we're finally getting to a point where it can scale and make economic sense for lots of homeowners. Whereas before it was more of an exclusive product. So, to me that's exciting.
What’s your favorite thing about working at Namaste Solar right now?
Jason Sharpe: Our momentum. You know we've tackled so many things and we've progressed so much as an organization that we have a strong foundation that we're building from as opposed to trying to still create a foundation.
Teri Lema: The people I get to work with. Namastaliens care not only about the work we do but how we do it as a Certified B Corp and as an employee owned cooperative. Our employee-owned cooperative attracts people that want to make a difference in the work they do, and it is a delight to work together.
Do you have anything else to add about the present?
Jason Sharpe: I feel like employee ownership is having a moment right now, and I’m curious to see if now is the right time for employee ownership to emerge as an alternative. I’m excited about what that could mean.
Matt Johnson: I think overall we're in a great position. We still have a fantastic brand. We've got good operational processes. We've got good teams in place, and we're poised to take on whatever the market brings in 2025.
Looking back at the 20 years we’ve been in business, what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned from your time at Namaste Solar and in the solar industry?
Matt Johnson: I think the biggest lesson that I've learned is that I really need to listen to employees, co-owners, customers - all stakeholders - to find understanding and to then be able to work with all those different stakeholders to find solutions to whatever problem that we're trying to solve. It’s listening to understand and then trying to have empathy and understanding for where other people are coming from. I've really learned how to do this at Namaste Solar by modelling and watching our leaders who have come and gone for the last 20 years.
And then in the solar industry, the biggest take away is that this is still a really young industry, and it continues to have its ups and downs. There are some forces we can control, some forces we can't. And we have to be flexible and nimble to respond to market demands or market forces. It can change so quickly that we can make decisions and then have to make completely different decisions just a couple months later, so we have to be nimble.
Teri Lema: Blink and it will change. When we started, we were small, and we were 40-50 people. Roles weren’t as specialized as we are now. The market was nowhere near as mature as it is now, and we were really scrappy. As we've grown, we've had to adapt our values and how we run this company together to meet the size of the organization we are and the demands of the complicated solar market. We used to just be a residential solar company. It changes all the time; policy changes, products change, code changes.
What’s one thing Namaste Solar accomplished in the past 20 years that you’re really proud of?
Jason Sharpe: Converting to a worker owned cooperative is probably one of the things I’m most proud of. Working to be a business that creates more fairness in a world of capitalism, which I’ve learned is grossly unfair, feels like a very important part of our work.
Matt Johnson: The biggest thing for me is installing 13,000+ systems. My interest in joining this company originally was employee ownership and putting solar on people's roofs and helping to generate renewable energy. So, that’s the thing I continue to be really proud of, and I’m excited that we're continuing to help change the world, one rooftop or one ground mount or one carport at a time.
Teri Lema: We've been in business for 20 years as a locally-owned, employee-owned business. I read the newspaper every single day, and I can't tell you how many businesses come and they go. And we are still here. So I'm really proud of the company that we've built, the way we do business together, and that those values are still there.
What’s been the biggest challenge of the past 20 years?
Jason Sharpe: Making money. There are easier ways to make a dollar than trying to do it in the way that we’re doing it. It feels challenging to be a profitable business. If you look at the landscape of companies that were here 20 years ago, those that are still here today, and everyone that came and went in between, I’m pretty proud of the fact that we’ve maintained in this industry.
Matt Johnson: I think one of the biggest challenges that I've experienced is the amount of folks that we've had join and then leave. We attract really great people, and we have to continue to attract really great people. And then pass on that knowledge and pass on the Namaste Solar way. And so I think one of the challenges is continuing to bring new people along on the journey of what it means to organize a solar company that acts and thinks like we do. It’s important to consider how we live our core values in an ever changing, challenging market with the same zeal that we’ve always done it with.
If you could go back and talk to yourself 20 years ago, what one piece of advice would you give yourself?
Jason Sharpe: Don’t be so hard on yourself. Enjoy the present success. I feel like it’s easy to discredit the current success. If anything, it’s gotten harder. And I look back and go, “Wow, I wish I enjoyed that more.”
Matt Johnson: I think what I would tell myself is to value my time more than I did and be more focused on the goals and things I wanted to achieve. Or to have better defined goals on what I wanted to achieve. I think getting older is teaching me to not take my time or my health for granted and to make sure that I’m trying to live every day to the fullest.
Teri Lema: I don't necessarily have advice. I just think I made a really good choice to join Namaste Solar with the idealism and the big dreams that we had as a really small company. For almost 20 years I've been here, and it just has been a very positive impact.
Do you have anything else you want to add about the past?
Jason Sharpe: I’m grateful for all the people who have come and gone and contributed over our 20 years. It’s hard when people move on, and I often consider how to share appreciation for those that contributed on their journey.
Matt Johnson: I'm just really, truly grateful to the Namaste Solar founders who started this company and had the vision for an employee-owned company that is changing the world, doing solar, and doing it in the right way. It's been such a wonderful opportunity for me, personal growth wise, professional development wise. And I still continue to see new professional and personal growth and challenges every year. I've gone from being a learner on some of the basic stuff to being more of a mentor, and I’m really grateful to have that opportunity. I want to continue to keep Namaste Solar strong for another 20 years.
Teri Lema: I think it's just been quite a ride and will continue to be a ride as our country reckons with the impact on the environment that energy usage has. So I think when we look at the past and how uncertain it was when we first started and to where we are now, it's incredible. When we started, we didn’t know that making electricity from the sun was here to stay. We've tried it before. We tried electric cars before. In the 90s people had electric cars, and it didn't stick. And so I think that it has stuck now is really cool.
Where do you hope the solar/renewable energy industry will be in 20 years?
Jason Sharpe: Normalized. Less volatile. Established. Less dependent on incentives or politics. Some stability that’s greater than there has been in the past 20 years. It still feels vulnerable, like it could all be taken away, and it would be really nice to know that it can’t be taken away.
Matt Johnson: I want to see lots and lots more homes with solar on them. I think the technology is there for scaling solar and battery storage. There shouldn't be anything that's holding us back as an industry from continued 20-30% growth a year. To really make a difference, we need to accelerate that. My vision for 20 years from now is that 50% or more of the people have solar since we’re at single digit penetration now.
Teri Lema: We’re in a very pivotal moment, and I always felt like storage was the missing component. Before storage, you could only make electricity when the sun is shining. And now with the capacity to store electricity and the computing power that we have with things like smart panels and the concepts of how we can store this energy and then redistribute, it is going to be beyond anything I could imagine right now. We’re at the very beginning of something disruptive, I think.
What’s one goal you have for Namaste Solar for the next 20 years?
Jason Sharpe: That we don’t have any external investors. That we’re financially independent.
Matt Johnson: I would like us to continue to optimize our business and be able to balance all the different stakeholders that we look at. So how do we, 20 years from now continue to be profitable, outstanding in installation, a contributor to our community, and provide great customer service and support. How do we balance all those stakeholders and continue to be a viable entity? If we want to be around for 100 years, we've got to continue to work on our business and continue to provide value to our customers and the community.
Teri Lema: My one goal is that we remain an independent company owned by employees and stakeholders that are in it for something other than money. In other businesses, there’s this drive to accumulate wealth for the money, and I just don't want to be part of a business that is in business so that the shareholders make money. I mean, please make money. I'm not against it, but I think that being in business for something that is not just money is really important. I hope Namaste Solar never sells out to that, ever.
What three things from the past 20 years do you hope we carry into the next 20?
Jason Sharpe: Our connectedness and collaboration. Our focus on equity – come as you are, specifically. And our focus on our people.
Matt Johnson: High level of customer service and support is a huge thing. I hope we continue to do solar and storage. And I hope we keep our core values and our way of doing business with transparency and the co-ownership model. I think that makes us unique in the market, and I want to continue to have that uniqueness. And so how do we maintain that and keep our loyal customer base and keep drawing people to us who believe in our mission and our core values?
Teri Lema: That we continue to attract into our company people who care about the work that they do, who they do it with, and how they do it. That our brand stays strong and we continue giving our customers the same excellent customer experience that we've been known for. I think that means a lot, and I hope we never do anything at the expense of our customers to make ourselves richer.
Do you have anything else you want to add about the future?
Jason Sharpe: I believe the children are our future. Biden and Trump are both 80. That’s the last remnants of control of the baby boomers. I think there’s going to be a massive transition of power in the next decade. So that 20 years from now, I think it’ll be more different than it was 20 years ago.
Matt Johnson: My sense of the industry is that it’s here to stay, and we've hit a critical mass in the consciousness of the consumer. I think our customers continue to see value in these products. I'm excited about our future and the future of the solar industry to try to make a difference for the planet, one rooftop at a time.
Teri Lema: I hope we never settle for less than our ideals. And I mean that across the board. How we run our company, how we engage with the community, how we treat our customers. Just never settle.
