CIR Electric
CIR Electric (No. 218 on the upcoming 2015 Top Solar Contractors list) has worked with electricity for nearly 40 years. Recently it won a GM contract to power robots in a $1 billion engine factory overhaul. It has worked for Verizon installing backup generators at its facilities, among countless other commercial- and industrial-scale projects.
But work with solar? Between the harsh Buffalo winters and an already successful business model, the idea was slow to take off, especially within a conservative company. Despite company-wide skepticism, CIR took a leap of faith into the solar market.
It was up to CFO Jeff Pedro, renewable project coordinator Ashley Regan, business development manager Darin Harzewski and NABCEP-certified designer Tracy Almeter to convince colleagues and counterparts that solar was a sustainable business. There was risk involved, but CIR was already an established company, ready with labor, trucks and ongoing relationships with vendors.
And, Almeter said, they already knew a lot about solar technology.
“At a basic level, when you’re talking about a solar PV project, you’re talking about electricity,” Regan said. “No one thinks of it that way. [Union electricians] are laying conduit, they’re pulling wire, they’re connecting back to the grid. All of that is electrical work.”
The company’s first solar job was a 5-kW system on a net-zero home built by local organization People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH). Through an existing relationship with Natale Builders, CIR installed solar on 20 additional homes within a subdevelopment.
More recently, CIR Electric worked with national solar installers as a subcontractor, including work on a 1.1-MW project for Bausch & Lomb in Rochester, New York.
“This project was truly an eye-opening experience within CIR,” Regan said. “We were able to turn the naysayers within the company into solar yes-men.”
Three CIR employees have added solar to their own houses, including electrician David Naus. He installed a 28-panel, 7.8-kW ground-mount system in his backyard last November.
“A lot of people come over to my backyard and learn about it,” Naus said. “People didn’t understand the technology. They thought they would need batteries. They didn’t think they’d get money back from the utilities.”
Naus’ latest electric bill was $17. He said Buffalo gets as much sun as Orlando, Florida, and the cool weather is better for solar technology. It sounds like he’s sold, and so are many other skeptics at CIR Electric.
