DALLAS – (By Dale King, Realty News Report) – The sun is renowned for making things grow – and that includes the solar power industry itself.
Texas-based Freedom Solar Power is taking advantage of the sun’s dynamism and its own resulting progress by moving its Dallas office to a larger location in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to accommodate the company’s ongoing rapid growth.
Located at 8050 Jetstar Drive in Irving, the new Las Colinas office will be closer to the center of customer growth that Freedom is experiencing in such northern suburbs such as Coppell, Frisco, Plano, Allen and Flower Mound.
“According to Niche magazine and the Dallas Business Journal, these five areas are among the hottest Texas suburbs in which to buy a home,” said Freedom Solar CEO Bret Biggart. This conclusion, he said “is being borne out by the growth in the number of customers we are seeing in those areas.”
“So, we are moving and expanding our Dallas operations to meet the demand for solar in these areas, in addition to the entire Metroplex.”
Freedom’s new 5,462 SF facility includes 4,000 SF of warehouse space —
enough to accommodate more than 600 solar panels. Biggart said the move and enlargement will give Freedom much more robust capabilities to service the market and accelerate the company’s D-FW growth.
To further meet the Dallas market’s demands, Freedom is expanding its local team as well as its facilities. The new Las Colinas office will have a staff of 14, including a full-time operations manager, Roni Kent, and a full-time sales manager, Jason Lee. The latter joined Freedom in the fourth quarter of 2018 and quickly assembled “a dynamic sales team,” the CEO noted.
“I had significant previous experience in the solar industry and came to Freedom because I wanted to work for a company that could back up every promise it makes to its customers,” said Lee. “I truly believe in the superiority of Freedom’s product and the unparalleled professionalism of its team.”
Company officials say Freedom Solar Power is a leader in turnkey solar installations in Texas, providing high-quality, cost-effective and reliable solar solutions for the residential and commercial markets.
A Tesla Powerwall Certified installer, Freedom Solar has connected more than 55 megawatts of solar panels since 2007 and ranks number 338 on Inc. magazine’s 500 fastest-growing private companies in America.
In addition, the firm has been recognized by Austin Energy as the number-one supplier of residential solar systems in the Capital City; by GreenTechMedia as the largest residential solar installer in Texas for three years running and by the Austin Business Journal as the fourth fastest-growing company in Central Texas.
The Dallas market has contributed tremendously to Freedom’s growth this year, the CEO noted, growing from 17% of the company’s overall revenue in 2018 to 27% of revenue in the first half of 2019. It is currently the company’s second-largest revenue market.
He said Freedom is seeing its fastest growth in deregulated electricity markets – in large cities such as Dallas and Houston, where homeowners
and businesses are discovering that solar prices have decreased enough to make energy from the sun a viable, cost-effective energy alternative.
Freedom Solar’s first quarter 2019 revenue in the Dallas market doubled that of first quarter 2018 and was up 200% year-over-year in quarter 2. The firm’s second quarter 2019 revenues in the Dallas market are up 75% over first quarter 2019.
So far in 2019, Freedom has sold 1,353 kilowatts of solar power across Dallas-Fort Worth. That will produce more than two million kilowatts annually – enough to cover the electricity usage of 259 homes for a year, or the equivalent of taking 315 cars off the road for a dozen months.
Named the Regional Top Producer of the Year in 2018 by the global solar energy standard-bearer, SunPower, Freedom Solar sold some $26 million in residential and commercial projects across Texas last year.
The federal solar tax credit, also known as the investment tax credit, has been a major driver of the rapid increase in solar installations. It allows homeowners and businesses to deduct 30% of the cost of installing a new solar energy system from their 2019 federal taxes. This results in an average $6,000 savings on an average-sized $20,000 residential solar installation and $30,000 in savings for a business that purchases a $100,000 connection.
The ITC applies to both residential and commercial systems, and there is no cap on its value.
“Statewide, Freedom is on track to exceed its phenomenal 2018 sales figures in the coming year,” said Biggart.
“This year, for the first time, almost two-thirds of the company’s revenue
came from Texas markets beyond our Austin center of operations,” added Lee. “Our success in the Dallas-Fort Worth market had a lot to do with that.”
Aug. 26, 2019 Realty News Report Copyright 2019
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