Andrew Breiter-Wu has been in the solar industry since high school. He has worked for some of the largest solar firms in the world — Tesla, SolarCity, SunRun and Next Step Living.
While he loved helping people address local energy challenges, he noticed that a lot of the companies he worked for were constantly turning customers away due to poor rooftops, too much shading or complications with condominium associations.
Now, Breiter-Wu is on a mission to bring solar to any homeowner, renter, nonprofit or business that seeks the power of the sun.
His company Breiter Planet Properties is an early stage project development and solar project origination company that helps people overcome the obstacles making it difficult to install solar panels.
“But if we can scale a little quicker, that will allow us to properly serve our partners and properly serve our customers.”
This means helping property owners with any initial struggles, such as roof challenges and financing issues, and then helping them sift through the thousands of solar developers available and choose the best one for their specific project.
“We package the project up and send it to our solar development partners to take it over, but we remain customer-facing at all times,” Breiter-Wu told Rhode Island Inno. “There are thousands of solar development companies in the market. It is very intimidating from the property owner’s perspective and we work with them to figure out best developer to go with.”
The company begins by doing an initial consultation to collect details and answer questions. It then will spend two to three weeks doing an analysis of the property, which includes assessing a property’s energy usage, selecting the best option and development partner and beginning the financial modeling for the project.
The Breiter Planet team then puts together a proposal, makes revisions based on customer feedback and begins the implementation process, also known as the development cycle, which can take anywhere from 12 to 24 months.
The company launched in January 2017 after Breiter Wu, a civil engineering major, dropped out of college early because he knew this was the kind of work he wanted to do long-term.
“I really felt passionate about the affordable housing, nonprofits and businesses that mainstream solar was not going after because it was not as profitable for them,” he said. “There were a ton of interest from small businesses and I felt really bad that we couldn’t help them because Tesla and SolarCity both had a target demographic; that cream-of-the-crop-type customers.”
In just under two years, Breiter Planet has made a lot of progress.
The company has over 50 projects in its pipeline. Most of its business is currently in New England, but Breiter-Wu said the company also sees a lot of interest in Southern California, where the climate is really good for solar and energy is expensive. Most new business is being generated from referrals from property owners and solar developers, he said.
The company has built up its workforce to several interns, two directors and three energy consultants. But Breiter-Wu is most proud of the fact that the company is sticking to its mission and helping those who once couldn’t access solar.
For example, one project that Breiter Planet properties is in the process of completing is at a condominium association in New Bedford, Mass. with mostly of lower-income residents. Breiter Planet is installing an energy-efficient roof on the building that will eventually house panels the association can sell electricity from.
Breiter-Wu said property owners don’t pay anything for their services; instead the company collects a commission from the solar developer chosen for the job.
With its model showing success, Breiter-Wu said the company is currently in fundraising mode so it can scale and hire more energy consultants and project managers.
“There is an unlimited amount of solar capital that wants to go into solar assets. I am repping developers and financiers. They are emailing everyday; they are in my inbox; they are calling me; they want projects,” he said. “But if we can scale a little quicker, that will allow us to properly serve our partners and properly serve our customers.”
