Honing his troubleshooting skills

To get up to solar speed, Owsley dove deep into the documentation for the panels and battery storage systems — including Generac, SolarEdge, EnPhase and Tesla — that the company he works for, Morton Solar & Electric, has installed at more than 1,500 installation sites across southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and southwestern Indiana. 

Some solar control panels have a “knock feature” that will either reboot the inverter, or display error codes he can use to clear the problem. “I just tell them, ‘hey, knock on that panel like you’re knocking on the door,’ and lo and behold, it’d start working again.”

While much of his work now takes place from his desk in the Morton Solar main office, he’s still quick to rush into the field. He recently traveled to a home whose owners had been waiting two years to use their installed solar panels — because the previous installer screwed up the job.

“The main thing is, their installer wasn’t licensed to be doing it in that area anyway,” Owsley said. The first thing I found out was for a Generac system to work, it must be able to monitor the grid voltage, and that’s one thing they did not have hooked up.”

“I just happened to have the spare parts in the company car to make it work. If not I would have had to drive another two hours back to the office to get them,” Owsley added. He was able to get the solar panels up and running — and approved by the state inspector, who they’d made sure joined them on site — that same day.

An ounce of prevention

Owsley likes to make a site visit before the installation teams “go out there and do their thing, just to see if I can see any unforeseen problems, and just make sure every installation will get their project done smooth.”

He encourages homeowners to do their due diligence to make sure the solar installers they choose are up to the task. “First, make sure it's a reputable company, you know, do your research on them,” he said. “Has anybody else had problems with this company? Has anybody had anything good to say about them?"

Keeping customers happy

One family — who sent Owsley a batch of Christmas cookies and candy after their install — recently called to add six more panels to the dozen he installed on their roof two years ago.

The constant rise in energy bills is a big motivating factor for customers, as the local utility company has implemented two rate increases in the past four years, with another one on the way.

By comparison, Owsley said many customers who have solar with battery backup make enough energy that they don’t have to purchase any. They still have to pay the meter fee, which recently nearly doubled in price, so “they still get a $25 bill each month. But that’s better than $525,” he said. 

Brad Morton, the president and founder of Morton Solar & Electric, said every customer in the tri-state area they serve asks to use federal tax credits made available by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). He said if those credits were to be removed, “I’m sure it will harm the whole industry.” He added that he wants elected officials to understand that solar panels with a backup battery don’t just benefit the homeowners who install them — they boost the entire grid and all its customers.

“Distributed generation is really the best solution for our energy crisis, because it’s the best for the power grid. It reduces the cost to maintain the grid, and it gives homeowners self-sufficiency,” Morton said. “That’s the real problem for the monopoly industries. They don’t want the homeowners to be self-sufficient. They just want you to rely on them so they can charge you whatever they want to.”