Commercial Solar Installs in San Antonio & South Texas
You run the numbers for a business or a congregation, and you need them to hold up.
Commercial incentives for solar are strong right now, and they are the reason this is where the numbers work hardest. We design, install and electrically connect commercial systems for businesses, churches and non-profits across San Antonio and South Texas, and we guarantee what they will produce.
A commercial project is not a bigger version of a residential one. The roof is a different structure, the electrical service is a different animal, the utility interconnection is a different process, and the person signing has to justify the spend to somebody else. That last one is the part most installers are worst at, and it is why our proposals lead with production and break-even rather than with equipment brands.
What we bring to a commercial project
Businesses
A commercial roof is usually flat, unshaded and enormous, which makes it close to the ideal surface. The bill it offsets is usually enormous too.
Churches
A congregation's utility bill is money that could be doing something else. Roof space is generally not in short supply.
Non-profits
Cutting a fixed operating cost for twenty-five years is a different kind of win from a one-off donation. We will show you the arithmetic.
The guarantee matters more at this size
On a house, a badly designed array costs somebody a few hundred dollars a year. On a commercial building it can be the difference between a project that pays for itself and a capital expense that never does. We have seen solar projects that will never break even because of poor design or poor installation, and in several of those cases a smaller, properly designed system would have produced more energy for less money.
Every contractor has to file an annual production forecast with the utility supplying the rebate. We guarantee that number. We monitor production, inspect the system periodically, and if it is not performing we go and find out why. On a commercial job, where the forecast is what the whole business case rests on, that is not a marketing feature.
Occasionally on a large-scale job a client wants to tighten the forecast and strip the buffers out of the government NREL data. We are happy to do that. The original NREL figure is what the guarantee is measured against, and we will say so up front rather than after.
Everything in-house, including the electrical
Design, installation and the electrical work are all done by our own people. We are a licensed electrical contractor, TECL #27328, with a full-time master electrician on staff, and we carry workman's compensation insurance that Texas does not require. On a commercial site with a general contractor and a schedule, that means one company to coordinate rather than three.
We handle the utility rebate application, the permit and the inspection, the same as we do on a house. It is simply a larger stack of paper.
Common questions
What is a Power Generation Guarantee?
Every contractor has to file a production forecast with the utility supplying your rebate. We guarantee that number. If your system does not produce the annual kWh logged on your rebate application over the three-year guarantee period, that is on us. Most warranties come from the equipment manufacturer and are set by industry standard, not by your contractor. This one is ours.
Does that mean you are guaranteeing the weather?
No. We are guaranteeing that the system was designed and installed properly and is performing properly. Your production forecast is based on government data covering decades of weather patterns, so it would take sustained, unusual weather to move it. If that happened, it would be taken into consideration.
How long is the installation warranty?
Ten years on our installation. The common figure around San Antonio is five, because five years is all CPS Energy requires. Your system should be working for decades, so ten years of coverage is a better place to start.
How does solar affect what I pay CPS Energy?
A grid-tied system feeds your home first and sends the surplus to the grid, so you save twice: on the power you no longer buy, and on what the utility credits you for what you send back. What that adds up to depends on your usage and your system, which is what the free assessment is for.
Tell us about the property
Roof or land, home or business, and roughly what you pay CPS a month. That is enough for us to come back with something useful.
- Free, no-obligation energy assessment
- $0 down financing options available
- TECL #27328, master electrician on staff
Somebody from Advanced Solar will be in touch. If it is urgent, call (210) 556-1399.
Start saving, and lock in your utility rate for the next 25 years.
A free, no-obligation consultation and energy assessment. You get the production forecast, the cost, the value of the power and the break-even, before you commit to anything. $0 down financing is available.