Solar Alternatives in New England

When people ask me what I do for work, it is hard to come up with an answer. I work for a company who subcontracts work for several other larger companies, and we are doing something different every day.

The short answer I usually give people is just "solar", because I mainly work on jobs for a large solar contractor, and it also feels good to say it, rather than simply "construction".

I think it's pretty universal knowledge that the majority of people do not like the aesthetics of solar installs. It's an issue I hear time and time again. We mainly do residential systems, and the homeowner has often vented to me about what a difficult decision it was to make, how he/she had wanted it hidden somewhere on their property out of their eyesight, etc. So we have started building alternatives.

These timber structures were engineered with the intent of them being carports. Unfortunately, as I look through my phone, I realized I do not have a lot of photos of the finished products, but I am posting the ones I do have. As I said, the initial intent for these products was for people to park their cars under; however, customers have done all sorts of things with them, from patios(the first picture; that place became one hell of a lunch spot) to stone pizza ovens imported from Italy. We have also done a handful of larger commercial jobs for coffee companies and hotels.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the sites after all the panels have been put on and the grass has had a chance to regrow. I think this is because of my own personal stigma that they look better sans-panels(somewhat hypocritical to the reason I'm writing this, but still).

My point is simply to share that there are alternatives for solar to those ugly aluminum and steel racking systems(which I also install) or putting holes in your roof. My iPhone pictures do not do them justice, but these alternatives really can be quite beautiful. As of now, we work solely within our state, but I hope it will spread and I would love to see some examples of alternatives elsewhere. Thank you for your time :)