Last Thursday was one of those sunny, dry spring days when hiking in the Adirondacks is most sublime.
To be frank I wish it had been pouring!
From 8 in the morning on I found myself inside the cavernous – and windowless — SUNY Plattsburgh Field House meeting fellow business owners and entrepreneurs at the 30th Annual Plattsburgh Business Expo.
Aside from signing up 8 new homeowners for our community solar project, we had a chance to refine our message as we met with smart, energetic business people who asked good questions and helped us understand our own product better.
Putting aside the weather, my Solar Farms NY colleagues and I had a terrific time. Two of us came up from our Albany office and joined two of our Plattsburgh sales people and our sales manager who lives in Burlington, Vermont. Together – along with my wife who came down from a short trip to Montreal to join us! – we spoke to at least a hundred people about the Mooers community solar farm, scheduled for construction this summer in Clinton County, just south of the Canadian border near Rouse’s Point.
It was gratifying when people who had never heard of community solar quickly grasped its benefits:
· No expensive rooftop panels
· No 20-25 year commitments
· Pay no more for electricity than NYSEG prices and possibly less
· Cancel any time without penalty.
My favorite response was from two of our “neighbors” in the aisles of booths: Sandra from W.B. Mason and Amy from the Adirondack Health Institute. When I explained that they could get solar for their homes without any up front cost, they each tilted their heads to the sky, narrowed their eyes, and looked at me like I had a bridge to sell them
“I’m a salesman,” Karen said. “You can’t put one over on me!”
Of course, it does sound too good to be true and that was probably the biggest revelation of the Expo for us. Community solar lets everybody – homeowners, renters, people with short term leases – enjoy solar without any cost or fuss.
Call it North Country Skepticism: Smart, savvy consumers who are fair but are nobody’s fools!
We explained how our solar panels generate solar electricity and sell it directly to the local utility, NYSEG, which then credits it to our members’ bills. Instead of paying NYSEG they will pay us.
I don’t think Karen, Amy or even our 8 new customers were convinced until we showed them our website and explained that NYSEG and New York State are 100% behind community solar farms as a way of increasing our renewable energy.
Happily we have already received some calls from people at the Expo who did not have a chance to visit with us and we look forward to more events like this one.
We look forward to seeing many of our new friends at the Clinton County Fair in July!
