Mr. Sun Solar takes solar to the roof

John Patterson animatedly demonstrates the solar systems within his net-zero office and manufacturing building in North Portland, moving briskly from the hot water storage tank to the tubular skylights to the 33-panel grid-tie PV system.

President of solar panel enterprise Mr. Sun Solar, Patterson has, like the rest of those in the solar industry, spent 2008 anxiously awaiting installation-incentive programs to be renewed by Congress. (The recent economic bailout bill, passed Oct. 1 by the House, included an eight-year extension of the Solar Investment Tax Credit.) 

Patterson has weathered the storm before: When starting Mr. Sun Solar in 1980, the solar industry was growing rapidly, buoyed by laws enacted during the Carter administration that offered tax credits and other incentives. By 1983, Mr. Sun Solar was moving 100 systems per year.

Everything came to a screeching halt in 1985, when President Reagan abandoned the incentive program. The Oregon chapter of the Solar Energy Industries Association went from approximately 40 members to three.

Patterson says he survived the lean years by retaining his real estate license and servicing the dozens of solar systems that had been “orphaned” by out-of-business installers. During that time he developed ideas for improvement—including his existing patent for the first PV-powered drain-back system. By the mid-1990s things were back on track—Mr. Sun Solar continued to install hot-water systems, and added PV systems. Soon, the company was again seeing 100 annual installations in a flourishing industry. Patterson projects that in 2008, the company will install about 150 new systems, mostly in the Portland/Vancouver, Wash., area.

But it hasn’t been easy. Patterson’s role has evolved from technician to ambassador in order to address other recent road bumps: a net-metering challenge by Pacific Power and a specialty-license challenge by the plumbers and electricians unions. Aside from frequent trips to the state capital to lobby for the solar industry, Patterson does public outreach by visiting schools and teaching solar-related courses.