Third Sun: Alumni find success in solar

By Samantha Pirc

Do you see solar power becoming more popular in the next few years?

It is definitely becoming more mainstream. When we started, we were sort of the oddballs. You see solar power a lot more in the news. We built our (own) house off the grid. We are all solar power; we don’t use coal power at all. We built our house out of local materials, and it’s very efficient. The financial payback is very good. Solar panel prices are going down, and regular traditional energy prices are going up.

Now that Third Sun has expanded, do you have more free time or less?

Less. We’ve gotten more business, and the industry as a whole is growing. Plus, we have two kids.

Is the company your “third son”?

We picked the name because we knew the business would need lots of nurturing and care to raise it up. We have gotten it to the point — this is an actual business term — where we are in the adolescent stage. We aren’t full grown, we aren’t big, but we aren’t kids anymore. It needs different attention than it did when we were first starting.

As the company grows, have you considered moving to a larger city?

We already have sales people in Cincinnati and Columbus. We are just solidifying our presence there. I don’t know if we will have a brick-and-mortar presence. ... Sometimes it’s tempting. I go to Cincinnati to visit my family, and I drive through industrial parks, and they would be perfect (for us). But we don’t want to move there ourselves.

So is it really sunny enough here for solar power?

We have more solar charging hours in Ohio than in Germany, and Germany is the leader in using solar power. Solar power works no matter where you are. It is a matter of economics and number of panels.  You need fewer panels in California and more in Ohio... People get a sense that it’s cloudy here, but when you look at the whole year, we have enough sun! Our house is living proof of that.

Posted 12-15-09