A Sunny Solar Review of New Mexico Installer

5 STAR REVIEW

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We chose Sol Luna Solar to install our 4.8 KW system in southern Santa Fe County in the summer of 2014 because:

1. They provided us with a complete package starting with our first meet and greet with owner Mark Johnson, all the way through to going live and supplying the completed required paperwork to claim the solar credit on our Federal and State tax returns. All we had to do was write checks to Sol Luna Solar when invoiced and attach their paperwork to our tax returns.

2. We didn’t have to deal with subcontractors, PNM, local building officials, or the required paperwork because that’s all part of the Sol Luna Solar complete package. Sol Luna Solar did everything in-house, so nothing got behind schedule because a sub was tied up on another job.

Other companies we talked with, prior to our appointment with Mark, sent a sales person first, who then had to meet with the owner of the company or the local manager of a nationwide company, who then had to talk to their subcontracted electricians, installers, etc., who then had to come out, confirm the site as chosen by the sales rep and make all the necessary calculations. Scheduling and project completion dates were vague pending the availability of their subs.

Mark, on the other hand, during our meet and greet gathered all the information he needed for Sol Luna Solar to make a formal proposal. Before he left our house, he determined the best site to maximize production. All he had to do after he returned to his office, was run the numbers and prepare the proposal. We had Sol Luna Solar’s proposal within a few days.

3. Sol Luna Solar goes above code. If local code requires x and their experience for a certain part of the job tells them x+ is better, they will do x+ even if code doesn’t require it.

4. Sol Luna Solar gives good value for the price they charge. In addition to the three previous items, Sol Luna Solar’s years of experience have enabled them to know which companies manufacture the most productive and durable panels and supporting equipment compared to the price charged. On a dollar proposal to dollar proposal basis, they were more expensive than some of the other companies we talked with, but on job to job basis and what was included in their price, Sol Luna Solar provided better value to us.

5. Sol Luna Solar cares about their customers and maximizing their customers’ solar production. They don’t go for the cheapest panel or supporting equipment that gives them the highest profit margin. They want the longest-lasting, highest-producing systems for the price paid.

Even though we’d only been in New Mexico since late September 2013 and had limited electrical use data as PNM customers, Mark managed to size our system to maximize production based on the information we had and the sizing restrictions PNM imposed.

At the time we were considering solar in 2014, there were concerns as to whether: (1) the State of New Mexico’s solar fund would have enough money to pay solar tax credit claims through the end of 2014 or beyond, (2) whether Congress would renew the expiring Federal solar tax credit, and (3) how much more PNM was going to reduce what it gave solar customers. We decided it was better to have a slightly undersized system that received current PNM credits and that could be partially paid for by State and Federal solar tax credits. The amount of solar tax credits we received along with PNM’s REC credit were larger than any electricity savings that would be generated by a slightly larger system installed down the road where there were none of these credits. We couldn’t have afforded the system without the State and Federal tax credits.

After our first meeting with Mark Johnson, we cancelled the initial and/or the follow-up appointments we had with other companies. Mark Johnson was our solar guy and Sol Luna Solar was our solar company.