Pros
This is a small, but reactive company that has been able to navigate through the fast-paced technological intricacies as well as the complex political environment that exists in the US solar market. All-in-all, this company is poised nicely to become a massive presence in Texas as the industry and technology continue to mature.
°Locally owned and operated in Austin since 2006. (Partly a Woman owned business.)
°Business has been built on word-of-mouth, positive experiences of previous customers telling their friends, neighbors, and colleagues who continue the organic grass-roots .
°The active company philosophy is the concept of "ever-improvement" whereby we are given open opportunities to discuss ways of improving business. This philosophy is engaged when we meet each Tuesday to discuss the current issues/problems, improvements, and to give shout outs to those who have gone above and beyond. The result of this philosophy is an environment of embracing solutions, not pointing fingers at mistakes. This is the only company I've ever scene who does this.
°This company will be around as long as there is a need/demand for this technology and services.
°This company is organically diverse.
°This company is expanding.
°This company completed the same number of projects in 2017 as the previous five years before.
°This company is basically the Zen Garden-SEAL Team Six of solar companies and if you want to be part of the best, this is the company to work for.
Cons
No company is perfect, and there are a lot of areas in this company that could and should improve. But many of these issues are the result of the regulation environment present here in the US, and especially here in Texas.
This industry is dynamic... Technology is rapidly improving as costs consistently drop, which is why this industry is and most likely will continue to take off. BUT politics, red-tape, and special interests here in Texas, as well as in the rest of the US, prevent this from being the kind of service that is should be. These obstacles make this industry chaotic and working in this industry requires a lot of technical know-how that changes rapidly (and sometimes while no one is looking, or is aware that they should be looking). The good news is that this company and our teams excel at having the technical savvy, but in many cases these rules are interpreted differently by different jurisdictions, and indeed by different inspectors, officials, etc.. The reality of the red-tape in this industry is like the comedy writings of an HBO TV sitcom. This results in a massive increase of costs to the end-user, an increase of work for the service companies of this industry, and a greater amount of time to completion that is not seen in other countries like Australia, New Zealand, or Canada.
This company performs the installations for many of the "sales-only" solar businesses. These profit driven companies do not share the core business beliefs of Lighthouse Solar, including providing these services to benefit the customer and the customer experience. This is hypocritical and hopefully Lighthouse Solar will not need to engage with these "partners" in the future.