Why solar still matters in a changing energy landscape

By Jenny Yu.  

Despite policy shifts and slowing incentives, long-term solar opportunities continue to grow for roofing professionals. 

In this Roofing Road Trips® episode, Mark Gies, director of strategy and market development at S-5!, joined Heidi J. Ellsworth to discuss the changing landscape of solar as the nation faces rising energy demand, extreme weather events and overall uncertainty. Despite these challenges, Mark remains confident about the future of renewable energy. “For us who believe in climate change and think it's a good idea, there's still enough of us around,” he said. “It will still grow.” 

Mark explained that, despite reductions in solar energy incentives, people remain motivated to invest in solar due to both environmental values and practical concerns about grid resiliency. “It's a combination of wanting to be sustainable and the fear that our grid may not be as robust as we think it is,” he said. “Solar tends to be distributed generation. With coal and oil, they feed the entire grid. With distributed energy, it’s closer to the point of use. It’s on your roof, so you’re using it. You can grow your overall network of use by installing distributed generation solar without increasing your wires and your transmission lines.” 

Rising electricity demand driven by AI, electric vehicles and data centers is accelerating the need for fast, scalable energy solutions. “They use gigawatts and gigawatts of power,” Mark stated. “The quickest way to build the capacity is actually solar and wind.” 

In the short term, Mark foresees the prices of electricity to go up. This, combined with the removal of solar incentives, will likely stall solar progress. “Because prices are going to go up, solar is going to become profitable again. But that’s not a good path. It’s not fair to people to increase electricity prices,” he lamented. Maintaining incentives for a few more years, he added, would support rapid deployment in high-need regions. 

For now, Mark expects the solar market to maintain activity, followed by a slowdown around 2027. Still, he predicts a rebound: “It’s going to reset, and the optimism will continue to grow, maybe at a slower rate, but there will be growth.” 

In the meantime, Mark encouraged roofing contractors to take advantage of this slower period and get into solar. “I’ve always questioned why a lot of roofing companies haven’t gotten into solar,” he expressed. “You're a roofer — you take your ladders off, you're done with the roof, you put them in your truck and drive away. As you're driving away, another truck's driving in, putting their ladders up and they're installing the solar part of it. 

“You can increase the pie,” Mark continued. “If you want the whole pie, all you need to do is add some skillsets to your workforce. Even if things are slow now, it gives you experience. When it starts growing again, you could be off to the races and have the skillset, the people and a history behind you doing it.” 

Read another article on solar’s resiliency during uncertain times or Listen to the podcast to learn more about S-5!’s energy efficient solutions and how you can get into solar.