Advanced Solar Industries isn’t your typical solar panel installer.
The New Holland, Lancaster County-based firm has an employee whose job is to maintain connections with customers after their energy systems have been completed. It invites customers to take part in company volunteer projects, and customers have welcomed workers into their homes when solar installations were long finished. Soon, Advanced Solar plans to deliver lunch to competitors, an overture aimed at uniting solar installers so they can work together as an industry.
CEO Josh Mitten says his goal for 2012 is to be recognized as one of the best businesses to work for in Pennsylvania.
Part of Advanced Solar’s distinction lies in its founding in 1995 by Elam Beiler, an Amish man who wanted to use the sun’s energy to keep his buggy’s headlights on.
Beiler has since moved to Indiana. Before he left, he built a company that already had plenty of experience installing solar panels by the time solar energy systems started becoming popular a few years ago. And Advanced Solar’s own offices are just now being connected to the grid, a necessity for a business with 33 employees.
The company installed about 140 solar panel systems in 2010 and plans to expand beyond Pennsylvania this year with projects in Maryland and North Carolina. And this fall it will have a charity bike ride to raise money for The Collaboratory, a Messiah College organization that plans to install solar panels at medical facilities in developing nations.
“Where our business is does not limit where our impact can grow,” Mitten says.
Source: Josh Mitten, Advanced Solar Industries
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen