{"id":103188,"date":"2023-08-28T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2023-08-28T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/\/?p=103188"},"modified":"2023-08-28T08:04:33","modified_gmt":"2023-08-28T12:04:33","slug":"contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/","title":{"rendered":"Contractor\u2019s Corner: Solar Power of Oklahoma <br><span style='color:#404040;font-weight:600;font-size:15px;'>Residential and commercial installer brings renewables to major oil and gas state.<\/span>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Setting out as one of the first companies to sell solar power in one of the biggest oil and gas-producing states in the union is not for the faint of heart. But J.W. Peters and Kevin Jones, both construction industry veterans, saw the opportunity in renewable energy in 2016 and went for it.<\/p>\n<p>In this episode of the Contractor\u2019s Corner podcast, I talk to Peters about how <a href=\"https:\/\/solarpowerok.com\/\">Solar Power of Oklahoma<\/a> got started with five employees and has since grown to 65, with over 2,500 systems installed all over the state.<\/p>\n<p>An edited portion of the interview is below, but be sure to listen to the full podcast for more insight on how SPO is spreading the solar word by focusing on educating residents, fire departments and cities.<\/p>\n<p>Find the Contractor\u2019s Corner podcast on your favorite podcast app. Thank you to this month\u2019s sponsors, <a href=\"https:\/\/scanifly.com\/\">Scanifly <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.re-plus.com\/\">RE+<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-97180 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/scanifly.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 59px) 100vw, 59px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/scanifly.png 198w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/scanifly-150x150.png 150w\" alt=\"\" width=\"59\" height=\"60\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/scanifly.com\/\">Scanifly<\/a>\u00a0is the only drone-based solar software focused on automating the survey and design stages of your solar project\u2019s life.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-102874\" src=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/RE_Plus_4C-Blue-500x283.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"82\" height=\"46\" srcset=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/RE_Plus_4C-Blue-500x283.png 500w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/RE_Plus_4C-Blue-368x208.png 368w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/RE_Plus_4C-Blue.png 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 82px) 100vw, 82px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Join the industry at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.re-plus.com\/\">RE+<\/a> September 8-11 in Las Vegas to meet, network and accelerate the growth of your business.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1590674947%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-ZXb17JFoEBR&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Solar Power World: What\u2019s unique about installing solar in Oklahoma? <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-103193\" src=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Solar-Power-of-Oklahoma-3-500x325.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Solar-Power-of-Oklahoma-3-500x325.jpg 500w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Solar-Power-of-Oklahoma-3-368x238.jpg 368w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Solar-Power-of-Oklahoma-3.jpg 770w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/>J.W. Peters, principal, SPO:<\/em><\/strong> We&#8217;ve been in business about seven years and we joke all the time that we were about four to five years too early in the state of Oklahoma. That&#8217;s just because Oklahomans are loyal, and we&#8217;re a big oil and gas state. That&#8217;s what a lot of our GDP is produced from.<\/p>\n<p>When we started out in the market, they thought we were selling snake oil. They didn&#8217;t think that it was real, they didn&#8217;t think that it was good, they thought it was going to take jobs from oil and gas, they thought that it was just going to be bad for the market in general. It&#8217;s just been about the last two years that people have started to really kind of understand and see, \u201cHey, wait a minute, this is real.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But this does make sense, this does save money. This is the cheapest way to generate electricity. So why not take an approach of all-of-the-above? And I will say that our governor has done a good job of stepping in and saying, \u201cYes, we&#8217;re an oil and gas state. But we should also be a wind state, we should also be a solar state \u2014\u00a0we have the sixth best solar potential in the nation. And we&#8217;re No. [45] on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seia.org\/state-solar-policy\/oklahoma-solar\">[installed solar] list<\/a>, like, why is that? Let&#8217;s talk about that and figure out how we leverage what God&#8217;s given us.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><strong>You\u2019re also a Tornado Alley state. Do you have to consider that in design?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-103192\" src=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Solar-Power-of-Oklahoma-1-500x281.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Solar-Power-of-Oklahoma-1-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Solar-Power-of-Oklahoma-1-368x207.jpg 368w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Solar-Power-of-Oklahoma-1.jpg 770w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/>We have to use a little bit larger rails in Oklahoma just to be able to get a larger wind rating. But the good news is the companies that we&#8217;re using for racking, they already have that all figured out. We can look at the table and see exactly where we&#8217;re located and figure out exactly what we need to do. So that&#8217;s always the No. 2 question that we always get \u2014 \u201cCan this withstand tornado-force winds?\u201d We&#8217;ve seen situations where we&#8217;ve had whole roof sections blown off a roof and solar panels are still attached to it.<\/p>\n<p>The No. 1 question that we get is, \u201cWill it withstand hail?\u201d because here in Oklahoma, we get a lot of hail. Up until about three weeks ago, I can tell you that we&#8217;ve never lost a solar panel to hail. But we had a storm come through Norman, just south of Oklahoma City. We had literally softball-sized hail and lost eight modules in that storm. But last year, we uninstalled and reinstalled 41 systems that were perfectly fine, but the roof was destroyed by hail.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Which of your projects stands out the most?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>About three years ago, we were able to do the first municipally owned project. The city of Norman reached out to us and they were interested in implementing solar. They had a water treatment plant that they wanted to use as a pilot project, we negotiated with them and went out and installed the system.<\/p>\n<p>For us, it was really great, because we were able to take what we learned on that project, and they&#8217;ve been very good customers of ours to be able to help share the numbers, and share the production and the savings that they&#8217;re realizing so that we can then tell that story to other cities and towns around the state to be able to encourage them to potentially implement solar as well.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-103191\" src=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Solar-Power-of-Oklahoma-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"770\" height=\"433\" srcset=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Solar-Power-of-Oklahoma-2.jpg 770w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Solar-Power-of-Oklahoma-2-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Solar-Power-of-Oklahoma-2-368x207.jpg 368w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Setting out as one of the first companies to sell solar power in one of the biggest oil and gas-producing states in the union is not for the faint of heart. But J.W. Peters and Kevin Jones, both construction industry veterans, saw the opportunity in renewable energy in 2016 and went for it. In this&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10031,"featured_media":103189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1720,3004,1713],"tags":[],"class_list":{"2":"type-post","10":"entry","11":"has-post-thumbnail"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Contractor\u2019s Corner: Solar Power of Oklahoma<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this episode, SPO talks about the hurdles of selling solar in an oil &amp; gas state, and the progress the company has made in the past seven years.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Contractor\u2019s Corner: Solar Power of Oklahoma\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this episode, SPO talks about the hurdles of selling solar in an oil &amp; gas state, and the progress the company has made in the past seven years.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Solar Power World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-28T12:00:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-28T12:04:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/August-CC-featured.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"770\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kelsey Misbrener\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SolarPowerWorld\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SolarPowerWorld\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kelsey Misbrener\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/\",\"name\":\"Contractor\u2019s Corner: Solar Power of Oklahoma\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/August-CC-featured.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-28T12:00:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-28T12:04:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/#\/schema\/person\/991cc4e7d08833c06937cd91f6776d93\"},\"description\":\"In this episode, SPO talks about the hurdles of selling solar in an oil & gas state, and the progress the company has made in the past seven years.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/August-CC-featured.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/August-CC-featured.jpg\",\"width\":770,\"height\":500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Contractor\u2019s Corner: Solar Power of Oklahoma\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/\/\",\"name\":\"Solar Power World\",\"description\":\"Covering the world of solar power technology, development and installation.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/#\/schema\/person\/991cc4e7d08833c06937cd91f6776d93\",\"name\":\"Kelsey Misbrener\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b79f1972e2eddea0b8e9e5506f0cf86?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b79f1972e2eddea0b8e9e5506f0cf86?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kelsey Misbrener\"},\"description\":\"Kelsey Misbrener has a degree in magazine journalism from Kent State University. As Managing Editor for Solar Power World, she oversees SPW\u2019s online and print content and ensures it furthers the mission of helping installers, developers and other industry stakeholders do their jobs better. Kelsey is passionate about renewable energy and enjoys spending her free time in nature with her family.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/kelsey-misbrener\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/\/author\/kmisbrener\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Contractor\u2019s Corner: Solar Power of Oklahoma","description":"In this episode, SPO talks about the hurdles of selling solar in an oil & gas state, and the progress the company has made in the past seven years.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Contractor\u2019s Corner: Solar Power of Oklahoma","og_description":"In this episode, SPO talks about the hurdles of selling solar in an oil & gas state, and the progress the company has made in the past seven years.","og_url":"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/","og_site_name":"Solar Power World","article_published_time":"2023-08-28T12:00:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-08-28T12:04:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":770,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/August-CC-featured.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kelsey Misbrener","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SolarPowerWorld","twitter_site":"@SolarPowerWorld","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kelsey Misbrener","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/","url":"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/","name":"Contractor\u2019s Corner: Solar Power of Oklahoma","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/August-CC-featured.jpg","datePublished":"2023-08-28T12:00:39+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-28T12:04:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/\/#\/schema\/person\/991cc4e7d08833c06937cd91f6776d93"},"description":"In this episode, SPO talks about the hurdles of selling solar in an oil & gas state, and the progress the company has made in the past seven years.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/August-CC-featured.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/August-CC-featured.jpg","width":770,"height":500},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/\/2023\/08\/contractors-corner-solar-power-of-oklahoma\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Contractor\u2019s Corner: Solar Power of Oklahoma"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/\/#website","url":"https:\/\/\/","name":"Solar Power World","description":"Covering the world of solar power technology, development and installation.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/\/#\/schema\/person\/991cc4e7d08833c06937cd91f6776d93","name":"Kelsey Misbrener","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b79f1972e2eddea0b8e9e5506f0cf86?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b79f1972e2eddea0b8e9e5506f0cf86?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kelsey Misbrener"},"description":"Kelsey Misbrener has a degree in magazine journalism from Kent State University. As Managing Editor for Solar Power World, she oversees SPW\u2019s online and print content and ensures it furthers the mission of helping installers, developers and other industry stakeholders do their jobs better. Kelsey is passionate about renewable energy and enjoys spending her free time in nature with her family.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/kelsey-misbrener\/"],"url":"https:\/\/\/author\/kmisbrener\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}