Our Story

Back in the winter of 2015, founder Dave was helping clients with rooftop solar arrays in Las Vegas when the solar world of Nevada came crashing down. It was announced that, under the auspices of the Nevada Public Utilities Commission, NV Energy would be allowed to not only institute a monthly fee on those who had chosen to go solar, but they also would pay less per kWh for net metering, the program whereby solar users push their extra energy up to the grid for a later utility credit. Worse, this wasn’t just for future solar users, but it was retroactive to everyone, including those who had ‘gone solar’ years before…no one was grandfathered in. Finally, the excess energy credit NV Energy would provide toward future bills was to shrink to only $.025/kWh, around 1/5th of what they were charging customers at the time, over the course of 12 years. In short, solar became a bad deal. Solar companies fled the Nevada market, jobs were lost, and there was a huge backlash.

Nevada eventually capitulated, to an extent, and now previous solar users from that period receive back a credit for 95% of what they supply to the grid, and new net metering users get back 75%. But this dark period before the reversal made Dave think: what if the largest component of energy use in Nevada (and many other states), the air conditioning, could run using solar off grid, or in hybrid mode, and without net metering? At the time, such technology wasn’t exactly seamless, since external voltage controllers and batteries were needed. But now, with Airspool, it’s easy to achieve the bulk of solar energy savings without the complications of net metering, new electrical breakers, or DC-to-AC inverters. Just plug in and save.