{"id":99207,"date":"2022-07-27T07:58:18","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T11:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/?p=99207"},"modified":"2022-07-05T13:46:18","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T17:46:18","slug":"family-business-falls-into-solar-and-loves-it-enough-to-go-full-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/2022\/07\/family-business-falls-into-solar-and-loves-it-enough-to-go-full-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Family business falls into solar \u2014 and loves it enough to go full-time"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are many roads that lead to a career in the solar industry, and STG Solar<\/a> (No. 44 on the 2022 Top Solar Contractors List<\/a>)<\/strong>\u00a0of Brevard, North Carolina, was brought here by fulfilling a favor.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Credit: STG Solar<\/p><\/div>\n

Founder and president Mike Kilpatrick started the electrical subcontractor Southern Tradesmen Service Group back in 2011. Business then was strictly electrical, laying lines in new construction projects for clients like hotel chains and big-box retailers.<\/p>\n

STG\u2019s reputation as an experienced electrical subcontractor inspired a friend of Kilpatrick\u2019s to reach out and ask if the company could help with some electrical work on a \u201csolar farm\u201d commissioned by Facebook in North Carolina in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cA solar what? I was clueless. I didn\u2019t know what he was talking about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kilpatrick brought several crews to the project site and was immediately taken by the prospect of generating electricity through sunlight at this scale. Shortly after, Kilpatrick and his crews were contracted to salvage electrical work on another solar project in Rosedale.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo tell you the truth, it was far more gratifying building a power plant in the middle of a field as opposed to going and wiring up the next big-box retailer,\u201d Kilpatrick said. \u201cI really at that point in time didn\u2019t know if I would go 100% solar, but the next thing you know, everybody is asking for us, requesting us and asking how many farms a year we can build. So here we go \u2014 that\u2019s what we do now.\u201d<\/p>\n

After some research into the industry, the company changed its name and began focusing on large-scale solar installation in the Southeast. Kilpatrick said moving into solar installation was a natural transition for STG\u2019s electricians. They already had years of experience building distribution and electrical systems. The biggest difference from electrical subcontracting was working outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found it easier, but the selling point to my team, too, was they really enjoyed it, I enjoyed it \u2014 we all enjoyed being a part of this clean energy movement,\u201d Kilpatrick said.<\/p>\n

STG Solar currently employs over 200 people, several of whom all share the last name Kilpatrick. Despite its size, Mike Kilpatrick and his son Logan, junior project manager at STG, still consider the company a family business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to say, \u2018I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s better to be a son or one of his guys,\u2019\u201d Logan Kilpatrick said. \u00a0\u201cWhen it\u2019s a family company, it\u2019s something that we all believe in. It is our family, so for me it\u2019s beautiful. It\u2019s what we rely on. It\u2019s what we built our lives on. It\u2019s the legacy of our father.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the electricians who started with the company prior to the shift to solar are still there today. STG prioritizes keeping all solar-related services, like installing fiber-optic networks or driving structural beams, in-house. Given the volatility of the solar supply chain, STG is leveraging its varied service offerings to give clients realistic and consistent construction timelines.<\/p>\n

The Kilpatricks attribute all of these factors \u2014 employee retention, in-house construction services and a history of large-scale electrical work \u2014 to STG\u2019s longevity and its ability to compete at the utility-scale in a region home to other larger solar developers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun for me to go up against some really big, seasoned companies and be able to actually have bragging rights that we built over 700 MW, and I\u2019ve got the same clients I\u2019ve had back then, and the same employees I\u2019ve had back then,\u201d Mike Kilpatrick said. \u201cWe\u2019re from Podunk, nowhere-land USA, but by golly, we\u2019re a bad, mean, solar machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

This story was featured exclusively in our 2022 Top Solar Contractors issue. See the issue and full list of top U.S. solar installers here.\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are many roads that lead to a career in the solar industry, and STG Solar (No. 44 on the 2022 Top Solar Contractors List)\u00a0of Brevard, North Carolina, was brought here by fulfilling a favor. Founder and president Mike Kilpatrick started the electrical subcontractor Southern Tradesmen Service Group back in 2011. Business then was strictly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19854,"featured_media":99210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":""},"categories":[3004,5117,3943,5423,5120],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nFamily business falls into solar \u2014 and loves it enough to go full-time<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are many roads that lead to a career in the solar industry, and STG Solar (No. 44 on the 2022 Top Solar Contractors List)\u00a0of Brevard, North\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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