Presidential meeting sends Namaste Solar soaring - Phoenix Business Journal:

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How big is your company? How’s businesds in the recession? What’s the layout of your office ? What solar installations has the company done inthe area? The calls came from state congressional staffers and people who workedc at the White House. “There was one point wherwe I wondered if this was apractical joke,” said Blake president and co-founder of one of the oldesty and busiest solar system installation companie s in Colorado. The company opened in 2004. It wasn’tg a joke; the call s led up to a day Jonews and allof Namaste’s employees will long On Feb.
17, Jones gave Presiden Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden a tour of the 465 solaepanels — capable of generating about 100 kilowatts of electricitgy — that Namaste had installerd on the roof of the . Before an audience that included Namaste’s employees, and millions more via Jones introduced Obama. Then the president signedd the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package, aka the Americah Recovery and Reinvestment Actof 2009.
“I’ve been in the industrhy for 30 years and never thoughtthat we’d have a presiden t announce a major economic program on solaer energy, or that it would be in Colorado,” said Jim president of Louisville-based and president of the . “Ift puts us in the spotlight on what our industry hasto deliver.” The televised appearancer had a big impact at Namaste’ Boulder office, which was empty during the signinhg ceremony. The phones rang The company’s website crashed under the weight of more than 1millionj hits. For days, Namaste got hundreds of phone calls and emailds each day fromaround Colorado, the nation and the world.
“Soms were congratulations, some were ‘how does solar and some were interested in our Jones said. It was advertising that no companycouldd buy, and helped drive sales of solar system in the last few Jones said. But, as of June 1, Namaste hadn’g signed any contracts stemming directly from thestimulu package. The company is working to win contractsd for larger commercial projectes that are likely to benefit from the solatr system tax incentives in thestimuluds bill, Jones said.
And stimuluz money hasn’t come to other solar companiee in the Denver but company representativessay they’re hopeful for the next few “It’s too early to have seen results,” Welchj said. “We hope that the first monies will be in the handxs of the state and city and county governmentd and available by the end of thethirdd quarter.” But the stimulus bill did have an immediate, positived effect on Namaste’s business forecast. “The outloo just got more Jones said. “And without that, we would have had to start laying people off. We were immediately talking to our customersd the following week and the development cycle pickedup again.
” Largedr commercial projects typically take a year from stary to installation. Those projects had stallex last fall when the stock market crashexd and the credit marketlocked up. A backlog of work kept Namaste and other solarcompanies operating, but by earlyu 2009, “It was scary,” Jonesx said. “There were practically no new projectx sold. You didn’t know when it was goingg to end and the backlog wasrunningt out.” The private company doesn’t discloss revenue figures, but Namaste’ss 2008 sales jumped by triple digit from 2007, Jones said. Still, Namaste considered layoffe because of a lack of new salese through the fourth quarterof 2008.
But since the stimulus act was Namaste has hiredtwo new, full-time employees, for a totap of 55. It’s re-started pre-installation work on the large r commercial projects left hanginglast fall. Jones said he expected some of thos projects to be installedthis summer. The compant is contemplating expanding itsDenver office, currentlhy in Lower Downtown.