Jennifer Bradley, Sunpro Solar’s only female Territory Operations Manager, runs her Albuquerque and Lubbock crews like family. A mother of 11 and an avid crafter with self-diagnosed OCD, she is no stranger to the intricacies of communication, constantly moving schedules, and the endless challenges that residential solar crews face.

Born in Pennsylvania, she grew up in San Diego and Albuquerque. She moved away from New Mexico right after high school to attend college and start a family. Before getting into solar, Jennifer worked as a Project Manager for a custom home builder and an HVAC company but had been curious about solar and its potential for homeowners.

“When I returned to Albuquerque in 2016, I started looking around for a company that would fit my personality. When Sunpro came to town in 2018, I applied and was hired that same day!” says Jennifer.Read More

For those about to rock a metal roof, we salute you. Let us be your roadie for Unirac’s direct-attach MetalX racking. In this post, you’ll find everything you need to start shredding, including new quick tips, webinars, installation videos, and much more—even a playlist of music to inspire you! See you on stage!Read More

Editor’s note: Nate Schuit, Senior Product Designer, Product Development, is one of Unirac’s longest-tenured employees. He has seen most of Unirac’s now 21-year history and was integral to one of its first and most enduring products, Solarmount rail. We asked Chris Woodward, Director of Inside Sales, another of our long-time staffers, to interview him for our monthly spotlight. This is an edited transcript of their conversation. 

Chris:
Do you have an alter ego name? I can’t say that I’ve ever heard any more than the one or two I always said. “Nate Dogg” was the one I always went towards, and it was “Mohawk” for a while.
Nate:
It is again now. [Nate was rocking one of his trademark haircuts at the time of the interview.] I answer to just about anything if you yell loud enough.
Chris:
Where are you from originally?
Nate:
Born in California but moved here [to New Mexico, where Unirac’s headquarters are] when I was 1. So here.
Chris:
And how long have you been at Unirac now?
Nate:
I think it’s 20 years now. I spent the first year on contract, and then 19 on the payroll.
Chris:
What would you say is a highlight of why you have worked at Unirac for so long?
Nate:
It’s been challenging work. The people have always been really good. I guess the highlight to me, it’s just been the engineers that I’ve worked under and with. I’ve never had really a bad engineer to work side by side with. They’ve taught me everything I know outside of, you know, what I went to school for. I really owe my whole career to my engineers that I’ve worked for here and I appreciate and really liked them all.Read More

It’s been several months since we brought you the article on the solar project we’ve been putting together for our friends at the homeless shelter Joy Junction.  We are almost to the finish line! While a few of you may have missed the project over the holidays last year, we are happy to see how many of you saw it and rose to the challenge. Several of our partners and customers stepped up to contribute, and for this, we are immensely proud and grateful. We could not have made it this far without them. Please join me in giving virtual “snaps” to our generous donors so far:

• SunPro
• CED Greentech: Pacific Northwest and Southwest
• Vector Structural Engineering, LLC 
• BayWa r.e. Solar Systems

The generosity of individuals and businesses in the solar industry continues to surprise and delight all of us here at Unirac. We would be remiss in not recognizing members of the Unirac team who went above and beyond to help bring this project to fruition. Our thanks and gratitude go out to Klaus Nicolaedis and Todd Ganshaw. They brought us the project in the first place. Our inhouse solar design advisor, Jon Neal, and our solar permitting champion Sai Uppu were brilliant. They worked up the design and permitting packets that were needed and made several adjustments and edits along the way. Our west coast and central sales teams were instrumental in soliciting donors. Thank you for your tenacity. We also want to recognize Peter Lorenz, our CEO, and the Unirac leadership team that has supported “Better Solar For All” since inception. Thank you for your vision. If the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us anything about our industry, it is that we are resilient, we are tenacious, and we care about our fellow human beings. All of you are solar believers and—much more—you are solar heroes.Read More

There’s a lot of covered parking out there, and it’s a market that’s expanding all the time. Unirac’s MetalX is making it easy to include solar in those plans, as a recent installation at the Ft. Wayne International Airport shows.

The airport, which has one of the longest runways in the country (11,981 feet), was doubling the size of six existing identical carports and wanted to add solar. They called what was then Ecolibrium Solar, now part of Unirac thanks to a recent acquisition, and ended up choosing MetalX for the project.Read More

You may or may not have caught the news a few weeks back, but Unirac, has successfully completed the acquisition of Ecolibrium Solar. The acquisition represents a significant expansion of Unirac’s product portfolio, adding Ecolibrium’s commercial flat roof, residential rail-less and metal roof products to its product line, already recognized as a leader in the industry.
“We are excited about the Ecolibrium team and the products they have brought to the market. They share our passion for customer success and have a strong focus on distribution,” said Peter Lorenz, Unirac CEO. “Better solar starts with great partnerships. The increased scale in production, engineering services, and field support allow us to help customers reduce costs and grow their solar business, especially on commercial projects”.
“With a similar focus on customer experience, quality, and product development, the strength of our combined team enhances our ability to provide our customers with exceptional products and services” said Sam Veague, former CEO at Ecolibrium.

Watch the interview and learn more about what this acquisition means to the industry and our customers.

Read the full press release here.

The Ecolibrium Solar team—now working alongside Unirac as part of the recent acquisition—brings a depth of great new talent.

Take Lab Manager Gary Norman, for instance. He’s a born gearhead—literally.

“My family drag-raced,” he said, “and my mother’s water broke with me at the racetrack. She had to go to the stage lanes to get my dad in the tow truck to go to the hospital. The following weekend, we were back at the track.”

With that beginning, he grew up in Florida working in the family racing fabrication shop, which prepared him for the huge variety of jobs that come up in his current position in Boulder.Read More

A WEBINAR ABOUT OUR NEW UNIVERSAL FLAT-ROOF ATTACHMENT

Unirac’s new single-SKU flat-roof attachment is changing the game in commercial solar. That may sound like a big claim, and so we welcome you to learn about it in detail with the insights of Chem Link, manufacturer of the sealant that helps make Flashloc™ RM unique.

On July 29, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. Mountain Time, Tristen Foley of Unirac and Rick Berthiaume of Chem Link will present an in-depth webinar showing how you can save time and money with this simple, strong, easy-to-install attachment for any type of flat roof. You’ll also learn about Chem Link sealants and how to select and use attachments in general. (Register Here.)

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As much as we might wish jobsites could be standardized, we all know that every installation is unique. When unforeseen difficulties come up, you need a team that can help you get it back on track quickly. That’s what happened when Pennsylvania Solar Energy Company Inc. encountered a challenging site recently in the Pennsylvania hills and Unirac’s support provided a quick solution.

The project was going up on a residential property with grapevines and a winery near Pittsburgh. The spot chosen for the arrays had its south face looking uphill—obviously, an unusual situation to begin with. Further complicating the question, Pennsylvania Solar Energy wanted to avoid poured concrete foundations because of the mountainous terrain, and they also wanted to maximize panel density.

“This wasn’t just your average cookie-cutter site,” said Zachary Kushner, Installer Sales Specialist for the Northeast. “Besides the grade, we knew a lot of the ground contained fractured shale rock, so we were aware upfront that it wouldn’t be completely straightforward.”Read More

Especially in a down economy, every installer is hunting for ways to keep looking ahead and not lose momentum. Unirac’s Installer Sales Specialists have been adjusting to continue bringing our customers as much value as possible in the industry.

One of the services these specialists can offer (thanks to their own backgrounds as installers) is the ability to show products hands-on and answer questions only an installer might have answers to. It’s a role that Unirac takes seriously and encourages specialists in the company to offer its customers regularly.

Take Tom Talmage, Installer Sales Specialist for Florida, for instance. You can learn more about his background in the profile we did of him last month. He recently visited Optimus Solar, a Central Florida company based in Mount Dora, to meet with owner Ben Pauluhn and three of his lead installers.

Read More