Palmetto expands to Utah

Palmetto, a technology platform company that performs residential solar installations and services, announced that it has expanded into Utah’s residential solar market, making Utah the 24th state that the company operates in, as well as Washington DC.

In January, Palmetto’s software and mapping division, Mapdwell, acquired in 2021, charted the solar potential of 107 million rooftops across the United States, roughly 75% of all US buildings, as part of a larger company goal to  map the solar potential and derive energy load profiles of every building in the country. Incubated at MIT and licensed to Palmetto, the software instantly assesses any building’s rooftop potential for solar energy production and battery storage and provides a baseline energy load profile.

Because of this prior venture, the company adds that 95% of residential rooftops across Utah can be assessed for solar panel installation through Palmetto’s clean energy platform.

The data provided by Mapdwell also enabled Palmetto to create Instant Proposal, a service that enables a solar system proposal to be generated and designed within 60 seconds of a Palmetto sales member entering a homeowner’s utility information into the Palmetto system.

The existing comprehensive rooftop solar potential and  Instant Proposal service Palmetto offers should help to company to establish footing in the Utah rooftop solar market, though said market has not been the most historically active. While Utah is home to roughly 2.6GW of installed solar, the vast majority of that capacity has come from the state’s utility-scale solar projects, according to data collected by Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

Of the 107 operational solar companies in the state, provided by SEIA, 46 are operating as installers and developers, though 45 companies are unlisted by the agency. Many of those 45 ungrouped companies are listed as service if financial service providers, but a few installers are also included, so Palmetto may have more competition than what appears at an initial glance.

“This is an exciting step for Palmetto as we accelerate our growth across the United States,” said Palmetto Chairman, Founder, and CEO, Chris Kemper.  “Residential solar installations in Utah have increased by 20% since 2021, making expansion into Utah a key part of our mission to ensure that choosing clean energy sources is a right, not a privilege.”