Where we work
Michigan. We are based in Allendale and most of our residential work is within an easy drive of it, but we install across the state, and for commercial we travel.
Two different answers, depending on what you are building.
Residential works best close to home. The towns below are where most of our installs are, and staying near them is what makes it possible for an owner to be on every project, for a service call to be a short drive, and for us to know the permitting offices and utility contacts by name rather than by hold music. We go further than this list regularly — it is where we are most efficient, not a border.
Commercial is a different calculation. A larger project justifies the travel, and we have worked the east side of the state and the Upper Peninsula. If you have a commercial roof or a ground-mount site anywhere in Michigan, distance is not the thing that decides whether we are the right installer for it.
Where most of our residential work is
- Allendale Ottawa County Home. Our office is on Timbercreek Drive.
- Grand Rapids Kent County City permitting; older housing stock means roof condition gets checked early.
- Hudsonville Ottawa County Mix of newer subdivisions and rural parcels.
- Jenison Ottawa County
- Grandville Kent County
- Coopersville Ottawa County Rural service; outage backup comes up often here.
- Zeeland Ottawa County
- Holland Ottawa County Holland has a municipal utility, which sets its own distributed generation terms.
- Grand Haven Ottawa County Municipal utility; lakeshore wind exposure affects racking spec.
- Spring Lake Ottawa County
- Muskegon Muskegon County
- Rockford Kent County
- Ada and Cascade Kent County Where our Agave Ventures commercial array is.
- Byron Center Kent County
Not an exhaustive list, and not a boundary. If your town is not here, call — the answer is usually yes, and for commercial it is a different question entirely.
Why your utility matters more than your town
Anywhere in Michigan, the single biggest variable in how your solar project gets treated is not which town you live in. It is which utility serves your address.
Consumers Energy and DTE are regulated by the Michigan Public Service Commission, so the state distributed generation tariff applies. Great Lakes Energy is a member-regulated cooperative and sets its own terms. Municipal utilities, including those serving parts of the lakeshore, do the same.
That affects your credit rate for exported energy, your maximum system size, and your interconnection process. It is the first thing we check, and it is covered in detail in how Michigan pays you for solar you send to the grid.
Permitting
Building permits are issued by your local jurisdiction, and requirements and timelines vary between a city like Grand Rapids and a rural township. We pull the permits, file the interconnection application, and schedule the inspection. You should not have to learn how your township's building department works.
Not sure if you are in range?
Call and ask. If a project is not a good fit for us to take on, we will tell you rather than stretch.