Synergy Solar of Jacksonville was founded less than five years ago but has already seen its workforce grow to about 25 employees in addition to contract workers.

President Jonathan Lindstam and CEO Andres Lavanderos were recently in St. Augustine to tout the advantages of solar energy and their commitment to helping others with the unveiling a solar project at Patriot Place. The six-unit apartment complex will house formerly homeless veterans. It is being built by the St. Johns Housing Partnership.

Tell me about what your business does.

We install and sell and service all things solar, both residential and commercial. We’ll do small systems like this (at Patriot Place) and we can do gigantic 1-megawatt systems. We can do just a little bit of everything.

We are also electrical contractors. Solar is the primary job that we do, but electrical contracting is (part of it).

We started out as a sales entity. Over time, we were a little dissatisfied with the quality of install work that we were seeing put out. So we went out to secure our licensing and became our own install company. 

We both sell and install our product. It allows us to control quality a little bit better, and it allows us to achieve a truly local presence as opposed to subbing it out to a national company.

What kind of growth has your company seen?

Last year was explosive. We really grew quite quickly, probably a little faster than I would have liked. Right now, we're actually diverting a little bit and stabilizing. By diverting, we actually focused more on industrial and commercial projects. 

Commercial and industrial will probably make up, by next year, the majority of our business. And that’s really due to the change in interest rates. The larger the project, the better the ROI is.

What do you see as the potential for this company?

We have a very ambitious growth goal. The sky is the limit. Our aim is to keep up 50 to 60% annual growth, year over year. 

I’ll tell you my dream. My dream is to power the Duval County School District with solar.

People don’t know it but last year, six school districts in the U.S. switched to solar power. There is already a precedent for it. We are capable to installing a project that size.

The only reason businesses or entities ... do not have solar is because they don’t know the numbers. Solar sells itself.

With the recent Inflation Reduction Act are there any effects on your business?

The Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed last year, earmarked truly hundreds of billions of dollars for renewable (energy projects). There are numerous new tax incentives that have been released. The ROI just keeps getting better.

The only challenge is the IRS descriptions of how those tax credits are to be fleshed out have just recently been written or released. So CPAs are still learning exactly how to speak confidently about the new tax incentives that are coming. They are there.