Feasibility of a solar start-up?

[mhearn1002]

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[Naptown]

Manufacturing is not something you can do in Mom's garage and compete on any sort of level.
The investment to produce at anywhere near a profit is in the millions.
You would be better off marketing solar as the costs are much lower to start out with.
Now since you don't know anything about solar prepare to hire someone who can design and build systems for you or the learning curve will be very very steep.

[Sunking]

With my educational background in business I am confident that I could manage my own small company, and there are few other fields that have such drastic projected growth as renewable energy.

Where are you getting this huge growth in Solar from. School professors I assume. As soon as subsidies are gone the market is dead.

[russ]

My questions are...

-How feasible would such an endeavor be? zero feasibility

-I'll be operating out of my mom's garage in the immediate future- will this pose any limitations as far as the efficiency of the solar cells No problem - you won't be doing it
-I've noticed that home-made panels are generally lower quality; how possible is it for me to build panels that would be able to compete with higher end products? Not possible

Maybe you should pay more attention in class? Or another option would be to have the hamily name of Hilton.

To sell your proposed solar panels with no name and without UL (or equivalent) listing is going to be next to impossible.

[pleppik]

So as others have pointed out, manufacturing is not the place for a garage startup in the solar business. That side of the business is all about scale and the efficiencies which come with it, and there's no way you can compete without a substantial initial investment and some serious manufacturing chops.

Installation, on the other hand, is an inherently local business. You could go into business as an installer (which will require training, experience, and probably licensing as a contractor in your state).

Or, you could spend some time getting to know local installers and understanding what their problems are and how you might be able to solve them. There's a lot more to solar than the modules, and I think there's more room for innovation in the other parts of the business.

[Volusiano]

Why are you picking out a business idea to pursue in a business that you know nothing about? Just talking about manufacturing your own solar panel by yourself out of your own garage is enough to show that you know nothing about this industry.

Also, thinking that you know how to "run" a business as being taught in school is one thing (although that's also debatable because school only teaches you the academic stuff but not real life experience), but knowing enough about an industry to be able to come up with innovative ideas that differentiate and show value is another thing.

One more thing, expecting to be able to create and make enough $ from a brand new business of your own right out of college to finance a graduate degree that you want to pursue full time right away after graduating from undergrad is another unrealistic goal right there. Do you know how much time it'll take to start one's own brand new business off the ground and how long it'll take until you may turn profitable to finance a graduate program in college? And you expect to be able to find time to do that and go to graduate school full-time, both at the same time? And where are you going to find the money to start a brand new business of your own manufacturing your own solar panels?

My advice? If you want to start graduate school right away? Borrow money and go for it and focus on it 100% and get it done first. Then look into starting your own business afterward. No money to go to graduate school and can't borrow money for it? OK then find a simple job to save up enough to finance graduate school then focus on finishing graduate school first. Don't be naive and too ambitious right out of the gate and try to do too many things at once. You'll just fail one thing or the other or even both.

And when ready to start your own business, find something or an industry you know something about to venture in. Don't pick something you know nothing about (like solar) and jump in with both feet. Asking for advice like this on a forum is not a bad thing. But if asking for advice on something that you at least know something about, it'd be a more effective thing.

Also, don't believe everything they teach you in school. Hopefully when you go to grad school, you'll learn to do your own research enough to be able to independently verify whether what they tell you in school is true or not. For example, blindly believing the professors that renewable energy is one of the few fields that has drastic projected growth without understanding its pitfalls is naive. Go online and do more research and talk to more people from the industry themselves to verify whether what the professors tell you is true or not. Like Sunking said, this industry is heavily subsidized by government incentives at many levels. That is done to kickstart rapid growth. But the jury is still out on whether this growth can become self sustainable in the future or not once the incentives dry out.

[J.P.M.]

Hello,

I am a senior in college to be graduating in a month with a double major in Marketing and Environmental Studies. I will be going straight to graduate school next fall, so I'll be looking into employment opportunities to help pay off these loans while earning a master's degree simultaneously.

With my educational background in business I am confident that I could manage my own small company, and there are few other fields that have such drastic projected growth as renewable energy.

That said, I am very interested in getting a solar start-up off the ground. Specifically, I think solar panel manufacturing for residential use would be the area I would like to focus on. I can't afford to pay anybody, so all manufacturing (and possibly installation, though I would like to avoid that and focus on manufacturing products to be sold in retailers) would have to be handled by me. I'm sure there would be legal issues with buying already built solar cells and constructing a panel using them to be sold, so manufacturing would have to start with the solar cells themselves.

My questions are...
-Which exact materials do I need to build a solar cell (a powerful one; strong enough to power an air conditioning unit)?
-How feasible would such an endeavor be?
-I'll be operating out of my mom's garage in the immediate future- will this pose any limitations as far as the efficiency of the solar cells I'll be constructing?
-I've noticed that home-made panels are generally lower quality; how possible is it for me to build panels that would be able to compete with higher end products?

Thanks in advance! This is nothing more than an idea right now, but I would love to get the ball rolling this summer.

FWIW: Skip grad school for now. If you are serious about being around env. stuff/alt. en. etc., get a job sweeping the floor in a solar co. so to speak. Separate who you are from what you do to make money for now. If you have anything to contribute, that will be recognized in proportion to your abilities and willingness to contribute and you will advance accordingly. You may also find that things are not as altruistic as academia may have led you to believe and change course. Whatever you do, sit at the feet of those who have gone before you and try to pick good mentors. I don't usually preach or try to kill the enthusiasm of youth, but for now, put your ego and your hubris in your back pocket, assume you know nothing and watch, listen and learn. Whatever your choice, I'd respectfully suggest remembering that formal education is only the start of knowledge acquisition. Hopefully formal education helped you to acquire the critical thinking skills to improve your understanding in any field of your choosing. Observe, study, think, learn, repeat.

[silversaver]

What college did you go?

[JohnInSoCal]

you don't need a college degree to start a business, let alone a graduate degree. Are you doing a graduate degree just to say you have one or do you think you need one for the line of work you want to get into ? College is seriously overrated for most career paths and I have a B.S in Computer Science, it was some what beneficial to me back in the day 1989 when I graduated with it but now when hiring programmers college degree is virtually inconsequential people are simply looking for skills and experience. My advice is find something you are passionate about and if you want to get into that business learn all you can about that field (hint: you won't learn about it in a class room). Then decide what you can bring to the table that is new/innovative and work on that. As mentioned earlier starting a solar panel manufacturing business would seem to be next to impossible unless you had some new method of manufacturing or process that was innovative, and if you do then you would need to go get VC funding to make it happen.

[russ]

I think he lost interest in us.

[Shockah]

That was an interesting read... and all that from someone pursuing a Master's?

Double major in Marketing and Environmental Studies
and you gotta go on an internet forum to ask if home-built solar cells is a profitable idea?

I think the original intent of this thread was a joke............ gone bad.

[Sunking]

you don't need a college degree to start a business

You are correct. Bill Gates, Micheal Dell, Ty Warner, Ted Turner, and Ralph Lauren are all Billionaires who never graduated fro college. .

They all had several things in common:

• Restless passion to be rich with no set hours
• Lived below their means and saved money.
• Hard work and long hours.
• Surrounded themselves with smarter people than they were.
• Knew they would be rich in grade school and worked for it to that end.

That is all it takes. College just makes it easier like Sam Walton, Warren Buffet, Boone Pickens, and Mark Cuban did. But they had the same values as any self made millionaire or billionaire does. They earned it. Hell I even know Truck Drivers at Wally World and Restaurant owners who are poor multi-millionaires who never even graduated high school.

If you are poor and struggling it is only for one reason and one reason only. That is the path you chose early in life. Most likely influenced by your parents.

[J.P.M.]

That was an interesting read... and all that from someone pursuing a Master's?

Double major in Marketing and Environmental Studies
and you gotta go on an internet forum to ask if home-built solar cells is a profitable idea?

I think the original intent of this thread was a joke............ gone bad.

Guess a few of us got punk'd huh ?