Humans of Uprise
Everyone has different reasons for going solar, and everyone has a story to tell. Meet your neighbors who’ve joined the solar movement.
Mike and Hillary
Trinidad, DC
Mike and Hillary: “The sense of community here has been amazing. Everyone cares about and looks out for one another.”
Their sunny Trinidad rooftop now produces more electricity than their household uses, while roof repairs completed before installation helped prepare the home for long-term solar.
Nina Hamedani and Erkin Ozberk
Ward 4, DC
Erkin: We’re in an old row house here. It’s about 100 years old.
Nina: We’ve still got all the original plaster walls and the original hardwood. We’ve been trying to save as much of it as we can. But yeah, it’s an adventure. We always have a list of projects. But the house tells us what actually needs to be done.
Tracy Warren
Ward 4, DC
You always worry when doing something big like this. Solar is significant. I took a long time to think about it, and I did due diligence, asking other people. But the leasing option is low risk — solar reduces my electric bill. It was a good deal.
Rob Burman
Ward 7, DC
I’ve been fascinated by [solar] since I was aware it was a thing. The high school I went to had a greenhouse and they actually had — and this is like the mid 90s — they had solar panels on it that they had gotten from NASA. I don’t think they actually accomplished that much, but I thought it was neat.
Matt Bevens and Lawrence Arbuthnott
Ward 6, DC
Matt: People don’t need to care about climate to get solar. Certainly not. It saves money. Especially in DC. I don’t think people realize how super friendly our solar policy is here. We have some of the best opportunities in the country to save money.
Toinnette Marshall
Ward 8, DC
Getting solar, that was something that I wanted for me. What do I want to be my footprint on this house? What do I want to say that I did for this house? With the solar panels I was like, that’s what I want. This house is going to be the beacon of light for the rest of this block.
William Tinel
Ward 5, DC
[Solar is] an increase in the value of your home. It’s like between 20 and 30 percent. It’s not nothing. So I was like, all right, makes sense to have solar.
Yashieka Anglin
Ward 5, DC
[Solar] has been a great experience. And it’s instilling in my children the importance of clean energy and the impact it has. They’re growing up in this environment where Mom is doing other things. Like, yeah, I can get a gas-guzzling car — and I don’t knock anyone. That’s your choice. But I’m choosing to do something different. Because they said it just takes one person to make a difference.
Ramon Go and Chris Sewell
Ward 5, DC
Chris: I like having a strong gay community here; that it makes you feel…
Ramon: Empowered and affirming.
Chris: There’s something about it where it’s like I feel like I’ve got a home here, like I’m safe here and that was always pretty big. We always wanted to have a kid, and then we did have a kid, and we like that this is what he’s growing up around. All these different people and cultures. We’re not just the gay family on the block, like we probably would be in other places.
Kevin and Jennie Hollister
Ward 6, DC
Jennie: We’ve always had [solar] in the back of our heads. We saw the oil embargo back in the ‘70s. We saw the Earth heating up.
Kevin: There is ample evidence to suggest we need to do something faster than we’re doing.
Jennie: And we couldn’t put windmills up there.
Sarah Hansen and Cade Sitton
Ward 6, DC
Cade: I think the first bill [after solar] was like $15.
Sarah: Before we did solar — I know [Uprise] does [their] own calculations, but I’m a math spreadsheet person, so I also did my own calculations. I have a current tracker now where I track all of the savings and when our estimated time to ROI is. I absolutely love that part of it. I’m a math nerd, so it’s fun. [Solar] just makes sense in DC, with the SRECs. We could potentially be moving in another three years and even then we’re still gonna make a return on our investment.
Cade: One of our SRECs just sold today for like $410, which is significantly more than our monthly payment on the loan. So even without the actual energy bill savings, it just made sense.
Peter Peart
Ward 1, DC
[Solar] looks really cool. The whole process was really pretty painless. Those guys came, did the work, and then the next day they sent Anthony over to do the plastering, and he’s a master at this, he’s meticulous with what he does. I sat in the basement and I watched him. Master. When he was gone, you never knew that he was here. I’m very happy with that.
Mark Simpson
Ward 4, DC
In my previous life when I worked in real estate development, I met a lot of contractors and subcontractors and I don’t know if it’s because Uprise is mission-oriented or what, but everyone seems very invested in the project and the company and it shows. So I have nothing but confidence that this system’s going to do me really well for the next 20 years and beyond.
Dawit Kebede
Ward 6, DC
This is my philosophy: the next generation must have a better life than us.
Hilary and Mike Benson
Ward 6, DC
Mike: We actually talked about solar for a long time, but we’re in the historic district, so we were afraid we wouldn’t get in.
Hilary: I can’t remember which company it was, but they said, we’ll put it through the permitting process, but we had to do a deposit and there was no guarantee we would get the deposit back if we didn’t get the permits. It seemed like there was a good chance that we might not be allowed to do it, in which case we’d be forfeiting this big deposit. Eventually, we went to City-State, this brewery, and there was a big gathering of solar people, some solar happy hour, but not as a publicity thing, like different solar offices getting together.
Mike: I don’t know how I ended up talking to one of them. I started telling him our story. He was like, I would check out [Uprise]. Uprise said, we’ll guarantee that it either goes through the permitting process or you don’t pay anything.
Rene Hayden
Ward 4, DC
My impression of Uprise is that the business is proceeding from a really strong ethical standpoint and I can really feel that. This is a company which has their clients’ best interests at heart. Uprise is really interested in the broader project of solar and what that can do to benefit the grid and the environment. And also, they’re really interested in doing it right.