We’ve got a special Humans of Uprise story for you today: meet William Tinel, Uprise’s very first customer! William and wife Mayada El-Zogbhi made a solar investment with Uprise in late 2021, obtaining a 5.2 kilowatt system for their Edgewood rowhome.
Solar As An Investment
When William and Mayada were considering investment opportunities, they realized solar might be a good one. “[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,” William says. “You get the tax credit. You get the SRECs. It makes sense thinking about return on investment.”
They’d originally researched another solar company in the area, but the company didn’t think they could install on William’s house because of the parapets on either side of his shingle roof. Around that time he had a conversation with Chris, who was about to start Uprise Solar, and Chris knew his team could handle the install.
William’s background is in engineering, his father was a carpenter, and both are picky about work done on their home. William mentioned other contractors didn’t always care for it when he checked out their work, but the Uprise solar install team didn’t mind at all. “These guys, I was watching them, and they were very relaxed, very easy,” he says. “And [I was] asking questions, an annoying customer, right? But they were all relaxed.”
The Uprise team installed 13 400-watt solar panels on the roof, with an estimated 107% utility bill offset, which means our design estimated the solar panels would cover all of William’s electric bill — and then some. With a payback period of just over three years, the 30% federal solar tax credit, net metering, and a reduced power bill, the couple were looking at significant savings, not to mention those SRECs, or Solar Renewable Energy Credits.
William went with local SREC aggregator Sol Systems (who are also one of the oldest such companies in the US), and says SRECs have been a great source of passive income. “SRECs work perfectly fine,” he says. “It’s like, oh another seven hundred dollars in a bank account!”
Creative Uses of Solar
William had been watching the construction of a new ground-mounted solar installation near their home by the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and drove me over in his electric car to check it out. (The 7.5 megawatt system was completed after our conversation, in July 2024.)
We discussed the pros and cons of installing solar farms on empty land, and also talked about the success of the IKEA College Park solar carports, installed a few years ago in July 2021, as well as other potential locations for large-scale solar installations.
“On the Red line, if you look at Brookland and Edgewood and Noma, there is that piece of land that is industrial, right? Where there’s like cars and things like that,” William says. “Why not cover parts of that with solar panels?”
DC Highlight: Biking
Originally from Belgium, William has lived around the world. When we spoke, he’d lived in Washington DC for seven years, and enjoyed the ability to get around by bicycle. “When the weather is nice and beautiful on a Saturday morning, go to the Potomac along the river, go up to Georgetown, and you can cycle all the way up,” he says.
William appreciates the access to nature even in the city. “I find [DC] a healthy mix between the green and city,” he says. “The whole Mall, the Smithsonians, have some kind of magic.”
Greening A DC Rowhouse
When William and Mayada first moved to DC, she was commuting back to New York City every few weeks, and they had a one bedroom apartment in Edgewood. But one day after walking over to Busboys and Poets’ Brookland location to eat, they noticed housing in development. “We walked in a model home, and my wife said, I like this,” William says. “In two weeks, three weeks, it was all done. And that was in 2017. About two years before COVID.”
Solar isn’t the only sustainable upgrade the couple has made to their rowhome. Besides their electric car, they also replaced their HVAC system with a heat pump. “I like to tinker,” William says. “I mean, a lot of things, like little things, like hanging a mirror and all this, I do myself.”
William and I talked about overconsumption in our modern society, and its impact on climate change. “There is the whole thing with owning stuff, between joy and burden. Where’s the balance?” he says. “Nowadays, with consumption thinking, we gather so much stuff. One quote that I heard from Native Americans is that we don’t inherit the land of our ancestors, but we borrow it from our grandchildren. If you think about it, these people lived here for thousands of years. They never had a problem with climate change. They killed a buffalo and they used everything. The white man came and they shot the buffaloes just for the skin and left everything to rot. That kind of mentality, going back to consumption, led to climate change.”
You Can Go Green in DC Too!
Are you thinking solar may be a good investment for your roof, and help you fight climate change too? Uprise offers multiple financing routes so you can purchase your system and earn those SRECs, pay for your panels with a solar loan, or go with our no-cost program. We’d be happy to walk you through your options! Reach out to us on our website or call us at (202) 750-5718 to get started.
You can also read other Humans of Uprise stories here!