A record-setting 2019 has led into an even stronger 2020, with the company hoping to ramp up success in the typically-busy second half of the year.
Building on the company’s most profitable year ever in 2019, Austin-based Freedom Solar posted its most profitable quarter ever, with $13 million in sales in Q2 and $29 million year to date.
What’s more, the company anticipates no slowdown for the rest of 2020, with CEO Bret Biggart sharing that “Despite the slight setback caused by COVID-19, we are now on the upward swing as we continue to exceed projected growth in almost every way.” Freedom still expects to meet its original 2020 plan of over $80 million in revenue for the year, especially as Q2 gives way to the second half of the year, which is typically when the company sees its strongest performance.
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So what does it look like to exceed projections? For Freedom Solar, it looks like 55% year over-year-growth, more than 700 new projects year-over-year and hitting a company milestone of installing more than 70 MW since founding in 2007. Yet beyond continued growth in the Texas solar market, the company’s biggest 2020 success story comes from a sector that had been previously slow to catch on: battery storage.
Battery boom
In March, Kyle Frazier, the chief revenue officer at Freedom Solar, told pv magazine that the company’s energy storage attachment rate was low, at around 5-10%. Frazier attributed this to battery storage being “still a rich man’s game” in Texas, adding “You’d never get payback for a battery unless your considerations are the zombie apocalypse or secession.”
In just a few short months, the script has flipped entirely and the company sold more Tesla Powerwall home batteries in the first half of this year than in all of 2019.
Much of Freedom’s recent success has come from corporate clients, with the company noting a rise of interest in solar and among Texas financial institutions, hotels, multifamily housing, automobile dealerships, and distribution centers over the last year. Biggart attributes part of this interest to millenial and younger employees holding their employers to sustainability standards.
With all of this record-breaking success, the company is looking to expand. Freedom has added 20 new employees this year, building on the 82 new employees added in 2019. The 20 employees brought in so far this year includes an HR recruiter, specifically brought in to assist with hires during Q3. This will be critical, as the company still expects to add a total of 89 jobs over the course of 2020.
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