Energy Bar: Changing the Forecast for Rooftop Solar

North Dakota is the state with the lowest amount of solar in the country, but you wouldn’t know it talking to James Kambeitz and Ryan Warner, co-founders of Lightspring Solar. 

Kambeitz, Warner, and their partner Wesley Davis had seen out-of-state companies move into North Dakota and build a thriving wind power industry that now provides more than a third of the state’s electricity. They figured, why not do the same for solar? 

“[We thought], wouldn't it be great if North Dakotans had the option to build solar themselves and keep all that money in the state?” Kambeitz says. “So, we found people who wanted to have solar installed. And we said, ‘Anyone who wants to start a solar company, let's get together and let's talk.’

“It was through word of mouth via friends, business acquaintances, and virtually everyone we knew or would run into. We'd let them know what we were doing and ask if they knew anyone else who would like to make solar happen in North Dakota. It spread organically and quickly…The first people that showed up were Indigenous people of North Dakota and some German-American farmers.” 

Together, these two cultures hosted the first solar training in the state in 2017 at the United Tribes Technical College, and as a result of the connections made in that meeting, Lightspring was formed in 2018. Today, half of the Lightspring team is Indigenous, including co-owner Davis, the general manager, who is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. “We’ve learned so much together,” Kambeitz says. “We have Indigenous leaders in our company who not only train community members to build solar with us, but also, they’re teaching us how to be good relatives.”

The environment for photovoltaic solar power, while sunny in most of the world, is a bit more cloudy in the U.S. and downright gloomy in places like North Dakota. California gets over a third of its electrons from solar, and even politically conservative states like Texas and Utah have about 10% to 15% solar in their electricity mix. In North Dakota, it’s 0.01%, even though the state is surprisingly sunny. Still, Lightspring is steadfast in its mission to bring solar to the Great Plains.

Solar Surge

Solar power is having a moment — or maybe a decade. In 2024, global solar power generation was more than 10 times higher than in 2014, growing faster than all other types of energy over that time. In the U.S., solar grew from 0.5% of electricity generation in 2014 to 7% last year. 

The reason for this explosive growth is simple: Over the last decade, the price of a solar panel has fallen dramatically, making solar electricity cheaper than electricity produced by any type of fossil fuel and only slightly more expensive than onshore wind. In 2024, solar accounted for almost two-thirds of all new electric generating capacity in the U.S. (Battery storage and wind made up almost all the rest.)

The climate activist Bill McKibben put it simply on a recent podcast: “Back in the 1980s, up to about three or four years ago, the essential problem here was that fossil fuel was cheap and clean energy was expensive. And that made it structurally extremely difficult to make progress. Because fossil fuel was pretty much synonymous with the economy. That's now flipped. We live on a planet where the cheapest way to make energy is to point a sheet of glass at the sun. And in some ways, that really does change everything, or at least it could.”

Up on the Rooftop

Just under a third of U.S. solar generation comes from small-scale rooftop systems, like the ones Lightspring sells. These are also called “behind the meter” systems or “distributed generation.” They’re used to generate electricity that’s sent directly to a home or business, rather than to the grid like the large fields of panels used by utility companies do. While utility-scale solar is largely straightforward, rooftop solar has complications, both logistical and economic.

The logistical challenges come from the fact that the sun, famously, doesn’t always shine. And when it does, it’s strongest in the middle of the day, not in the evening, when energy use peaks. For large utility-scale solar arrays, that “intermittancy” is not too much of a problem, as the facilities can often store excess power in massive batteries  or sell the surplus to other places. In the worst-case scenarios, the arrays can even be temporarily shut down. 

It’s much harder for electrical grid operators to manage thousands of rooftop solar arrays, most of which don’t have batteries — even though rooftop solar does reduce transmission costs and losses because the electricity is used right where it’s produced, and during periods of extreme demand (like heat waves), rooftop solar can lower costs for entire regions.

The economic issues are a little trickier. First, rooftop solar is more expensive than utility-scale solar due to the simple fact that it’s cheaper by about half to build one huge array in an open area than dozens of smaller arrays on roofs. Second, solar customers, who are often relatively well off, usually receive subsidies that lower their electric bills at the expense of other customers, who are generally lower income. The size of this “cost-shift” is hotly debated, but it reduces the amount of money utilities can spend to maintain and upgrade the grid, and it creates troubling inequities.

But it’s also the economics of rooftop solar that make it so compelling, even in North Dakota, where electricity rates are near the lowest in the nation. Even with recent reductions in incentives, says Warner, “Solar still remains the lowest-cost source of energy generation.”

Clearing the Hurdles

Despite this economic advantage, North Dakota has almost no state-level incentives, unlike for fossil fuels, which are highly subsidized.

“It's really the state-level incentives that are creating the industry and creating the market,” Warner says. State politicians, he says, claim they are “‘all-of-the-above’ on energy policy, but then when it comes down to incentivizing businesses and industries, then they're definitely not all-of-the-above. They're all about gas and coal. And everyone else can get to the back of the line.” 

He points to Minnesota, which had no solar industry a decade ago and is cloudier than North Dakota, but instituted solar incentives and now has a thriving solar industry. Minnesota’s solar can now power over 400,000 homes. In North Dakota, it’s about 300.

North Dakota was one of only a few states that didn’t apply for billions in solar funding for low-income communities through the EPA’s Solar for All program. State nonprofits and Indigenous groups did, though, and won more than $100 million for North Dakota, funding that now is in serious jeopardy. 

Lightspring also went to state regulators to ask about using federal funds from low-income energy assistance programs for low-cost solar heaters. “That went nowhere,” Warner says.

What’s more, the rural electric cooperatives that cover more than half of the state aren’t required to reimburse solar customers for the excess power they generate. They also create a dizzying patchwork of regulations. “It definitely increases the development time for the project because … there's maybe 18 different policies we have to understand, depending on where the territory is,” Warner says.

Local attitudes are an additional hurdle Lightspring works to overcome. Lightspring doesn’t talk about pollution at all, Kambeitz says, “because your customers will just close the door. So you only talk about how much money you can save, how effective you are, being conservative with Earth's resources. And that works.”

Always Look on the Bright Side

In the face of difficulties and disappointments, Lightspring perseveres and thrives. One secret is their relentless optimism, as they often talk about how lucky they are. The silver lining in the lack of state incentives, Warner says, means that “Lightspring was able to develop organically without cost pressures in terms of competition and in terms of workforce. So we've been in a privileged position as one of the only installers in North Dakota.”

They also stick to what they call the “North Dakota way,” focusing on building a home-grown industry by and for North Dakotans, with an emphasis on energy education and “ethical solar.” 

Warner explains: “A lot of what our days are spent doing is trying to help people raise their awareness, and it doesn't result in a sale. A lot of times we'll say, ‘The smartest thing for you to do would be to stop using so much electricity, and then once you make things more efficient and change your behavior, then come back to us and we'll put up a system that's going to meet what your new level of consumption is.’ Because not using electricity is typically the best way to save money on electricity. 

“We don't want to just put solar up for the sake of putting solar up. It's a waste of resources. It also gives us — it gives the industry — a bad name. And it's a small state, and we’ve got to live with all these same people that we're selling systems to. We're going to see them somewhere in the future.” Warner and Kambeitz once went to look at a large horse arena that wanted solar, for instance, and informed them that insulation and better windows would be more cost-effective than solar.

“We want to find win-win solutions” when navigating difficult policies and attitudes, says Kambeitz. “We can always be good, supportive, positive, loving people and not have to criticize anybody or call them names or anything like that. And that's the only way to survive in North Dakota.”

Warner continues, “It's all about the win-win solution. Even with some of the policies getting rolled back or changed, there's new opportunities within these bad policies — and so we just have to find them.”

“We've already persevered through the hardest parts of our company's development. So we don't get too pessimistic about things. We know it's going to be as hard as it's already been, so we'll probably figure it out.”

Five Takeaways

• Small-scale, rooftop solar is one of the cheapest sources of electricity.
• Utility-scale solar is cheaper than rooftop solar, and managing thousands of small-scale solar arrays can pose challenges for the electric grid.
• Incentives for solar energy have helped create the solar industry, just as subsidies for fossil fuels sustain that industry.
• Rooftop solar allows individuals to create their own green energy on a grassroots level.
• Even in harsh economic, cultural, and policy climates, rooftop solar has a bright future because it’s cheaper than fossil fuels.

What You Can Do

Explore the possibility of installing solar panels on your house, or even on your apartment balcony. Join organizations that fight for solar energy, like Vote Solar. Get involved in Sun Day to raise awareness that solar energy is cheap and plentiful. And talk to your neighbors about solar: One of the most powerful predictors of a home having solar is if the neighbors do.