Seth Long, who leads a non profit that builds homes in Appalachia, wasn’t always a believer in the value of solar but he had long been looking for relief from high electricity bills. Despite adding energy efficiency measures to the office, the bills from Kentucky Power were still as high as $1,600 a month, something that wasn’t sustainable.

Then Josh Bills, an energy specialist from the economic development organization Mountain Association, showed him that HOMES Inc. could benefit financially from installing rooftop solar on its office in Whitesburg, even if it borrowed the entire cost of the solar system.

“In our climate today, everything gets political,”  said Long, executive director of HOMES Inc. “This doesn’t have to be about left or right. This doesn’t have to be about coal or solar. It can be about common sense, too. As coal built this country with energy in the past, we need to pivot. And I think solar can play a part in that pivoting to something else.”