Michael Scott with Sunder Energy

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It’s my pleasure today to introduce you to Michael Scott, regional manager at Sunder Energy. Michael is passionate about renewable energy and its benefits for the environment and the economy. Michael, I’m so glad to have you on today. Welcome to the show.

Michael Scott: How’s it going, Miss Trisha? Um, nice to meet you, everybody.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Fantastic. So, Michael, tell us a little bit about you, and then we’ll jump into what it is that you’re out there doing.

Michael Scott: Okay, so, um, my name is Michael Scott. I moved to the Houston area about six years ago whenever Hurricane Harvey hit. Uh, just working disaster recovery. And, like, port Aransas and, like, Corpus Christi areas where the storm was super bad. So that’s kind of what got me out to Houston about six years ago. The biggest problem with that is that is disaster recovery. So as soon as we fix the problem, then, you know the funding is out and you’re out of a job. So essentially that kind of left me in Houston with no job. And that’s whenever I reached out to a friend and he was doing solar and he was like, come do this solar stuff. There’s no money out of pocket. There’s they don’t have to. They can turn their electric bill into a bill. They have to pay anyways into an asset back into their house. And, you know, the interest rates were 1 or 2%. So that’s kind of like what got me into doing solar. About five years ago, I graduated with from UL Lafayette with an engineering degree, uh, project management building houses from the ground up my whole life. So that was kind of what I did from 21 to 27. And the past five years, I’ve kind of, you know, been in the renewable solar solar sector.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Fantastic. Well, one of the reasons I asked you on the show is because of your energy. I love your energy and I also love your transparency. We talked a lot about, you know, solar is not necessarily for everyone or every house because everyone has a different situation. Before we started the show today, you were telling me about, you know, these neighborhoods where they have lots of trees and that may not be the right place to install solar. So let’s talk a little bit more about your passion around this renewable energy, and why it’s so important to you to get the message out to people about solar?

Michael Scott: Uh, I guess the biggest thing is kind of like a quote that I had read, like from Warren Buffett. It’s like energy deregulation will be the largest transfer of wealth. So it’s just like essentially two, 200 years ago, whenever everybody wanted electricity, nobody cared how we got it. They just wanted it. So like, if you think about it now, we’re getting all of our power from power lines and wooden poles and all this old infrastructure. So essentially the reason why electricity rates are going up at such a high rate is because for me personally, I think that electricity is the most important thing outside of air. You know, it’s air and then electricity is pretty much where I would rate it. So that means that it’s always going to be in an abundant like people are going to need a lot of electricity for a long time with more and more electricity, electric cars coming out and everything. There’s just more, uh, stress on the infrastructure. So they have to go to alternative. It’s not like it’s not like solar is competing with oil. I don’t think I grew up in an oil field family. My dad’s a mud engineer, so I don’t think their income like they’re competing. They’re just so much need that they can both kind of like work together. So I just see the amount of electricity rates just going up because they were so low long ago, because there wasn’t as much need for it. But now with the need increasing, the price is rising up, matching it. So that’s kind of why I got into solar.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. So I’m going to take us down this path of you talked about the infrastructure And we’re just coming out of a pretty nasty hurricane here in the Houston area. Talk about the difference between having because I know you have solar on the place that you live in. Let’s talk about the difference between having solar going through a storm and being on the on the backside of that. Right. And people who are relying on power through this old infrastructure. So tell me about that experience.

Michael Scott: So for me, the main thing that I kind of took away from it after the fact is that I was just a little bit more self-sufficient. You know, I didn’t have my lights running like the whole time. It’s not like you have, you know, batteries and you have solar in your house is always just going to be powered up. It’s not that’s not how it actually is. But I did have more than most of my neighbors. Like most of my neighbors, their refrigerators weren’t powered up, so they lost a lot of food. So it’s like those little things are what I had that other people didn’t have. But I also did get my Powerwall and my battery like 3 or 4 years ago. So I got the first Powerwall, which was double the price and half the capability, just like getting a Tesla. 5 or 6 years ago. Now they just came out with the Powerwall three. So it’s kind of like why I wanted to get on you was like on this call with you at this time. It just so happened to be like the perfect timing because the Powerwall three is out and the power in Houston is really bad. So this Powerwall three is half the price and double the capability. So it’s essentially it covers a lot of people for not having to go get generators, not having to go, you know, stay with the same electric company. This is a good like alternative for people that they can power up most of their house.

Michael Scott: And it’s also like half the price. So and there’s no money out of pocket as the main thing that I’ve always like liked about solar. Right now, interest rates are high, cash is low. People don’t want to be spending money. So my goal is that, like with this product, it’s a government funded program that essentially it’s called the IRA. So essentially what happens is I get you approved, they put the panels on your roof, and now you just start paying for your panels production instead of paying the grid to deliver electricity to you. So it’s not like a loan anymore. You don’t have to get a debt. You can always do those options with tax benefits, but there’s like a lot more options now that are like tailoring to, you know, everybody. It’s not just like the rich people go get a loan and, you know, have to spend a bunch of money and get out your solar. It’s not like that anymore. You’re just basically buying your power from the panels at a wholesale rate instead of getting it from the grid. So that’s what’s super nice. We can always attach the batteries too. That’s just like a bonus. It just makes your house self-sufficient. It’s not going to make your house always have power. It’s just for the most part, you can kind of use your energy from your panels and your battery instead of going to the grid. That’s kind of how you don’t get an electric bill.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. And that that totally makes sense. So I appreciate that you’re bringing light to it doesn’t it doesn’t have to cost as much as it used to right before we started recording the show I shared with you. You know, when solar first came out and I’m. I’m not that old, but, you know, I’m old enough to remember when it first became available to residential homeowners. That was very, very expensive and most people couldn’t afford to get into solar. Plus, I think it was a lot bigger and bulkier. And it wasn’t necessarily, you know, as cost efficient or even as, um, size efficient as it is now. And I think that that’s really important. So, Michael, uh, give people some contact information. How about right now and then we’ll do that again at the end. But in case people are really curious and want to contact you about solar, how can they find you?

Michael Scott: So essentially it’s super easy. All you do is you send me over an email or a text with your most recent electric bill. My phone number is (281) 432-7296. And my email is Michael Scott at Sunder Energy Com.  S u n d e r energy dot com. Essentially all they do is they text me over their electric bill. With that I can see the bar graph to see how much energy they use a year. And then with that information, I go look at their house to see how good their roof is. You need to have a south facing roof that’s open to the sun. You have to be the homeowner, and you have to be current on your mortgage and your allege and your car payments and stuff like that. So that’s all they need. Essentially all they want to do is they want to utilize your roof space to generate power for their grid. So all my job is to do is make sure that your roof can produce that energy at an efficient rate. The more efficient your roof is, the more sun your roof gets, the lower your electric rate is, essentially. So that’s all I do is I just find out a lower fixed, predictable rate for you with money you have to spend anyways. So we can all agree that we all have to spend 200 to $300 on our electric bill every single month, right?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely.

Michael Scott: Okay, so if you can use that money and put it back into your house, it would make sense if the numbers would work right?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. For sure.

Michael Scott: And of course, the biggest thing is that most people just need the proper expectations. Like a lot of reps are going to come out here and tell you that you’ll never have an electric bill. You’ve heard a lot. You know, you never have an electric bill. You just can’t. I can’t guarantee that because if it’s rains for a whole month, you would still have an electric bill. So that’s what I like to do. I like to just like, explain it to you fully and in totality. The biggest thing is that like center point, they just had all their grids get damaged, all the power lines go out, but yet they’re coming. Ask you for an increase on your rate, right. For all their stuff is broken. So if you’re going to pay, I’d rather pay less for something that’s not broken now than pay more for something that we already know is broken. Because like, there’s a lot of questions like, what does solar really work? You know, all this stuff. But it’s like, right now your electric grid doesn’t work and you’re paying more for it. So like, I don’t really see that question making sense, you know?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah absolutely. Another thing that you brought up before we started recording is that there are some areas in Houston where you just can’t power up a generator. Like that’s not an option in some neighborhoods, uh, or in housing areas, you know, fill in the blank. Right. Um, so having solar energy or something sustainable like solar energy is such a better option for people who may be in a position. Hey, listen, I don’t know how to start up the generator either, so how cool would it be, right, if I didn’t have to start up the generator, find somebody to start up the generator for me. And it’s also dangerous. Or can be dangerous if you don’t treat that generator the right way. So, you know, back to your point on having this sustainable, sustainable solar power is just cleaner and better for the environment, right?

Michael Scott: Yeah. Yeah, that’s that’s also a true statement. That’s what I did notice that a lot of like in Houston, they’re starting to build a lot more townhouses. So the houses are very close. So essentially with the city you just need certain amount of area to have a generator. So if your house is right next to somebody else’s house, you can’t have a generator just because of the emissions and things. So I love about the powerwalls. They go straight into your garage. It’s like a three by six and it sticks out maybe like 1 or 2in from your wall. So it’s like you don’t even notice it’s there. It’s right there. It’s double the capability and half the price now. So essentially they just want your house to use its own energy because it’s got to the point where the grid is just can’t withstand everybody pulling from it. So if you think about it, they always send out those emails between 4 to 7. Don’t use your AC. It’s like, that’s the only time I want to use my AC and everybody listens to this. But it’s like if you think about it, it’s like everybody’s pulling from that grid at that prime time and then the power goes out. You know, it’s just it’s not like it’s rocket science why the power can’t handle what we’re doing. It’s just because it’s 110 degrees outside. So all we’re doing, the biggest thing is we’re just using the sun. The sun’s never going to change its price. They’re not never going to be like, hey, we need more repairs for the sun.

Michael Scott: The grid is always just damaged. So we’re just it’s the IRA. It’s called the Inflation Reduction Act. The government has it. They put $300 billion into it. So essentially they’re just saying, hey, the more homeowners that put solar on their house, it’s going to reduce inflation just because you’re not going to have to go fix all the old infrastructure as fast, it’s going to be able to slow it down. So that’s all one is. They’re dumping that money into it. So the biggest thing that I love about my job is just showing people like a lot of stuff that they don’t know about, you know, like everybody has their job that they go to to work all day. And I do this all day, you know? So if you just basically the biggest thing is me just seeing if your house is a good fit, that’s that’s all I do. It’s not about I’m going to try to keep it off the front of your house. I’m going to try to make it look pretty. I’m going to have you save money. Day one I’m going to have you never give me a dollar. And usually most homeowners, I give them rebates of 500 to 500,000. So it’s like my goal is to never have you give me anything, use that money you’re spending every single month. Anyways, put it back into your house while getting some rebates and you know, and just proper expectations of what to expect with the system is my main goal. So yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that, Michael. So we don’t have to shell out any money so long as our roof fits the expectations right, or the specifications that you said it needs to be south facing. You can’t live in a really heavily, heavily wooded area. It needs to have a clear view of the sky and make sure it has the right amount of space, right for the solar panels to to go on the roof. And we don’t have to pay you. Did I hear you right? You said we don’t have to pay you nothing.

Michael Scott: Basically, how we make our money is 30 to 60 days after your panels get installed, you start paying for that. Those solar panels that are producing your energy. And the goal is that if it’s done properly, that it’s going to reduce your electric bill and you pay this, you know, so your ledger bill starts here. You reduce it and then your solar payments here. So you’re saving money. It’s just like, basically I’m knocking on people’s doors that are renting an apartment. I’m saying, hey, I have this great offer. I can pull you out of that apartment today. Your rent’s 1500. I’m going to move you into a house that’s 1400. You never give me a dollar. And now you own this house. Yes. They might say, well, what happens if the washing machine breaks now? It’s like, well, you’re going to have to fix that now. But, you know, that’s, you know, other things that we ask, you know, that’s always the three biggest questions. What happens if I move. You know, what happens if you know something happens to the solar panels and then am I going to still get an electric bill? So that’s basically all I’m there to do is I bring over a report to you, I answer those three questions, and then from there we make a decision. You know, all I am is basically the guy that can submit everything for you. But that’s the main questions.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, you’re taking the hard out of it, which is very nice, right? As the homeowner, I get to engage with you and you get to do all the work.

Michael Scott: And We at the end of the day, me or you don’t have to do the work. I just submit everything over and they take the steps, they take the permits, they take care of everything, HOA approval, all those things we we’ve done, you know, 500 plus of these over the last five years. That’s just me personally. And I have teams doing, you know, thousands of them and in every couple different markets. So it’s not like it’s just Texas. Like I can work in California. It’s essentially all you do is you just see what kind of rebates the the states are giving. You see what kind of, you know, credits the electric companies are giving, and then you see what kind of sun hours are in those markets. And then that’s when I determine, like if it’s going to work for them or not, like somebody in South Carolina, their systems, 25,000 in just this weekend, they’re paying for 65% of it between the federal tax credit and the South Carolina tax credit. It’s literally the net systems like $12,000. Wow. And that’s like after like credits and stuff. So it’s really good for a lot of people if they’re trying to save money and it’s good for people. They don’t want to pay money in taxes. That’s the main reason why I got it, because essentially the government’s just saying, hey, you’re already paying this money into taxes. If you put solar on your house, we’ll give you back the money that you paid into taxes. So it’s not like they’re giving you any money. They’re just giving you back your money that you’re giving them just by offering you.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. That’s fantastic. So Michael, again, would you give your contact information. So anybody who wants those three questions answered wants to know more about solar. Or maybe they’re just interested in having you come out and visit with them. How do they find you?

Michael Scott: So my number is (281) 432-7296. And my email is Michael Michael Scott at Sunder Energy .Com. So you can email me or text me. Just introduce yourself. And then from there I’ll give you a call or an email. I get your electric bill and then we see if we can make it work and if we can, then I set up a time. It takes about 15 or 20 minutes. Essentially, I’m there to show you the information and answer your questions. That’s all I’m here for.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s fantastic. Michael, I know you’re so passionate about this space. I’m so glad that you and I were connected. And I’m so glad that you came on the show with me today. Is there anything else that you’d like for folks to know about this sustainable or renewable energy of solar power?

Michael Scott: Uh, the main thing is just it’s it’s a bill that you have to pay every single month. Anyways. You might as well check out your options every one or 2 or 3 years. You have to sign up with the new electric company anyways, so all I do is I give you a lower rate for a longer time. Uh, and worst case scenario, if it doesn’t make sense, we’re still shake hands, be friends. It’s not a big deal, but at least you know your options. So that’s the main thing.

Trisha Stetzel: Awesome. And you’re very well connected. So even if it’s not you, you could probably connect them with somebody that they want to meet anyway, right? Yes.

Michael Scott: Yes, I know a lot of people and a lot of states, so we can always work together in some sort of some sort of fashion.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, fantastic. Michael again, thank you so much for being on the show with me today. Everyone. Michael Scott, Regional Manager, Thunder Energy. Again, so passionate about renewable energy and the benefits to the environment as well as the economy. He’s here to serve you and educate you even if you don’t think you’re ready to buy right now. He can definitely educate you on or in this space. You’ve been so nice to come on with me today. Thank you so much, Michael.

Michael Scott: All right. Thank you, Miss Trisha. Have a great day.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s all the time we have for today’s show. Join us next time for another exciting episode of Houston Business Radio. Until then, stay tuned, stay inspired, and keep thriving in a Houston business economy.