Rohnert Park solar distributor Soligent acquires Colorado company

Rohnert Park’s Soligent, the nation’s largest distributor of solar equipment and services, just got bigger.

The company, which already has about 100 employees at its Sonoma Mountain Village headquarters, announced a deal this week to acquire the Denver-based solar distribution division of Conergy.

It is the company’s second major acquisition this year and comes at a time of rapid growth in the solar industry, especially by the nation’s biggest solar installers. In response, Soligent offers smaller dealers and installers a range of services “so they can focus on what they do well, selling or installing,” company CEO Jonathan Doochin said Wednesday.

“We have scale that we can bring to them and efficiencies we can bring to them,” Doochin said.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Soligent is aiming to grow about 60 percent this year, he said. The privately held company doesn’t reveal financial details but said in a press release its estimated annual sales would be “in the hundreds of millions of dollars” following its latest acquisition.

The residential solar business is projected to grow about 60 percent this year and for the first time to record the installation of 1 gigawatt, or 1 billion watts, of power, according to Boston-based GTM Research. Meanwhile, the cost of solar has dropped nearly 30 percent over the three years ending in the first quarter of 2013.

The residential business took off after companies began using special financing programs to sell solar with little or no money down.

“It’s what allowed people to install solar on their homes,” said GTM solar analyst Nicole Litvak. Such options, including leases and power purchase agreements, debuted in the residential solar business in 2008, she said.

On Wednesday, SolarCity, the nation’s largest solar system installer, announced it would start a new financing program, offering loans to homeowners who want to own rather than lease their own systems.

SolarCity and rival Vivint Solar are growing faster than most of the smaller installers, Litvak said. In the second quarter, the two companies together accounted for more than half of all residential installations in the United States.

While the total solar market keeps growing, she said, the small dealers and installers are capturing a smaller portion of it.

Soligent says it can help those small players.

The company and its predecessors have been in business for 33 years, Doochin said. In July 2013, he and a group of investors acquired the business from Japan-based Itochu Corp.

In March, Soligent announced its acquisition of Sunwize, the nation’s second-largest distributor. With that deal, Soligent expanded its distribution services to 4,500 dealers.

The latest acquisition with Conergy will bring that total to more than ?5,000 dealers in the U.S. and 40 other countries, Doochin said. The expanded company will have about 180 employees.

Soligent already offers to its dealers such financing options as residential solar loans, leases and power purchase agreements.

It also provides a set of services called Solar Engine. The package was devised to cut the time and expense solar dealers spend to obtain financing, manage installations and handle other back office tasks. The company’s website says it allows small companies to “compete directly with the largest dealers.”

The aim, Doochin said, is “to give them the tools they need to be successful.”

Billy Sorenson, a co-owner of RS Energy in Tualatin, Ore., said he has used Soligent for both residential and commercial installations because of the company’s ability to consistently deliver products on time.

“I know my equipment’s going to land when I want it to,” Sorenson said.

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit