GreenSpark Solar remains committed to goals amid policy changes

To say GreenSpark Solar has made an impact on the energy landscape would be a colossal understatement.

For the past four years, the homegrown Rochester-based company has been named a Top Solar Contractor in the United States by Solar Power World. In 2023, GreenSpark was No. 1 on the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce Top 100 list of fastest-growing, privately owned companies in the region.

And in July, Solar Power World ranked GreenSpark No. 1 among New York-based solar EPC contractors (engineering, procurement and construction) for volume of installation.

“We’re a Rochester company and we’re playing a significant role in the solar market around the country,” GreenSpark CEO Kevin Schulte said.

But recent changes in energy priorities by the Trump Administration are having an immediate impact on the solar industry, and GreenSpark has been forced to adjust accordingly.

Instead of hiring team members based on anticipated projects, employment is now scaled based on actual opportunities. That’s why the workforce of 165 was recently reduced by approximately 12 percent.

“I had to let excellent people go, people who had done nothing but serve my business,” Schulte said. “We will continue to grow, but it will be more measured.”

Among the provisions of President Donald Trump’s recently passed Big, Beautiful Bill: elimination of the tax credit that allowed homeowners to deduct 30 percent of a solar system’s cost.

The ideological shifts in Washington, D.C., come at a time when demands on the power grid are increasing, and aging infrastructure make it more difficult for the grid to keep up with usage.

“For the first time in a couple decades, you’re seeing an increase in load growth on the grid,” Schulte said. “That’s from home electrification, EVs, data centers, AI.

“And then we have these massive projects coming on line; fairlife (in Webster) and Micron (in Syracuse). The grid will focus on the massive consumers of electrons, not everyday consumers.”

Solar power can help bridge that gap, Schulte said, so the industry considers the Trump administration policy changes to be counterintuitive.

“At a time when the federal government is doing everything it can to cut solar power down, the gigawatts put up by our 2025 Top Solar Contractors emphasize just how critical it is to our nation’s energy mix,” Kelsey Misbrener, managing editor of Solar Power World, said in a news release. “From the smallest residential projects to the largest utility-scale solar farms, these installations are keeping the lights on and keeping power affordable.”

In 2024, GreenSpark installed over 112 megawatts of solar capacity in various projects across the Northeast and Midwest. A good percentage was from residential and commercial rooftop panels.

Schulte anticipates a noticeable decline in those sectors as tax credits disappear. But he also says homeowners and business owners shouldn’t simply dismiss the idea of solar installations because the subsidies are gone.

“The No. 1 challenge in deploying solar here is the belief it’s not sunny enough, but we get 60 percent of the electricity in panels here that you would get in Arizona,” Schulte said. “That not only enough to make a difference, it’s enough to make a payback.”

Any savings will be appreciated by consumers because electricity prices will be rising as the grid struggles to keep up.

“What the bill did was make electricity more expensive for everyone,” Schulte said. “GE is the largest manufacturer of turbines in the world and they’re saying they have a seven-year backlog on natural gas turbines. It’s going to take seven to 10 years to get nuclear plants online. Solar is the fastest to deploy.”

Which is why GreenSpark will continue to deliver utility-scale clean energy projects across New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Maryland and Illinois.

“We’ll continue to be the cheapest,” Schulte said, “because everything else will get more expensive.”

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