Sierra Solar Systems

Our Philosophy
For over 30 years, Sierra Solar Systems has helped families and businesses across the globe to become energy independent. Why do we love our jobs so much? We’re at home with solar. Virtually all of our technicians and engineers live in homes powered with renewable energy. That means this is more than a job for us… it’s a way of life.

Sierra Solar Systems is a service oriented company. When you purchase a system from us, our experienced engineering staff is just a toll-free phone call away with expert advice on system sizing, equipment selection, installation and operation.

We started our solar energy business back in 1980 and have been growing it ever since. At the time, we lived on a remote 20-acre piece of land 2-1/2 miles from the pavement and electricity, on the San Juan Ridge in Nevada County, California. We contacted PG&E, our local power company, for a price to bring in power. They quoted us $208,000. When we asked what we should do, they said, “find an alternative source of power.” So that’s what we did. That alternative source was solar. We noticed that many of our neighbors were in the same situation.

At the time, we were running a small general store, selling kerosene for lights and other products essential to life in the woods. One day, a customer came by with an item that I’d never seen before. It was a small glass-covered panel called a “photovoltaic module” (solar electric panel). When asked what it did, I was told, “It can charge batteries for electric lights.” I replied: “That’s not going to be good for the kerosene business!” I was right. Within a few weeks, we started selling solar panels and kerosene sales quickly became a thing of the past. From that time on, more and more of our customers switched over to solar to power their lights, music, and even TV (something unknown in these parts up till then). We published our first mail-order catalog in 1981, which continues to this day.

As solar became more popular in our area, we moved our business to town to be accessible to more people. Our business grew slowly, helped partly by the solar tax credits that were available at the time. In the mid 80′s, the tax credits were discontinued. Solar became more of a “hippy dream” than an energy source to be taken seriously. Our business struggled for the rest of the decade and a good part of the 90′s, serving the needs of other forest dwellers, but still to be discovered by the mainstream.

In 1996, a big change occurred. It was called “net metering.” This new law allowed solar producers who were connected to the power company to “sell” their excess power to the power company for credit against their electric bills. This made solar more attractive to the masses. By 1998, the California Energy Commission began its rebate program, which gave on-grid solar a huge shot in the arm. Ever since then, our business has grown almost continuously and became more profitable. In 2001, Sierra Solar moved to its current Grass Valley location. Our continuing evolution has us looking forward to a very positive and profitable future.