How American Solar & Roofing’s Joy Seitz is advancing the solar industry in Arizona

Phoenix Business Journal

For more than 15 years, Joy Seitz has been a passionate advocate for Arizona’s solar industry.

Seitz is CEO and owner of Phoenix-based American Solar & Roofing, which was founded in 2001 and installed the first grid-tied solar system on a home in the Valley.

Seitz joined American Solar & Roofing in 2009, initially focusing on local and state solar policy before taking the helm as CEO in 2014. The company has 13 employees and conducted more than 13,000 solar panel installations since its inception. Prior to joining American Solar & Roofing, Seitz worked for Policy Development Group, a lobbying firm headquartered in Phoenix.

Seitz has navigated the company throughout several solar industry changes in recent years, including working with utility companies and advocating for legislation to spur solar adoption.

Arizona ranks fifth in total solar capacity and is projected to add 12 gigawatts of solar capacity in the next five years to power more than 1.4 million homes, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association.

American Solar & Roofing is focusing on helping homeowners and organizations upgrade and maintain their solar panel systems as well as educating the nonprofit sector on transiting to solar power.

“Now — with the company being 24 years old — there’s a lot of new homeowners that are like, ‘Hey, how does solar work?’ Or folks that maybe went solar over 20 years ago and want to upgrade,” Seitz said. “There’s a lot of operations and maintenance going on. Then, there’s also a lot of second homeowners that you’re educating. Once they move, those customers want to invest in solar again, so there’s a lot of that return business that we’re seeing.”

What prompted your career shift from public policy to American Solar? American Solar and Roofing started as the first solar seller. We were the first to install [solar] on a home in City of Phoenix and in the city of Scottsdale. So being first requires a different skill set than maintaining [the business] and growing it. Once the market was built, the company started getting a lot of competition. Once you have competition, you have to price and sell differently. We evaluated what the company needed at the time and they needed somebody with my skill set, which was tenacity. We were being attacked by utilities so it required somebody who had a backbone to be able to deal with the extreme amount of pressure that was being placed — not only by the utilities — but also by other businesses coming in and taking our market share. The founder is still with the company. Solar is his passion. Like any good company, it’s built by somebody who has a love for something. I transitioned from public policy to American Solar because the industry and the company needed me to bring my superpowers to protect, grow and pivot.

What’s your approach to leadership? The purpose of our company is affecting revolutionary change through our employees, customers and community. My approach to leadership is fully designed by the entrepreneurial operating system: have your purpose, put the right person in the right seat, have the right processes, be really clear to the team on what I want to build and building trust with the team to be able to enact that vision. It’s super structured. I know my strengths and my weaknesses, and I am okay with just knowing and leaning into my strengths and telling my team what my weaknesses are so that we can all work together.

President Trump signed a series of executive orders on Jan. 20, two of which could impact climate policy and funding authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act. How is American Solar & Roofing navigating the situation and potential impacts to the solar industry? This executive order is highly complex and the industry is still in the process of assessing its implications. However, as with any transition in administration, policy changes are inevitable. American Solar & Roofing — with its 24 years of experience — has successfully navigated shifts in policy across multiple presidencies and we are committed to continuing this adaptability. Specifically, there are two key provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that my organization will actively advocate to protect. The first is the 30% tax credit available to homeowners who opt for solar energy, incentivizing the transition to renewable energy at the residential level.

The second is the 30% direct pay provision for nonprofits, which allows these institutions to adopt solar energy, reduce operational costs and reinvest those savings back into the communities they serve. Finally, it is evident to Arizonans that our state is becoming increasingly hotter due to climate change. This rise in temperature is directly affecting utility bills, creating significant financial pressure on households. Addressing this issue by supporting solar energy adoption is not just environmentally responsible — it’s economically necessary.

What are your near- and long-term plans for American Solar and Roofing? Giving Arizona homeowners the confidence of going solar is super important. Then, the next thing that we’re focusing on is commercial work. There’s a lot of companies that have installed solar for local nonprofits or small businesses and that company isn’t here anymore to service them. So we’re showing up for the community, providing service and keeping their solar power systems going. Then, we’re focusing on educating the nonprofit sector on how to go solar, save money and then drive that money back into the folks that they serve. The Inflation Reduction Act gave nonprofits new guidance on how they can get a 30% tax credit. Now, they can just get a check delivered to them for 30% of the cost of the project. Before the revision, they had to find business partners who had taxable income that would allow them to do it and they don’t have to do that anymore, so they now can control their own destiny.