Colite Technologies featured in Construction News
Colite Technologies is proud to be featured in the April edition of Dallas/Fort Worth Construction News. Our vice president of sales for the mid-south region, Lydia Miller, nicely sums up the benefits of solar energy.
Read the article on page 11 below or on their website!
Construction News provides monthly news coverage for the construction industry in Texas and is read by construction-related companies and professionals all over the state.
Article:
When Lydia Miller gives a sales presentation that includes a photo of a solar light sticking out of the ground, she makes sure it includes a big circle around it with a slash over it. That’s because as Vice President of Sales for Colite Technologies, Miller wants clients to understand that there is so much more to solar.
“There are two misconceptions about solar,” Miller explains. “The first is that most people’s experience of solar lighting is the little stick light in the ground you can get for two dollars that, by the way, are not very good. The other misconception is that people underestimate what solar can do. They think that they can put up four solar panels and a battery and they can power a 4,000sf house. A lot of what I have to do is educate people about what solar can and cannot do because people that are enthusiastic about it sometimes have an unrealistic idea of what’s possible.”
So, Miller shows them what is possible with solar.
“Colite Technologies does solar lighting for outdoor locations that are difficult or expensive to run wires to such as parking lots, walking trails, bike trails – places where the cost of running wire is going to be super expensive. We also do stand-alone solar solutions for things like monument signs or fountains, Wi-fi or security cameras. We do LED retrofits as well.”
Miller explains that although Colite Technologies is barely a year old, its parent company, Colite International, is a sign company that has been around for 50 years.
“It seemed a logical step [for Colite International to go] from signs to lighting, in particular renewable energy lighting,” Miller says. “The owner of Colite International got together with my boss, Kevin O’Hara, and they really looked at what would be a way to create a company that was more focused on the lighting side and incorporating renewable energy. It seemed like there was a real need for it for a lot of construction and very few people are doing it.”
As it established itself last year, Colite Technologies recruited Miller, who has 18 years in the renewable energy industry, to create new pathways for the company.
“Part of my job is to create a network of partners that we do mutually beneficial business with,” Miller says. “My job is to build business in the central south US, which includes Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas. Currently, I’m partnered with several different solar companies in different cities because they get a big demand for things like solar lighting or small-scale solar projects that are really not their area of expertise. We get requests for residential solar that isn’t ours, so it’s a good mutual exchange.”
Miller has enjoyed her first six months at Colite Technologies, and praises the company’s commitment to workforce diversity and the high expectations she and her coworkers enjoy meeting. She also believes in what Colite Technologies offers its clients, and keeps fighting the good fight when it comes to the solar-stick perception so many people have.
“I think it’s important for people to know that solar is pretty well here and it’s gotten very cost-effective,” she says. “So for people who say that maybe years from now it will be something doable for any project anywhere, we’re really at that point in terms of cost and payback.”
Now that solar is here to stay, Miller is starting to see and increasing demand for what Colite Technologies offers.
“It seems like one project in about 15 or 20 had the need for some renewable power feature,” she adds. “My goal is for Colite Technologies to be the go-to company for anybody that needs power in an unusual location or anyone who needs solar lighting at all.”
offers LED retrofitting and renewable lighting solutions -mjm
Edited 2/24/2020