In this episode of This Week in Solar, host Aaron Nichols sits down with Phil Horwich, co-founder of AMH Enterprises, to talk about where the solar industry overcomplicates its messaging.
You can connect with Phil on LinkedIn here. He’s created a simplifying solar guide for This Week In Solar listeners that he’ll send you if you DM him the word “podcast.”
Listen to this episode here, or on:
* YouTube
* Spotify
Expect to learn:
* How to explain megawatts and megawatt-hours in a way anyone can understand
* What homeowners and landowners actually care about when evaluating solar projects
* Why simplifying solar actually strengthens the industry against political and cultural backlash (and how acronyms, jargon, and overly technical explanations actually create fear and mistrust)
Quotes from the episode:
“Solar people talk in acronyms that make perfect sense to us and absolutely none to everyone else.”- Phil Horwitch
“If a homeowner can’t explain their solar project at the dinner table, we’ve already lost.”- Phil Horwitch
Transcript:
Aaron Nichols:Phil Horwich. When I asked you to send me your clean energy rant before we recorded and we were in the pre-recording, you mentioned that you’re focused on simplifying solar without dumbing it down so that the average landowner or homeowner can explain their project at the dinner table. What does that look like for you?
Phil Horwich:Yeah, so the big theme for me, Aaron, is that on a day-to-day basis you have all these technical terms that solar people like to use, and they’re very scary and very technical. You’re going through plan sets, permitting, and all the acronyms like MW or AHJ. The way we do it at AMH is translating that into language you can use at the dinner table so someone can understand solar and then explain it to their friends at the golf course, basketball court, wherever they hang out.
Instead of confusing people with industry jargon that’s normal to us but foreign to homeowners, we break it down. People hear AHJ, FTC, ITC, all these three-letter acronyms, and they have no idea what they mean. So we try to simplify it. I don’t always do a great job, but I try to stop anyone who comes on a show and ask them to spell out whatever acronyms they use.
We even took all the acronyms we use and started breaking them down on our socials. What is a watt? What does it actually mean when you see it in solar? That level of clarity matters.
Aaron Nichols:I’m excited to talk more about that. But before we do, welcome back to This Week in Solar. I’m your host Aaron Nichols, and today we’re interviewing Phil Horwich. Phil, can you introduce yourself and talk a little more about AMH Enterprises?
Phil Horwich:Definitely. Thanks, Aaron. I’m Phil Horwich, one of the owners of AMH Enterprises. We do two main things. First, we do the work. Engineering, permitting, and construction support for residential, DG, and utility-scale solar projects all over the United States.
Second, we train teams and homeowners so they can simplify solar enough to explain it to non-solar people. Solar still scares people. We’re trying to make it not scary, so people understand it and don’t think it’s going to give them some disease or make them grow an arm out of their head.
I’ve heard all of it at town halls. People think solar causes cancer or kills plants. It doesn’t. It just means you’re generating your own power.
We started as an engineering company, but my biggest complaint was that I was tired of explaining the same thing over and over again. So we decided to educate people and make solar mainstream, like oil, gas, or nuclear. Nobody’s really scared of nuclear anymore, but bring up solar and suddenly it’s a huge deal. That’s what we’re trying to fix.
Aaron Nichols:The misinformation gets pretty hilarious. I know someone in agrivoltaics who’s been told solar panels kill nearby plants, while standing next to thriving crops.
Phil Horwich:Oh yeah. I’ve heard it kills people. Causes every kind of cancer. And then you see sheep grazing under solar panels. If it were that dangerous, no one would allow that.
Aaron Nichols:So where do you think messaging gets too complex and too heavy?
Phil Horwich:It’s the acronyms, incentives, megawatts. All things we need to talk about in the industry, but landowners want to know if their land is usable after 30 years. What happens after the lease ends. Who’s responsible if a panel breaks.
Homeowners want to know if their bill will actually go down, or what happens during a storm. I lived in Texas, and after a big outage people asked why their panels didn’t give them power. They were told that’s how it works, and it’s not.
We simplify megawatts and megawatt hours by saying one is your fuel tank and one is your odometer. Everyone understands that. We all drive cars or charge them now.
Aaron Nichols:That’s amazing. We work hard to do that at Exact Solar too. It blows my mind how much of the industry thinks graphs will solve everything.
Phil Horwich:Oh my God, yes. Big infographics with wild claims. Sure, technically you could power the world with a small area of solar, but that’s not how it works in reality.
People want to see what it looks like on their house. Will it still look nice? Can we paint conduits to match the siding? Make it normal.
Aaron Nichols:Especially after some bad actors in the early 2020s.
Phil Horwich:Yeah. But the industry is resilient now. Every few years it feels like we get punched in the face, but after RE+ this year it felt different. People weren’t panicking. Solar’s mainstream now.
That’s why simplifying it matters. If regular people understand it, it’s harder to tear down with misinformation.
Aaron Nichols:You mentioned the industry growing faster than the talent pool. How do you handle that?
Phil Horwich:We create playbooks. I have a football background, so everything’s a playbook. We share them freely.
People think utility-scale projects get permitted like a house. They don’t. We’ve been on projects for five years without permits. Entire teams turn over before construction starts.
So we break it down, set realistic expectations, and don’t set people up for failure.
Aaron Nichols:What roadblocks surprised you most?
Phil Horwich:Civil work. Dirt isn’t just dirt. Stormwater rules vary wildly by state and county. Florida is extremely strict.
And the second thing is just being nice. Reviewers are buried. We walk in, humanize it, give clear comment logs, show exactly what changed. Don’t hand someone a hundred pages and make them guess.
Aaron Nichols:That’s huge. Sometimes permitting takes longer because we’re bad at communicating.
Phil Horwich:Absolutely. I’ve told developers from day one their project won’t be permitted on the first try. They don’t like hearing it, but at the end they’re grateful.
We give risk reports, mitigation plans, setback tables, and full Gantt charts so leadership knows the real timeline. Living in reality makes everyone happier.
Aaron Nichols:That reminds me of a psychologist who says progress requires choosing to live in reality.
Phil Horwich:That’s exactly it.
Aaron Nichols:You work all over the country. How different is it state to state?
Phil Horwich:Wildly different. Texas versus California versus Virginia. Some jurisdictions are working off hundred-year-old codes.
We’ve debated whether solar panels count as impervious cover. People argue grass can’t grow under them, while standing next to grass growing under them.
Aaron Nichols:What helps get faster approvals?
Phil Horwich:Be clear. Point out exactly what changed. Before projects start, we call jurisdictions anonymously and ask what causes rejections. We take notes.
When permits are submitted, we already know what they expect. Make it easy. Highlight changes. Screenshot fixes. Be kind.
Aaron Nichols:It’s a lost art to be pleasant to work with.
Phil Horwich:It really is. Nobody likes reviewing hundred-page plan sets. Not even engineers.
Aaron Nichols:To close, I ask everyone the same question. My grandmother was born before clean energy existed. In her lifetime we went from coal to PV to massive cost declines. What do you think clean energy looks like 80 years from now?
Phil Horwich:I hope it’s just normal. Like an iPhone. No one freaks out about the new one anymore.
You drive down the road and see solar like you see substations today.
And I hope AI handles the boring stuff like permitting research so humans can focus on teaching, building, and enjoying solar again. Make work fun. That’s the goal.
Aaron Nichols:That’s a great vision. Where can people find you?
Phil Horwich:LinkedIn under Phil Horwich or AMH. And for your listeners, we made a Simplifying Solar guide. DM me and mention the podcast and we’ll send it.
Aaron Nichols:That’s been This Week in Solar. We’ll see you next week.
