Dynamic EVC adds solar installs to services

Coming off a record high in revenue last year, a young company primarily known as an electric vehicle charging station contractor is expanding its service work into solar energy.

Dynamic EVC LLC recently launched commercial and residential solar installation and service to its offerings – a decision that officials at the company have mulled over practically since its founding in late 2021, said General Manager Micah Battaglia.

“We’ve been thinking about it for about probably two years. We’ve just been so busy in the EV world, and until Jeremy came on with all his knowledge, there wasn’t anybody to help to move this part forward effectively,” Battaglia said of Jeremy Moore, who was hired last year as a master electrician and will lead solar energy work projects for the company.

Founded by John Lorenz, Larry Schmitt and Barry Davis, Dynamic EVC provides electric vehicle charging services for businesses and property owners, including charging station procurement, installation, networking, service and maintenance.

The 22-employee company nearly quadrupled its 2022 revenue last year, finishing around $6.2 million, Battaglia said.

Battaglia said solar energy work goes hand in hand with the EV industry, adding the company began operations in that area around early September.

Moore was recently at Jimmy Michel Motors Inc. in Aurora, where the company has installed seven EV chargers since last year. The auto dealership also had a solar energy system installed around eight years ago by an undisclosed Kansas City-based company. Since the solar company is no longer in business, Moore said he was contacted by the dealership and tasked with helping them with repairs and maintenance.

After taking the covers off the metal boxes that hold the inverters, Moore said they have visible evidence of rust, noting the system sustained water damage.

“They got a massive system – it’s a 90-kilowatt,” Battaglia said. “It’s a big boy, and so it pushes a lot of power. And so, with these inverters not working, they’ve been seeing electric bills they’re not used to.”

Both Moore and Battaglia bring a solar background to their work at Dynamic EVC. Battaglia previously was at Solar Solutions of America in Ozark before coming to the EV charging station contractor around three years ago. Moore said he’s worked around a decade in the solar industry, which included several years at Sun Solar LLC and Arrowhead Solar LLC.

“I was pretty much just doing nothing but solar the last seven years,” Moore said.

Launching projects
Aside from its work at Jimmy Michel Motors, Moore said the company has around a combined 15 residential and commercial projects coming soon – five in the St. Louis area and 10 in the Springfield area.

“We got two commercials mixed in there, but most of them are residential,” Battaglia said, declining to name its commercial clients due to nondisclosure agreements. “We do have some larger clients on the line.”

Battaglia said Dynamic EVC will use several suppliers for its solar equipment installations, including City Electric Supply Co., which has local branches in Springfield and Hollister. The supply company has over 600 locations in 30 states, according to its website.

“With our suppliers, they stock everything in their warehouses for us, so we don’t have to preorder,” he said. “By the time we actually get the permit turned in and approved, we can have our panels at the residence or at the site already.”

While declining to disclose Dynamic EVC’s solar investment, Battaglia said as an electrical contracting company it already has access to most of the equipment it will need to complete solar install jobs.

“There’s maybe a couple specialized tools that we’ll have to buy,” he said. “For us, we’re already invested heavily in the electrical side that it wasn’t much of an added expense to start doing this.”

Dynamic EVC enters a solar industry that nationally was valued at $60.1 billion in 2023 and employs nearly 280,000 people, according to Solar Energy Industries Association data. Missouri installed 661 megawatts last year, ranking it 36th in the country. The industry employs more than 3,000 people in Missouri and has nearly 150 solar companies statewide.

According to Springfield Business Journal list research published in June of the area’s largest solar contractors, Nixa-based Arrowhead Solar finished No. 1, with 1,400 systems installed last year. It was followed by Sun Solar, which installed 1,043 systems.

While Dynamic EVC is currently licensed in Missouri, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma, Battaglia said the company’s install jobs typically stay within a 200-300-mile radius.

“Anything outside of that, we’ll still look at it and see if it’s something that we can accomplish and still not be outpriced,” he said.

  “There’s a lot that goes into sending guys farther away, and so we don’t want that to be passed on to the customer too much. So, we try to keep it close as possible.”

Battaglia said the company initially isn’t planning to scale up its workforce and instead is cross-training some of its EV technicians to also work on solar-related jobs.

“The main thing on the solar side is just getting our techs very, very familiar with the EV world, familiar with the solar world as well,” he said, noting it will require around 25 hours of additional training for the technicians to perform the work without direct supervision. “The investment there is just the training that goes into it.”

Low impact
While any solar work will have minimal impact on the company’s revenue this year, Dynamic EVC is on pace to slightly outperform its record-setting 2023 mark.

“We might have a couple percentage growth between last year and this year,” Battaglia said. “That’s what we’re tracking.”

As for 2025, he said solar install jobs should boost the bottom line, adding the company is targeting a notable contribution.

“I would love to get in the million-dollar range for solar next year. It’s definitely out there and definitely possible,” he said, adding Dynamic EVC’s job list has grown to 15 in just six weeks. “If we can do that [project growth] from start to finish next year, I think we can hit that $1 million goal pretty easy.”

An additional goal is to build the solar work to comprise roughly 10%-15% of annual revenue.

“We want to start kind of slow in building it,” Battaglia said. “There’s a lot of issues that happens when you go hard real fast, and we want to avoid those type of growing pains and just kind of take it at ease.”