HGTV's home flipping star Tarek El Moussa has teamed up with a Florida company to install solar systems for his Soar Energy solar firm, which is moving its headquarters from the West Coast to Scottsdale.
El Moussa said he had used other installers when he first launched Soar in January but quickly discovered not all of them were knowledgable about the work involved. But one of his business partners connected him to Zain Jan, co-founder and CEO of Tampa-based Better Earth.
El Moussa's reputation was on the line, and some "bad actors" have given the solar industry a black eye, Jan said.
Better Earth is a Pearl Certified Installer, which is the highest rating a solar company can get, according to El Moussa.
"They are vertically integrated. They do all the work themselves," El Moussa said. "They don't use subcontractors."
Founded in July 2019, Better Earth employs 640 people in Florida, California, Texas and Phoenix, where the company has about 50 employees Jan told the Business Journal. The company has installed nearly 11,000 solar systems in those markets since inception, including about 100 homes in the Phoenix metro.
El Moussa said he will complete the move of Soar's headquarters from California to the Valley within the next month. He and his wife, Heather, also are planning to buy a second home here.
At first he wasn't sure if the couple wanted to buy a home to fix up or buy a move-in ready residence.
But he said they are targeting the purchase of an already-built Arizona home sometime in 2024.
The celebrity couple co-founded Soar Energy in 2022 along with Shelby Elias. Mortgage sector veteran Brian Decker is CEO.
Soar Energy partners with GivePower by donating a portion of proceeds toward a free solar or water filtration system for families in underdeveloped countries, including Kenya, Nepal and Haiti.
The ramp-up of Soar comes at a time when the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 allocated nearly $400 billion in federal funding toward clean energy.
