Peck solar installed a 500kW solar PV array on top of the parking lot expansion at Burlington International Airport in 2014. Courtesy photo.
George Harvey
I believe that there are many people, even in Vermont, who don’t think of Peck Electric as a big deal in the solar industry. They might think it is, after all, just another business in South Burlington, Vermont. A recently posted news article provides an interesting proof of how seriously some people take the company, however.
When I started writing this article, I went to find the latest news about Peck Electric on the internet. The first item I found was “Peck Electric to capitalize on significant growth opportunities across Northeast region” (http://bit.ly/SteelGuru-Peck), published at SteelGuru.com. SteelGuru is a specialized web site whose articles I see often, and so I knew what it was. It is focused primarily on steel, metals, mining, coal, gas, oil, and power generation. It runs from India, and its primary geographical focus is India, Europe, the Middle East, and China. It has a lot of visitors and claims to have had over 40,000,000 views in 2013.
Truth be told, the news I was working on might first have appeared at Bloomberg, on April 30th, in an article nearly identical to Steel Guru’s. And, of course, it was locally reported in Vermont Business Magazine (http://bit.ly/Vermont-Biz-Peck).
The articles all report two things that seem rather mundane. The immediate news is that Peck Electric installed seven solar systems in the last quarter of 2018 that ranged in size from 20.6 kilowatts (kW) to 6,937.92 kW. The total installed is 9,106.32 kW. That is a fair amount for a local installer in Vermont.
The articles all mentioned that Peck Electric had earlier entered into an agreement with Jensyn Acquisition Corp to enter into what is termed a “business combination,” during the second quarter of 2019. This new business, which is to be called “The Peck Company,” will be traded publicly on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol “PECK.”
The thing I find interesting about all of this is that the story about Peck Electric is not just local or state news, or even national news. Though it would seem to sound rather modest, seven solar systems and a business deal is a big deal, world news that is even reported in India for readers in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Peck Electric has come a long way since it was founded in 1972 by Harvey Peck and Bernie Taylor. Ownership of the business has changed, but it has remained a family-run business, eventually led by Jeffrey Peck, who took over at age 28, as the twentieth century was closing.
As Peck Electric grew, it was taking on ever larger contracts with major corporations. It has had a long history of working with IBM, for example. Getting into solar power was a natural for the company, and it has been award-winning in that business. In April of 2019, General Contractors Magazine named Peck Electric “The Best Residential Contractor” in Vermont.
Earlier, Green Energy Times’ editor, Nancy Rae Mallery, commented when Solar Power World listed Peck Electric as one of the 500 top solar installers in the United States, “It is hardly a surprise that Peck Solar would be among the top installers in the United States. It has a great history, and it keeps getting better.”
Peck Electric’s web site is www.peckelectric.com.
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