Taking action in an uncertain world: Lucy’s solar journey

Lucy Bunning had been thinking about solar for years. She grew up in a passive solar house (a house that strategically uses windows to take advantage of sunlight for lighting and heating) and watched her father go solar a few years back. The financial and environmental logic of it was never really in question. What kept getting in the way was the logistics.

"It seemed like a lot of effort and energy to figure it out and to get it done," she said. "And is it worth it?"

For Lucy, a homeowner in Arlington, Massachusetts, the answer was always yes in theory. Getting there in practice took years of internal back-and-forth—is it the right time to go solar? How do you get started?—until a pair of pushy door-to-door salespeople, of all things, finally moved her to act.

Solar had been on Lucy's radar for a long time, but it had a habit of staying there; it was always something to get to later, once she had more time or had done more research. She knew it made sense, she just hadn't made it happen.

"I've been thinking about solar for a long time," she said, "but it seemed like a lot of effort and energy to figure it out."

That's a familiar story for a lot of homeowners, and it’s easy to see why. The process of finding a trustworthy solar company, comparing quotes, and navigating unfamiliar technology can feel like a project in itself.

The turning point came from a door-to-door solar salesperson at Lucy’s doorstep. She said the pitch was aggressive, the company felt sketchy, and Lucy knew immediately she wasn’t going to work with them. But, the encounter turned out to be useful: it made the financial case for solar feel real, and it inspired Lucy to search for a company she did believe in.

She turned to her local Facebook group, which in turn pointed her to EnergySage.

"I went [to EnergySage], put in all of my information, got quotes, asked a couple of questions, chose the company, and they've been great," she said. "It was actually very easy."

Lucy was upfront about where she stood going into the solar process. She wasn't privy to the technical side of things, and she didn't want to be.

"I don't know all of the components and all of the different inverters and all of that technology stuff," she said. "Rather than feeling bad about that or thinking, 'Oh, I'll learn, and then I'll go forward'—I just want to work with people who I can trust, who present the choices and have the information there for me if I want to know more. And that's what EnergySage and Great Sky Solar did."

Lucy found everything she was looking for on the EnergySage platform: Quotes from multiple pre-screened installers, lined up side by side, with reviews included.

"Seeing multiple quotes with reviews right there on the EnergySage website was really helpful because I felt like they had more of a curated list of companies that they work with and get quotes from, rather than just the internet," she said. "That platform made it easy to feel like, alright, I'm choosing the right company."

She connected briefly with an Energy Advisor—EnergySage’s energy experts who are available for free calls to answer questions and give unbiased advice on the process of going solar. Lucy said her advisor was readily available to answer questions and check in, but she admittedly didn't need much hand-holding.

"I got what I needed pretty quickly when I turned to them," she said.

Lucy ultimately chose Great Sky Solar for a few reasons: Their pricing was competitive, and they had a clear plan for maximizing her roof's positioning. But what really sealed the deal was something less quantifiable: they felt like the kind of company that would still be around if Lucy needed them.

"I liked that they were local. I liked that they had good relationships, they knew the local regulations, how long things would take," she said. “I believe that they're here to help if things come up along the way. I don't feel like they're going to disappear.”

The installation itself took just one day. A dedicated program manager walked Lucy through each step in advance, so there were no surprises. On installation day, the crew came in, worked through the house—roof, attic, basement—and left without a fuss.

"They were professional. They were fun to work with. Everything was smooth as they said it would be."

Lucy's solar journey didn't stop at the panels. She now drives an electric vehicle, because the two just “made sense together.” Now, as some of her home appliances age out, she plans to replace them with electric models rather than gas.

"It feels like a little bit of a chain reaction," she said, "that now I'm sort of better prepared to make good decisions in other parts of my household that rely on energy."

Her system has been generating more power than she uses, and she's now enrolled in net metering—selling the excess back to the grid and getting paid for it. Her installer also connected her to additional local incentive programs she hadn't known about.

"They knew much more about the economic benefits than I did and were very helpful in connecting me, sending me the paperwork, showing me all the things to get signed up for what was available," she said.

She did just miss the federal residential solar tax credit, which expired at the end of 2025—something she acknowledged with disappointment. But it didn't change her conviction that going solar was the right call.

"Even without the tax credit, I know that I will be seeing savings on my utility bill," she said. "And there are still savings, and there's the future for our planet."

For Lucy, the financial picture was only part of the story. She went solar because she wanted to take action on something that felt meaningful.

"It feels like so many things in the world are out of control and heading in a scary direction," she said, "and this felt like a way that I could actually take action, so I could feel like I was doing something that matters to me—for the earth, for my family, for the future of the planet."

That sense of purpose has found a small, daily expression she didn't expect: her phone.

"When I could go to my phone and scroll and see what's going on and feel bad—I go to my phone, and I look at my Enphase app, and I'm like, I just made some power. And then I have a good feeling, and I could put my phone away," she said. "So I can focus on what I can do in a very uncertain world."

Her advice for anyone on the fence is simple.

"If I did it on my own without using EnergySage, I would probably still be thinking about it and wouldn't actually have solar panels working on my house," she said. "I would say, yes, now is the time for clean energy."