South Bend solar company with a mission planning to double reach
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Anne Huston was getting used to hearing no.
After months of searching for a job, Huston was growing desperate. The mother of two had recently been released from the Madison Correctional Facility in southeast Indiana.
After completing a drug recovery program, Huston got a judge’s approval to serve out the rest of her 12-year sentence on home detention, but the bills were stacking up. She had to find money to get her driver’s license reinstated and to cover the monthly fees for her ankle monitor, or else she could be sent back to prison.
But, with drug charges on her record, Huston said, employers were quick to pass her over.
“I have gotten so many interviews,” Huston said. “Before my incarceration, I was a personal banker with Wells Fargo for over four years. I was a store manager, in customer service and sales for 20-plus years, but none of that matters when you come out and have a felony.”
Huston had heard some employers in the RV industry in Elkhart County would hire people with records. But without her license, Huston was unable to get herself there without her mom’s help.
As a last ditch effort, Huston fired off an email to Pat Regan. She had seen his company, South Bend-based Crossroads Solar, in the local news and wondered if he’d give her a chance.
“I have drug charges, but that’s not who I am,” Huston wrote “Just give me a shot. I’m not a job hopper. I’m very loyal to my places of employment.”
Within 15 minutes, Regan gave her a call and set up an interview for the next day. She was on the job before the end of the week and has stayed with the company ever since.
Huston is one of over a dozen employees Regan has hired to staff his solar energy startup, Crossroads Solar. Whether they’re out of prison on work release or have already completed a sentence, Regan says, everyone he hires has some kind of criminal record.
He does it to show the skill current and formerly incarcerated employees can bring and that building a company with their help is not only possible, but can be successful.
“They’re great employees,” Regan said. “They’re dedicated. They’re loyal. Men and women can make colossally stupid mistakes, colossally stupid mistakes, and still be good men and women.”
Regan, a former political science professor at the University of Notre Dame, began the growing company several years ago. With help from a couple business students in New York, Regan developed a business plan, found financial backing from a partner and set out to grow a company that he said he hopes will outlast him.
While with Notre Dame, Regan taught at the Westville Correctional Facility with the university’s Moreau College Initiative, which seeks to help inmates earn degrees through Holy Cross College, a partner in the project. Regan said he often heard inmates question the value of a college degree when their record was often more important to prospective employers than any education they’d received.
Though some suggested Regan start his company with only half a staff with criminal records, the former professor dedicated himself to going all the way.
The company started small — producing its first, small batches of solar panels for sale in 2021 — and has grown now to work with a national distributor to produce orders for clients from Pennsylvania to California.
Regan has about 15 on his staff currently and sells panels in orders from as small as 20 panels to 150 or more. It takes about 20 panels to power the average home depending on energy use. It can be difficult to compete against large production companies, Regan said, so he’s leaned into sharing Crossroad Solar’s story with prospective clients.
“We have a lot more labor than the next panel company,” Regan said, “Because they’re completely automated and this was about hiring people.”
Crossroad Solar Founder Pat Regan speaks on the employees he hires.
But, it’s not always been easy. Regan first had to learn how to sell the investment of solar panels to clients. He said he often comes across hesitancy when businesses learn of the initial costs tied to purchasing and installing the panels, which can cost anywhere from $15,000 at a home to $750,000 or more for a large commercial business.
That cost can be brought down with federal grants and tax credits. And, Regan said, loans taken out to finance the panels will eventually pay off over time as the panels produce energy and overall utility costs come down. However, with high inflation still putting a crunch on interest rates for loan repayments, Regan has had periods of slow production where layoffs were needed.
Limitations in Indiana on net metering — a process that allows property owners to sell unused solar energy back to utility companies — has also stymied progress for small energy companies like Crossroads Solar, Regan said.
“It takes away some of the incentive for you to do it on your house,” Regan said of home solar installation.
Despite the challenges, Regan has been able to hire back laid off employees and now has plans to grow the business.
The South Bend Common Council approved a five-year tax abatement request last month as Crossroads Solar prepares to bring on a second production line in a $1 million investment Regan estimates will help the company quadruple its output.
That means scaling up production — putting out 2,000 panels or more in each order — and bringing on new employees. He said he expects to begin the company’s second production line in South Bend within a month.
And, Regan said he’s now exploring ways to take what began “as an experiment” to other communities. The Crossroads Solar owner said he’s been approached about potentially franchising the business — an idea he’s open to, but adamant he’ll only take part in if the local owners commit to rooting their business in a social good.
“It was part of the plan at the inception of this,” he said, “I used to always say, ‘If Pat Regan can do this in South Bend, Indiana, and make it work, then I can do it in any city.'”
In June, he took Huston and another Crossroads Solar employee to Wisconsin for a solar energy fair. It marked a rare allowance by a judge to let someone on home detention cross state lines.
“She let me go and that’s a huge deal,” Huston said. “Now, I’ll have all of these positive things under my belt to present to her.”
Anne Huston talks about working for Crossroads Solar and why she believes more companies should adopt a similar model.
Since joining Crossroads Solar in February 2022, Huston said she’s had her license reinstated and is making plans to petition her judge next year to finish her sentence on probation.
With her background in personal banking, Huston said she’s eager to take on a bigger role with the company in sales. She’s been reading up on solar energy in her downtime and wants to continue networking within the broader solar community.
More importantly, Huston said, the Crossroads Solar has brought new purpose to her life.
“I really doubted myself when I came home,” Huston said. “Now, I have the keys to the building. I come in and I open up. I make sure the machines are on … that sense of purpose is a huge thing.”