Entrepreneur adds solar business to portfolio

A local businessman that has had his hand in various establishments over the years in town saw another milestone Tuesday.

Joe Opatik, owner of Affordable Solar, located at 141 South Frontage Road, held a ribbon cutting welcoming the business to the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s (being added as a chamber member) another opportunity to interact with businesses in the area,” Opatik said. “I think businesses should interact, to help each other and help the community thrive.”

The business came to fruition a few years ago after a home project Opatik completed spurred an idea for a new business venture.

“I was trying to lower my own electric bill several years ago, so I started off building my own panels,” said Opatik, a retired home inspector. “That’s timely and expensive as well. I’ll sell them for what I used to build them for myself. So that’s good for everybody.”

During the company’s initial years, they started out offering a few products, but as the business grew so did the inventory.

“We started five years ago supplying basic solar panels and simple components to do-it-yourselfers and over the last few years we’ve been able to get product line for about anything solar,” Opatik said.

Affordable Solar offers an array of solar products that will suffice small to large-scale projects.

“We have yard lights, shed lights, complete home systems, supplying panel inverters and charge controllers for anyone that wants a battery backup system,” Opatik said. “So pretty much whatever you need we can provide.”

After starting out dealing with local patrons, Affordable Solar has now found themselves dealing with customers on a national level.

“We’ve done systems in Michigan and Arizona,” Opatik said. “We don’t do the installations, we ship them the product line and they find their own installers.”

The expansion follows suit with the business growing, as Opatik said he has seen gains each year since starting the business.

“It’s (business) doubled for me every year,” he said.

With being added to the chamber of commerce, Opatik said that he is already reaching out to local businesses to possibly set up solar projects for them.

“I have been touching base with several of them, and I have got some good promise,” he said. “Most of our installations have been residentials, so sales are residential, but we do have some commercial people that are interested at this time and we continue to open the market up.”

Looking toward the future, Opatik would mainly like to add manpower to its workforce, as he is basically a one-man show at this point.

“I would like to add some employees down the road, right now I am the single salesperson,” he said. “It’s going well and I hope to put some people in in the future.”

That growth is on par with the business economy improving since the real estate bubble burst several years ago.

“I think the business climate is getting better, we’ve been in the doldrums… since the real estate market fell apart,” Opatik said. “So that’s affecting everything, but now that it’s coming back up it certainly helps.”

Affordable Solar shares building space with Opatik’s other business, a Metro PCS and Boost Mobile store.

Affordable Solar can be reached by phone at 775-209-5818, or via email at AffordableSolarNV@gmail.com.