The people behind the panels
Solar Vest Team is a small, hands-on outfit based in Holyoke. We answer our own phone, climb our own ladders, and stand behind every system we hang.
Owner Marcus Schlachter with the crew — the same people who quote the job do the job.
Started local, staying local
Solar Vest Team was founded by Marcus Schlachter, who grew up watching the Eastern Plains get more sun than almost anywhere else in the country and saw too much of it going to waste. After years of working construction and electrical jobs around the region, Marcus started putting panels on roofs and outbuildings for neighbors — and realized that what the area really needed wasn't another solar sales company. It needed a crew that would show up, do the work right, and still be around when something needed attention.
That's still how we run things today. We're based at 16966 County Road 45 in Holyoke, and nearly every project we take is within an hour's drive. When you call, you talk to somebody who has actually stood on a roof like yours. When we quote a job, the person quoting it is usually the person who will be turning the wrenches.
Measure twice, install once, check back
We keep the crew small on purpose. Small means every install gets the owner's attention, every customer gets a real conversation instead of a script, and nobody on the team is just passing through. Most of our work still comes from word of mouth — somebody's brother-in-law, a neighbor's well pump, a shop across the county line.
Our approach is simple: walk the site first, look at how power is actually being used, size the system honestly, and build it to survive plains weather — wind, hail, and the kind of temperature swings that shrug lesser hardware off a roof. Then, after switch-on, we check back. Production looking right? Anything on the monitoring app that doesn't make sense? That follow-through isn't an add-on; it's part of the job.
If you'd rather work with a crew you might run into at the co-op than a call center three time zones away, we'd like to hear from you.
Come talk to the crew
Stop by, call, or write. First conversations are free, unhurried, and come with zero obligation.