Before solar became an industry, before grid-tied systems, incentives, or sleek lithium batteries, power resilience meant figuring things out yourself.

This episode traces the real origins of Alexis Lewis’s solar and electrical expertise, starting not in New York City, but in Antigua, where frequent power outages made energy independence a necessity not a trend.

In the early 1970s, when Alexis’s father built their family home, it was designed with two electrical systems:

A standard AC utility-fed network

A separate DC backup network, powered initially by car batteries

This was long before residential solar was accessible. That early DC system laid the foundation for understanding load separation, redundancy, storage limitations, and power discipline lessons that still apply to modern solar and battery systems today.

As photovoltaic technology became available locally, those backup systems evolved into true off-grid solar installations, using:

Early low-wattage PV panels (20–50W modules)

Heavy, transformer-based inverters

Lead-acid battery banks, including Trojan T-105 deep-cycle batteries

Manual electrolyte maintenance, balancing, and strict load management

Every system was custom. Nothing was plug-and-play. Components were mixed across manufacturers, charge controllers were tuned by hand, and mistakes were expensive. This wasn’t theoretical learning it was practical, consequence-driven experience.

That early off-grid exposure shaped how Alexis approaches solar today. Whether evaluating a commercial rooftop in New York City or advising on remote, island, or rural systems, the mindset is the same:

Understand the loads first

Respect system limits

Design for failure, not perfection

Avoid assumptions that look good on paper but fail in the field

This episode also explains how that early foundation connects to:

Multi-trade construction experience

Commercial solar leadership in NYC

Consulting for off-grid and hybrid systems across different regions

If you already have an off-grid or hybrid system or you’re considering one and want straight answers without sales pressure this episode lays out what actually matters and what most people overlook.

The Deep Dive on Renewable is a podcast hosted by Alex and Jordan, featuring in-depth discussions on renewable energy, sustainability, and the global clean energy transition.

© 2026 The Servant Podcast Network. All rights reserved.

Experience is often reduced to job titles, certifications, or years on a résumé. But in the real world especially in construction and solar experience is something very different.

In this episode, Alexis Lewis, founder of Wadadli Solar LLC, breaks down what real experience actually looks like and how it is built long before someone ever installs their first solar module.

Alexis shares how growing up in a construction family shaped his understanding of how things are designed, assembled, and maintained. With a father working in the construction trades even before he was born, and educators within his family, exposure to building principles started early not in theory, but in practice.

He also reflects on his secondary education in Antigua, where students receive a broad, hands-on technical foundation. Subjects like metalwork, woodwork, drafting, architectural drawing, home economics, and typing are not electives they are core parts of the curriculum. That early exposure builds material literacy, spatial awareness, and an understanding of systems that directly translate into carpentry, electrical work, construction management, and eventually solar.

The episode explores how time spent in carpentry teaches structural logic load paths, tolerances, fastening methods, and long-term risk. Time in the electrical trade builds respect for power flow, terminations, sequencing, and safety. Experience inside the building envelope reveals how early decisions ripple forward and how misalignment between trades creates downstream problems.

Alexis also explains why consistent time on active construction sites matters. Repeated site exposure builds situational awareness: understanding hierarchy, communication, pace, pressure, and how work actually flows not how it’s described on paper.

This perspective is especially critical in New York City, where construction environments are demanding, unforgiving, and shaped by decades of hard physical labor. These conditions sharpen judgment, strengthen communication, and enforce accountability quickly.

The core message of the episode is simple but often misunderstood: Experience is not time served it is capability earned through exposure.

In solar, the strongest professionals are rarely “solar-only.” They are builders, electricians, and construction veterans who bring their full history to the roof.

This episode is a reflection on how experience is formed, why early exposure matters, and what truly separates competence from credentials in the built environment.

The Deep Dive on Renewable is a podcast hosted by Alex and Jordan, featuring in-depth discussions on renewable energy, sustainability, and the global clean energy transition.

© 2026 The Servant Podcast Network. All rights reserved.

Most solar projects don’t fail on paper. They fail on the roof.

In this episode, Alexis Lewis breaks down one of the most common and most expensive disconnects in commercial solar: the gap between spreadsheet assumptions and physical reality.

Financial models are clean. Roofs are not.

Owners, developers, and even EPCs often rely on high-level feasibility spreadsheets to green-light projects. Watts per square foot. Modeled production. Utility rates. IRR targets. On paper, everything works.

But spreadsheets don’t show you:

• Roof membranes nearing end of life • Hidden structural constraints • Poor drainage and chronic ponding • Unaccounted rooftop equipment and access paths • Wind uplift exposure on parapets and canopies • Fire code conflicts and setback realities • Deferred maintenance that becomes your problem later

This episode reframes solar feasibility as what it actually is: a roof-level asset decision, not a spreadsheet exercise.

Alexis walks through:

• Why “paper-only feasibility” creates false confidence • The difference between design viability and asset viability • How underperforming systems are often born during early screening • What a real roof-as-an-asset review should include before design • Why O&M teams inherit the consequences of early modeling shortcuts • How owners can kill bad projects early and save capital

If you’re an asset manager, property owner, EPC, or financier working with aging commercial roofs (especially 2010–2021 vintage systems), this episode explains why the roof itself must be treated as infrastructure not a line item.

Solar doesn’t fail randomly. It fails predictably when reality is ignored.

This is a conversation about discipline, accountability, and respecting the physical asset long before modules are ordered.

If you’ve ever wondered why a project that “looked great in the model” turned into an operational headache, this episode is for you.

The Deep Dive on Renewable is a podcast hosted by Alex and Jordan, featuring in-depth discussions on renewable energy, sustainability, and the global clean energy transition.

© 2026 The Servant Podcast Network. All rights reserved.