WAUKESHA, Wis. — Ryan Lettau may own a solar energy company, but he is never afraid to do the hard work himself. 

On a sunny Tuesday afternoon at a house south of Waukesha, he could be found pitching in, helping his crews load solar panels onto a roof. 

Lettau started Brookfield-based Home Team Energy Company in 2019. While business has been steady, Lettau said in recent months, he has had an increase in phone calls asking about solar energy. 

“As soon as that first bill hit middle of January, we started to see those calls come through. That is when I got a lot more inquiries from my website and it's taken off since then,” said Lettau. 

In December 2022, the Wisconsin Public Service commission approved rate increases for We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service for 2023. As a result, customers' bills are between 8-11% more costly. 

While most customers looking for solar panels do so for environmental reasons, Lettau said he has seen an increasing number of people seeking it out for economic reasons as well. 

“It does take three to six months for [most people] to understand the economics of it, because it is a big project, but once the energy bills go up, return on investment comes down and they start making that move,” said Lettau. 

Home Team Energy Company is currently installing panels on Gerard Studer's home.

Studer said he spent a significant amount of time crunching the numbers on solar. While he said his solar project will cost him around $50,000, there will eventually be strong return on investment. 

“The amount of panels we have on our roof is going to save us about $3,000 annually in an electric bill. Then, we have an electric vehicle, so instead of having to buy gasoline we are gonna have solar to power our vehicle, which is going to save us money on gasoline. We are looking to have our project totally paid off in about 10 years,” said Studer. 

Lettau said that as solar technology improves, he expects costs to come down. For now, Lettau said he doesn’t expect demand to slow any time soon.