NM Solar Group closes, laying off entire workforce and leaving some buyers hanging

New Mexico Solar Group — one of the state’s fast-growing rooftop installation firms — abruptly shut its offices on Friday and laid off all its employees.

The firm gave no advance warning to customers or employees. And, as of Saturday, only a recorded phone message was available at NM Solar’s offices, located in the industrial zone near Interstate 25 and Jefferson.

“We regret to inform our customers that the sudden rise in interest rates and tightening credit market substantially shut down our sales, and we were unable to maintain cash flow for operations,” the recording said. “As a result, we’ve gone permanently out of business. Unfortunately, we have no further information at this time.”

Company CEO Nick Kadlec did confirm the firm’s closure in an email to the Journal, but declined to discuss what happened.

“After serving our customers and communities in New Mexico and El Paso over the last eight years, this is a devastating development that I know significantly impacts our employees, our customers and our communities,” Kadlec said in the email. “We are currently determining how we can best assist our customers with current projects and are committed to doing everything we legally can do to support them.”

It’s unclear how many workers lost their jobs. Kadlec told the Journal in spring 2021 that, at that time, it employed 116 people. But in another interview this spring, Kadlec said the firm had laid off about two dozen people because rising interest rates and difficulty accessing credit had slowed consumer demand.

In recent years, the company — with satellite offices in Roswell, Alamogordo, Las Cruces and El Paso — had reported robust growth, despite supply-chain problems following the pandemic. Its revenue grew by 126% between 2019 and 2022, from $19 million to $43 million.

In fact, to accommodate that rapid expansion, NM Solar moved its headquarters in early 2022 from an 8,000-square-foot facility in Rio Rancho to a 16,000-square-foot space at 3831 Singer Boulevard NE in Albuquerque.

Customers were blindsided by the closure. Two homeowners told the Journal they made substantial cash deposits for rooftop systems that NM Solar hadn’t yet installed, with no official word from the company about whether they will receive refunds.

Former NM Solar Project Manager Monica Perry did send a “mass email” to a group of customers on Saturday, but from her own personal Gmail account, which two of the recipients forwarded to the Journal. The email said she no longer had access to the NM Solar Group’s account, but she had customer contact information written in notebooks among her personal items, allowing her to contact some homeowners independently from the company.

“Yesterday (Friday) morning, all company employees were called into an emergency meeting and were told that the company was shutting down effective immediately,” Perry explained in the email. “We were all laid off and asked to turn in any company-owned equipment, including our laptops and phones. We were not given the opportunity to contact our customers before leaving or given any instruction as to how our customers’ accounts would be handled.”

She reached out through personal email, she said, to at least inform people about what happened.

“I don’t have any any answers for you regarding what they plan to do for the customers we were working with,” Perry said. “Please don’t ask me, because I truly don’t know, and I no longer work for them.”

Kathryn Probasco, who owns a 3,000-square-foot home in the Northeast Heights, said she paid NM Solar nearly $23,600 in March for a 32-panel solar system, but delays in permitting pushed the installation date out to Aug. 28.

“I’m left wondering where my $23,000 deposit has gone,” Probasco told the Journal.

She’s now contacting attorneys and creditors, given the company’s lack of response to inquiries.

“It seems pretty clear I won’t get any direct answers from company executives,” Probasco said. “I don’t know anything. I’m completely in the dark.”

Gary Ballam, who owns a 3,600-square-foot home in Corrales, also made a $16,000 down payment to NM Solar just two weeks ago on a $33,000 rooftop system.

“(The company) has gone out of business, wiped all access to contact them, fired all their employees and left many customers and potential customers potentially losing substantial assets — of which I am one,” Ballam told the Journal in an email. “We put several thousands of dollars down for panel installation and are now at risk of losing it all or, at the very least, putting us in limbo for who knows how long with absolutely nothing to show for our investment.”

Other customers expressed concern in an online forum about loans NM Solar helped them secure to purchase rooftop systems, and uncertainty about maintenance and service issues going forward.

“How exactly does this (affect) us?” asked one customer from Raton who had a system installed about six months ago. “What about my loan and my maintenance on the solar system? This is really bad news.”