Photovoltaic solar has broken through to larger adoption thanks in part to the cost-saving benefits it offers system owners. But Lexi Olson believes that most — if not all — of OnSite Energy’s (No. 319 on the 2025 Top Solar Contractors List) clients are uniquely motivated to install solar for environmental reasons.
OnSite specializes in solar projects in remote — and beautiful — places.
“The financial savings is just a cherry on top for them,” she said. “Our customers are very engaged in the local community. Whether they’re a business owner, on the board of a nonprofit or they volunteer. It feels like this interconnected network of people who care about sustainability.”
Olson is the marketing manager at OnSite, a residential and small commercial solar contractor based in Bozeman, Montana, a city that’s a springboard to some of the country’s most popular natural sites, namely Yellowstone National Park. For a state that was once known for gold and silver mining, Montana’s natural features have become some of its most valuable exports. Preserving the state’s environment is paramount to both its residents and OnSite’s crew.
OnSite founders Orion Thornton and Conor Darby, avid outdoorsmen themselves, started Solar for Conservation in 2017, a program within the company that currently donates a percentage of project proceeds to 10 Montana nonprofits. These groups have missions in land conservation, public land and water access, maintaining clean air and watersheds and wildlife protections. OnSite’s culture of conservation helped it become a certified B Corp, which recognizes organizations that operate at certain environmental and social standards.
“That’s just the norm in our company. They started it as a way to give back to the community and use solar as this vessel for furthering conservation efforts in Montana,” Olson said. “I think you could ask most Montanans, and that’s important to them and they value [conservation]; and you could ask any single one of our employees, too, and it’s something that we all really value.”
Thornton and Darby founded OnSite in 2012 to legitimize the practice of solar construction in the region after working as solar installers at other companies. The company now works across Montana and has offices in both Bozeman and Missoula.
Olson said OnSite specializes in tailoring projects to customers with specific needs, taking its crews into the mountains and remote locations to build on steep roofs and in winter conditions. OnSite has built many solar projects for nonprofits as well, including a 36-kW system that powers all of the Yellowstone Forever Overlook Field Campus.
From companywide camping trips and mountain bike outings to volunteering time and project earnings to regional nonprofits, nature conservation is as intrinsic to OnSite as it is to many Montanans.
The OnSite Energy crew.
This story was featured exclusively in our 2025 Top Solar Contractors issue. See the issue and full list of top U.S. solar installers here.