Marquis Mason said he’s always cared about bettering his community, and when the former Badger footballer and his wife had a set of solar panels installed on their home, he immediately recognized an invisible but critical problem he could help solve.
“It was right around the same time as the (wild)fires in Canada — (the air quality) was really bad that year,” Mason said. “About a month in, we got our first bill (for the solar panels) and had to pay. We were like, ‘That’s not what the developer and installer told us.’”
Ideally, solar panel systems produce more energy than a household consumes each day, but when a household uses more power from the grid than its solar panels generate, the homeowners must pay for the difference. Even utility companies’ fixed connection fees can often be offset if a system produces a large enough energy surplus.
Mason said they gave their solar panels some time to start yielding the expected energy and savings, but while their solar panel monitoring app said everything was functioning normally, the bills kept coming. A visual inspection of the dirt and grime accumulating on the panels gave a possible reason.
Mason doused the panels with a garden hose, and while he wouldn’t recommend that approach, he said their efficiency jumped a bit, adding, “Obviously, anything outside for an extended period of time needs to be cleaned.”
A more thorough cleaning with the appropriate tools followed and drove up the panels’ efficiency by 22%.
“I wasn’t just hallucinating. … I believed my eyes, and this confirmed it,” he said. “That’s how I got the idea for Solar Alchemist.”
Founded in April 2025, Solar Alchemist offers residential and commercial solar panel cleaning services using manufacturer-approved methods that won’t jeopardize a system’s warranty.
The company assesses any buildup that could impede solar energy production — such as hard water, pollen or pine debris — and cleans the panels using gentle brush heads, a biodegradable soap and a deionized water rinse.
According to Solar Alchemist’s website, buildup that bakes into the glass of solar panels can “quietly steal” 5-15% of the energy output they produce annually.
“Before I cleaned my panels, they were producing about 60 kilowatts a day,” said Mason. “A day after I cleaned them, they jumped up to about 84. … Customers can see how much they’re generating (on their solar panel apps).
“I also had one customer where it was just curb appeal. … It’s important to consistently keep them looking good, in addition to generating that energy.”
Mason said the fledgling company is still building its customer base, equipment inventory and staff, but it’s providing an important service many community members may not even know they need.
Photo: Sharon Vanorny
The hard sell
Even with a large service area — spanning a 75-mile radius across southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois — Mason said it’s been hard to amass customers.
“The bad news is, not a lot of people are convinced,” he said. “Installers aren’t the happiest with me because what I’m doing is going against everything they talk about when people get (solar) panels. … They’re typically saying you won’t need any maintenance on these. … We’re coming in and saying, ‘They do work on their own, but this is to optimize how they’re going to work.’”
Mason said the Midwest’s climate contributes to buildup on solar panels, with deposits left by rain and snow and sap from trees.
“They do need to be cleaned. … I don’t want to discredit installers — ideally, I would love to work with them, but that’s kind of the conundrum I’m in right now,” he said.
Mason said he only served a small handful of customers in 2025 after delivering door-to-door sales pitches at about 70 houses — a strategy that proved affordable but frustrating.
“I’m a former athlete, so I’m very critical,” he said. “I found out later that (being a) door-to-door salesman is like the hardest form of sales. … I got about six or seven houses last year, which in business I found out that’s a really high conversion rate. … I had (others) tell me, ‘I call 300 people a day, and I’m lucky to get like one yes.’”
He said he started working to grow trust among his customer base, noting that even his own solar panel manual recommended cleaning the system at least once per year. He also got creative in his marketing efforts.
In May 2025, Mason volunteered Solar Alchemist’s services to clean the State Capitol building’s solar panels for free. Since their 2009 installation, he said they had become encrusted with pollen, dust and bird debris.
His efforts in Solar Alchemist’s first 16 months have begun to pay off — so far in 2026, he has served 19 residential customers and has three commercial jobs pending. Many of his customers have reported markedly higher solar energy production after the service.
Nic Lelm, an early customer of Solar Alchemist, learned about the service from a sign Mason had placed a block from his house last spring.
“The neighborhood next to mine was developed over a year or two,” Lelm said. “There was lots of dust so my panels were especially in need of being washed.”
He said his solar panels’ energy production rose around 30% after the cleaning was complete.
He said, after meeting Mason, he also realized he had known him through their children’s swimming lessons.
“What a reward to get the chance to hire someone connected to my neighborhood,” Lelm said.
The next play
With his customer base growing, Mason said Solar Alchemist is starting to see promising financial growth, and he’s bullish on the prospects for the rest of 2026.
He said the residential side of his business has yielded around $2,000 in revenue but “in an ideal world … I could easily clear $50-100k” if business with potential commercial clients pans out the way he anticipates.
“The revenue, in my opinion, is uncapped — it’s just about getting the word out, and I guess doing the work, which doesn’t bother me whatsoever,” Mason said.
Looking ahead, he plans to get a company truck and focus on growing his commercial customer base — particularly agricultural and government sites.
“I do want to get a solar farm or solar field,” he said. “If I could get contracts with the city (of Madison), with (Dane) County, that would be fantastic.”
He added that a Milwaukee expansion is imminent — he’s in talks with someone who could take over that area of Solar Alchemist’s footprint.
“I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon,” he said. “It’s been a little bit challenging, like I said. I’ve had my ups and downs, but … I’m in rooms that I’ve never really been in before, having conversations with people I never thought I would … learning a new skill … and then understanding it’s mine.
“That’s been the most rewarding thing, is just jumping into a completely different field — that I didn’t go to school for, that I had no background in — and then learning on the fly.”
On the web: solaralchemist.net
