“We can go slow,
but we can't stop.”
With solar, most people only look at the panels. We look at the roof first. The story of Lawrence, Jeff and Daniel didn't start with solar — it started with roofs.
- 2004
Three people started a business installing roof awnings, serving the Malay market. That's 22 years ago now — this is genuinely our expertise.
- 2006
Set up our own factory. To this day we still fabricate the solar mounting structures ourselves in that factory, rather than buying them ready-made.
- 2010
The years when we took almost every commercial project going — as long as there was work, we took it. The work all got completed, but collecting payment was genuinely hard, until our own company ended up in a financial crisis. All three of them took on over seven figures in credit card borrowings purely to keep the company running — because we had already promised the market a 15-year warranty, and a promise like that can't simply be dropped.
That taught us one thing: not every job is a job we should take.
- 2020
Moved into solar. We noticed that plenty of people talk about panels, but hardly anyone talks about the roof — even though those panels will sit on your roof for more than 20 years. That is exactly why De Solar started.
- Today
Our main focus is residential homes. We still take commercial projects, but only the ones that genuinely fit — so that every customer who chooses us is one we can look after all the way through. Our installation team is 40+ people, all our own, and De Solar is registered with SEDA.
In one housing area, more than 20 homes installed solar with us. It started with a single house — then one neighbour recommended the next.
However hard it gets, you keep going. You can go slow, but you can't stop.
— On the 2010 crisis
