Lightwave celebrated our 20th anniversary on July 5th, 2026. We could not have made it this far without all of our amazing customers that have supported and trusted us to help them make the switch to renewable energy.

We wanted to take this opportunity to highlight a handful of our first installations. These homeowners and businesses trusted our founder, Steve Johnson, and the small team of individuals who helped him start Lightwave.

Lightwave’s first ever installation was a roof-mounted system on Steve’s home in Antioch, Tennessee, in 2006. Over time, he has upgraded his system, installed a second set of solar panels on his barn roof, and added battery back-up systems for his home. Steve knew that he could learn more about solar design, installation, and operation by having his very own system to start with.

Starting with Residential Solar

Our first residential project was at the home of Brian Paddock in Cookeville, Tennessee, in 2007. Brian was a successful lawyer in public interest as well as the legal and environmental chair of the Sierra Club. He had interest in solar energy because of solar’s zero-fuel energy cost.

When Brian found a designer and builder for his home he knew he wanted to have passive solar as well as geothermal in mind. Since he was the first person ever in the Jackson County and Cumberland service area to want to go solar, he had to write a letter to every member on the Upper Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation board to allow him to add solar panels to his home. Once approved and his home was ready, he contacted Lightwave.

Lightwave had a very small team at this time so Brian helped Steve with the installation because of his interest in the technology. They worked closely together on the install and had fun figuring it all out.

“We were making our own path while we walked it.”

- Brian Paddock

Since then, Brian has added more solar onto his home, going from 4kW to 8kW, then to 10kW. When asking Brian about his overall experience with Steve and Lightwave he said, “Lightwave is a place I can send people because I know they will give honest advice and professional services.”

Expanding to Commercial Solar

One of the first and largest commercial customers that put Lightwave on the map was the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in 2008. The ORNL is known for their mission to deliver scientific discoveries and technical breakthroughs needed to realise solutions in energy and national security and provide economic benefit to the nation.

In 2008, ORNL approached Lightwave due to their mission and passion for science and technology. It only made sense for them to make the switch to renewable energy for their facility. Steve and the team got to work designing, ordering materials, and installing a ground-mounted 50kW system. After this large installation, Lightwave received a lot of press coverage and the more people heard of solar in the area, the more people reached out to Lightwave.

Lightwave Today

What started with a small team has now grown to over 80 full-time employees. Lightwave has completed over 1,500 projects, totalling 100MW of solar installed in Tennessee and across the Southeast. Lightwave would not have been able to celebrate 20 years without our amazing customers who paved the wave for ourselves and others in the solar industry by taking those first steps.

We are proud to be primarily a referral-based business, taking care of our customers, their friends, families and neighbors for the last two decades. We're looking forward to many more years to come as solar and storage energy continues to grow. Cheers to 20 years and our amazing customers!