Former employee of Tren Solar speaks out as homeowners try to track down company for answers

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) — More homeowners are trying to track down a north shore company they say took their money but failed to install functioning solar panel systems.

In this follow-up to a Fox 8 Defenders investigation, we also speak to a former employee who says she had problems getting paid by Tren Solar.

Peyton Cefalu says she’s filled with regret. Wracked with guilt, over the situation some homeowners now say they’re in after purchasing solar panels from Tren Solar.

“I made appointments,” Cefalu said. “Basically called the homeowners and talked them into getting appointments to save money on their light bill.”

Cefalu served as a call center representative for the Covington-based company, working from her home from March 2024 through January 2025.

Several months in, Cefalu says, “We started having all these customers call in and complain that they weren’t able to get a hold of anybody. They would tell us they would call the number of the office 20, 30 times. The phone was ringing and ringing and ringing.”

One such caller seeking answers was Jim Dutton, a Tren Solar customer who spoke to Fox 8 earlier this month.

“They installed the panels within three days. I was like, ‘Wow, this is cool. They weren’t kidding, 4-8 weeks.’ Then, it was radio silence,” Dutton said.

Bill Rose, a customer in Perkinston, Miss., said, “I actually went to Covington to the address, about a month or six weeks ago, to the address they had on my contract. And there was no one there.”

So Rose reached out to the Fox 8 Defenders.

“I saw one of your stories about this on Tren Solar, on YouTube actually. My wife actually saw it and she said, ‘Look!’ You know, I’ve been trying to find someone who has the same problem. I know it’s out there,” Rose said.

Rose, like Dutton, said he too signed up for solar panels with the company and looked forward to big savings on his electric bill.

“Their package was much more affordable and I looked at the contract. Seemed like a legit contract,” Rose said.

Rose had 24 solar panels installed and electricians wired the back of his house.

“They told me, when they got through on Sept. 29, it would only be about a week and then their people in the office would make a call to the co-op and make arrangements for their electrician and an electrician from the power company here to meet here and OK everything. And then they would turn it on. That was Sept. 29 and I haven’t heard from anyone,” Rose said.

Rose said no one from Tren Solar would answer the phone to tell him when his system would be turned on and if the power plan had been approved by the co-op before installation began. It’s standard practice for that to be done in Mississippi before any work begins.

That’s the problem Dutton had, with a manager from the co-op writing in an email that it never approved Tren Solar’s plan before the company put panels on his property.

Now, Rose says, the co-op told him it can’t do anything, because it needs to be in contact with the installer — Tren Solar — to move forward.

FOX 8 DEFENDERS

Fox 8 reached out to Rose’s co-op — Cooperative Energy — to ask if it’s been in touch with Tren Solar, but haven’t gotten a response. Meanwhile, Rose’s new $38,000 system remains unconnected.

“I just feel bad that I was duped,” Rose said. “I thought I never would be.”

In March, Reyn Rogers, listed on Tren Solar’s website as its co-founder, was arrested in Acadia Parish for residential contractor fraud. The district attorney tells us he’s dismissing the charges because Rogers is paying restitution to the person who filed the complaint.

Cefalu says while she worked for Tren Solar, she and other employees had problems getting paid by Rogers’ company.

“We would not get paid for two weeks. He wrote us a check, made us drive to Abita Springs to get our check, and then it bounced. It wouldn’t even clear the bank,” Cefalu said. “Jan. 7 was my last day.”

Now, she feels for customers like Dutton and Rose and the handful of others who have reached out to the Fox 8 Defenders.

“I feel terrible,” Cefalu said.

Fox 8 has tried repeatedly, without success, to contact Rogers and two other people named as co-owners or co-founders of Tren Solar on its now-defunct website.

If you have a consumer complaint you’d like us to look into, call the Fox 8 Defenders, staffed with volunteers from the National Council of Jewish Women at 1-877-670-6397. Or click here to fill out our online complaint form, which is the easiest way to reach us.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click Here to report it. Please include the headline.

Subscribe to the Fox 8 YouTube channel.

Copyright 2025 WVUE. All rights reserved.