Not quite your same position but similar. I work for a small contractor as well but was hired on to do more design and permitting work in the commercial industrial department (which has since been eliminated but that's a different story). I started out up on roofs putting the stuff together first though, did that for about 6 months then went and drove a forklift up at a large commercial site (and help build it) for about another 6 months. Then spent a couple of years doing what I was hired to do and staying off the roofs. Now I'm subcontracted out to an electrical engineering firm helping them design larger CSG projects while remotely managing my companies design and permitting process. I'm thinking I'm ready for a change though, whether that's getting back out in the field and trying to move to a construction management type position or sales or just something different.
Speaking to NABCEP specifically, in my area at least (Midwest), most people don't really care about it. Of course there is nothing wrong with getting it and good for you for doing so but I wouldn't get really freaked out over it. I've met two electricians who said you absolutely need it and everyone else (the people who actually do the hiring typically) just doesn't care that much about it. From and educational perspective though, it is quite valuable.
Long story short, there's A LOT to do in this industry right now. So I would think about what it is you want to do before deciding on a next step. Construction, design, sales are all available if you want to stay working for contractors - there's also different kinds of technical work in system modeling going on right now that's really interesting. I have a science background as well and am thinking of getting into this area.
So my best advice would be to keep doing what you're doing but start looking at other solar/renewable companies in your area and network a bit. Like I said there's a whole lot of options so you would be doing yourself a disservice by not spending some time looking around. Good luck!