The wildfires and resulting (and ongoing) public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) are leaving thousands of Californians without power and searching for answers. As a solar installer, you are in a prime spot to provide some of those answers in the form of backup storage. “Solar system owners in CaliforniaRead More

In 2008, when the investment tax credit (ITC) came into play, people had no idea what a power purchase agreement (PPA) was. Fast forward 10 years to 2018 and there is 300x growth in corporate energy procurement through PPAs. The market has matured, and a lot of different investors areRead More

When I first saw the Esdec FlatFix at Solar Power International in Anaheim in 2018, I thought the Netherlands-based solar racking company had a chance to make a dent in the commercial rooftop segment in the United States based on its slick system design. Fast-forward a calendar year and IRead More

  This final article in our Countdown to 2020 series originally appeared in the November/December 2019 issue of Solar Builder. Subscribe here for free if you haven’t already.  The launch of California’s Title 24 new build solar mandate is less than two months away, and it’s nowhere near the topRead More

The residential solar + storage market is still more buzz than business as we finish out 2019, but Generac, the largest brand in the home standby generator space, has plans to single-handedly change that going into 2020. I don’t think that’s an overstatement, either. There is momentum in residential solarRead More

At Solar Power International this year we chatted with Ravindra Vaidya, VP of global markets for Vikram Solar, about the company’s upcoming big push into the United States. Here’s what we learned. Created in 2006 by the Vikram Group, Vikram Solar is a global manufacturer of Tier 1 PV modulesRead More

Following the recent announcement that SunPower, one of America’s largest solar-panel makers, is to exit from the manufacturing business, Mohit Prasad, Project Manager at GlobalData, a data and analytics company, sent us his view: that, even despite the tariffs, there might be more U.S. companies exiting the PV manufacturing space.Read More

The following is an excerpt from a whitepaper produced by TerraSmart. You can request to download the full version here. As the demand for renewable energy grows across North America, an increasing number of utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) projects are being deployed in regions that experience severe winter conditions, including deepRead More

Part IV of Solar Builder’s excellent Countdown to 2020 series about California’s new home solar mandate included this statement: “Speakers at the California Solar Power Expo… expect homebuilders to skip solar-only systems to comply with the Title 24 mandate and go straight to solar + storage systems.” Is that expectationRead More

City Cabins at Abbott’s Alley Sedro-Woolley, Wash. | six 9.9-kW homes Developer: Martha Rose Construction Inc. Solar Contractor: Banner Power Solutions Modules: Itek Inverters: Enphase Mounting: IronRidge Solar power connotes ideals like freedom, efficiency, conservation and innovation. The 2019 Solar Builder Residential Project of the Year is perhaps the mostRead More