Solar professionals typically see cost per action, or CPA, marketing as a reliable way to control costs while generating leads. Since solar companies that use CPA marketing will only pay for leads when their target goals are completed, they often perceive it as more effective than partnering with a reliableRead More

History is littered with a bevy of debates primed for discussion in the friendly confines of your local speakeasy. Do you prefer the designated hitter or pitchers who hit? Ford or Chevy? Pearl Jam or Nirvana? In the utility PV industry, that pub argument often comes down to central orRead More

Via Energy News Network: A pioneer in Minnesota’s solar industry is attempting to replicate a green economic justice blueprint in the state’s largest African American community. Ralph Jacobson founded the solar firm Impact Power Solutions (IPS) in 1991 and was its CEO until 2019, when he shifted into a roleRead More

In a few short years, the industry’s concept of a Distributed Energy Resource (DER) has morphed from an uncomplicated rooftop solar PV system that reduces your electricity bill to an incredibly complicated apparatus that does what the old system did plus stores energy, keeps the lights on at night orRead More

Nothing confuses a grid-tied solar newbie more than the fact that they won’t have power when the grid goes down. Standard inverters need the grid to maintain the AC voltage waveform and provide surge power, and without the grid, a standard inverter can’t function. Sorry, that’s just the way itRead More

Operations and maintenance (O&M) is mostly about keeping the status quo of a solar plant. Fix issues. Prevent failures. Hit benchmarks. But in a tech-driven industry, is maintaining the status quo of a decades-old legacy site the best strategy? Many plant owners and operators are facing this question as theirRead More

  The future of energy storage relies on pushing the envelope. We need battery solutions that have greater capacity, a high power potential, a longer lifespan, are sustainable, safe, and fit into the needs and wants of today’s conscientious consumers. Lithium ion batteries have become a go-to option in on-grid solarRead More

Can you trust an inverter datasheet? Results from independent testing show that datasheets can mislead buyers: reported efficiency may be impossible to achieve in real-world conditions, and certifications do not guarantee safe operation. With independent testing, inverter buyers and system owners can stop relying on marketing materials and use realRead More

Rapid shutdown probably feels like old news at this point, but the product market is just now hitting its stride. Initially, the NEC 2017 and 2020 code changes directly favored the technology of certain module-level power electronic brands, and early versions of inverter-agnostic rapid shutdown devices that paired with stringRead More

As has been the case with many good science fiction inventions of the last century, we are finally getting around to building virtual power plants (VPPs), or a software-and-wire linked network of small residential and commercial electricity generators, that together resemble a multimillion-dollar utility power plant. While the wires linkingRead More