The days when a residential or commercial solar installer did not need to know the difference in performance between lead-acid and lithium-based batteries are over. Battery storage has emerged as an unavoidable complement to solar, slashing peak charges and outwitting utility time-of-use charge games, not to mention saving microgrids fromRead More

Even amid the tariff uncertainty, China-based LONGi Solar is ready to establish a bigger presence in the U.S. and intrigues us in the (ahem) long-term. Wholly owned by LONGi Group, there was speculation that in a punitive tariff scenario the company might consider establishing its own U.S. manufacturing line, butRead More

At Solar Power Northeast last week in Boston, we grabbed 15 mins of SEIA CEO Abigail Ross Hopper’s time to chat about where SEIA and the solar industry go now that the trade case drama has ended and the 30 percent tariff is in place. Below is a truncated versionRead More

New codes and regulations are notorious for raising prices and halting innovation in industries, but the new rapid shutdown requirements facing the solar industry are having the opposite effect. Thanks to a coalition of manufacturers and interested parties across solar, the solutions being developed to meet NEC 2017 Module LevelRead More

Simplification is one of the key objectives of the solar industry, but the path to get there, ironically, is super detailed. Removing components to simplify a racking system, being compatible (and compliant) with a broad range of suppliers and just generally re-thinking what’s already been established is a deliberate andRead More

Solar is now the No. 1 new source of capacity being added to the grid, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and solar installer is the fastest growing job in the country according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And what’s the reason for the rise of this newRead More

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) continues its in-depth look at state-level efforts to modernize the electric utility grid with the fourth paper in the series, Getting More Granular: How Value of Location and Time May Change Compensation for Distributed Energy Resources. The focus in this one is ways inRead More

Outside of the solar hotbeds on the coasts, a solar company might need to be even more passionate to succeed. Inovateus Solar, for example, has carved out a sizable solar development market in the Midwest – a journey that has required a ton of customer education and a deep corporateRead More

From an evolving market structure to technology innovation, the community solar landscape is transforming quickly. What does this mean for 2018? Clean Energy Collective (CEC), the nation’s leading community solar developer and solutions provider, forecast what is on the horizon for community solar. CEC’s experts offer the following 10 predictionsRead More

The following article will appear in the Jan./Feb. issue of Solar Builder magazine. Sign up for your free subscription (print or digital) today. 1. Education tools. Often, the biggest hurdle for selling solar is a lack of understanding by potential customers. Energy costs can be hard to understand, not toRead More