Span, as you may know, wants to disrupt the electric panel and become the true hub of the modern, solar + storage-focused, all-electric smart home. It is much more than an electrical distribution box, as we’ve covered several times. It makes the installation of any solar and/or energy storage systemRead More

Large-scale PV DC optimizer company Ampt hit a company milestone of 5 GWh of DC-coupled energy storage projects installed this week. Ampt is a key technology provider for PV+storage systems, so this seemed like an opportunity to catch up with what they have to offer. Ampt is headquartered in FortRead More

Rooftop rail-less solar PV systems have been around for many years, and year-over-year, continue to be a growing part of the solar market. Yet hesitancies still exist with both the technology and with learning new methodologies. One of these hesitancies is wire management. We recently sat down with Doug Claxton,Read More

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a decade since the solar construction boom of 2010. With renewable energy flourishing nationally and abroad, industry progress has been nothing short of astonishing. In the United States alone, solar has experienced an average annual growth rate of 49% since 2010. Indeed, solar,Read 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

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 part of our Wire and Cable Management Buyer’s Guide, we asked manufacturers for some installation tips. Here is what they had to say. Working off the roof. Installers are still doing most of the wire management assembly once they are up on the roof. We have seen several installersRead More

One of the most impressive things about walking around (at least most) utility-scale PV sites, is how neat, orderly, and consistent the cable management is. Unfortunately though this might be covering up some of the issues that happened during the install phase. Issues that create weak points and compromised components,Read More

Whether you build, operate or own utility-scale PV, managing costs while ensuring quality is top of mind for all involved. At first glance, cable management might not be as critical as modules or central inverters. Over time, cable management issues — specifically cable tie failures — can affect a site’sRead More

As commercial and utility-scale solar projects become more widespread, fires and failures shouldn’t. Unfortunately, the number of rooftop solar installation fires in the United States each year increased 69 percent between 2016 and 2018, according to U.S. Fire Administration data. Unprotected, improperly connected or incompatible connectors are some of theRead More