You’ve likely not heard of Tabuchi, but you may have already installed one of its inverters. That’s because the Japanese electronics manufacturer has been producing inverters for a number of companies for close to 20 years — enough to be the No. 5 inverter manufacturer in the world. Anyway, ifRead More

In North America, over 75 percent of the roofs installed on residential construction projects are asphaltic composition shingles. If you live in an area that receives snow and ice, and your roofing material is composition shingle, you’ve probably never experienced a significant roof avalanche. The reason for this is theRead More

There are three main types of inverter topologies currently used in PV systems: traditional string inverters, microinverters and power optimizers. Since the traditional string inverter topology has a number of significant drawbacks, the industry is moving forward to distributed PV system architecture. The two leading technologies for distributed PV systemRead More

  Cambridge, Md. | 4.3 MW In 2012, the National Aquarium in Baltimore began exploring rooftop solar as a way to decrease dependence on traditional energy resources. However, given the National Aquarium’s unique building design, rooftop panels were nearly impossible. The limited roof space could only accommodate a very smallRead More

St. Thomas, U.S.  Virgin Islands | 5 MW Daunting. That was the first word Sam Ley, energy systems engineer for AES Distributed Energy, used to describe USVI Solar I, our Ground-Mount Project of the Year. And really, we could have just printed that one word in bold, 72-point type nearRead More

Rockville, Md. | 11 kW This runner-up in the rooftop category really can’t be pinned down by one label. Sure, it is a cool looking building with a nice rooftop and storage system, but that’s just one facet of a project meant to promote total sustainability. In the summer ofRead More

Oakland, Calif. | 51 kW Education and renewable energy go hand in hand. The energy revolution we’ve seen the last few decades has come about because of some serious education and re-education of the public. If humans plan on sticking around awhile, growing an awareness of sustainability is as importantRead More

A whirlwind of new technology improvements are appearing in solar modules made by the world’s leading manufacturers, with common goals of improving performance and efficiency, while holding costs down to the bare bone. Many of these advances were touted during the recent SPI show in Anaheim, where manufacturers vied forRead More