Solar Power World

“The Midwest market is where the East and West coast markets were back in 2005,” says SimpleRay (@SimpleRaySolar) CEO Geoff Stenrick. “As these markets mature, the need for dialog, education and training becomes increasingly more important to ensure long-term economic growth.” We spoke with Geoff Stenrick, to find our more about his St. Paul-Minnesota based solar distribution company, as well as why SimpleRay is taking part in the Midwest Solar EXPO (@MWSolarExpo) and why you should too. The Midwest Solar EXPO will take place May 16 at the Hilton Minneapolis. Register here.   Want more? Try these articles: Solar Industry Heads To Minneapolis For Midwest Solar Expo Confused By Solar Components? Distributors Can Help  

Solar projects are a financial investment so, let's face it, they're all about returns. A profitable, reliable solar project is only possible if its components are reliable, too. Solar inverters are the leading cause of failure, today, in PV systems, and usually also the most expensive to fix. Such operations and maintenance costs can erode returns. There's been a movement in the solar module industry to improve module reliability. But only recently has industry and government focus turned toward solar inverter reliability. While inverter interconnection and safety standards exist, there are no well-established reliability standards. We spoke with SolarBridge Technologies' Craig Lawrence and Paul Parker to see how the microinverter manufacturer is pushing the industry to do something about the issue.  Listen to the full interview to learn more.   Want more? Try these articles: Reliability: Stable Inverters Power The Best Solar Solutions Solar Reliability: How Do We Get There? How To Calculate Solar Reliability

Energy storage is an important issue to address to provide better grid stability, and therefore more reliable power. But solving this issue could cost the federal government millions of dollars. Or not. Green Charge Networks says it's come up with a solution to address grid storage challenges by bringing the public and private sectors together. We spoke with the company's CEO Vic Shao to learn how his company will use Department Of Energy funding to develop agreements that help businesses cut their electricity bills by using a combination of energy storage and predictive algorithms. Green Charge Networks has already signed power efficiency agreements with major customers like 7-Eleven, Walgreens, office buildings, community colleges and municipalities. Listen to the full interview to learn more.       Want more? Try these articles:   Storage Breakthroughs Will Fuel Industry Expansion   SunSpec and MESA Alliances Drive Standards for Energy Storage   Ultracapacitor Storage Can Help Build A Reliable Solar Grid   Don’t Despair: AC Coupling Can Alleviate Your Solar Storage Challenges    

Jim Jenal, co-founder of Run on Sun, once practiced law. He represented companies that had to win or face bankruptcy. Even when the companies had a great result, Jenal says, few were happy when they arrived at the end of the process. “It was like an extended three-year trip to the dentist,” Jenal says in this Contractors Corner podcast. In 2006, Jenal, an MBA he once represented in court and an expert electrician made the jump to solar. Now, Jenal says, his clients are thrilled with the end result. They’re happy to be producing clean energy. “It’s much more gratifying, and it’s consistent with the rational we had for starting this company,” Jenal says. In this Contractors Corner podcast, learn how Run on Sun attracts clients, the reason it switched to micro-inverters and why Jenal wrote a book about commercial solar installation, titled Commercial Solar: Step-By-Step. Also find out why the company prefers Enphase inverters, LG panels and Unirac racking. Listen here:    

While an enclosure isn't the most complex component you'll find in a solar installation, it's certainly an important one. A proper enclosure protects vital system electronics that can affect uptime, and therefore the system's return on investment. We spoke with Bill DeRoche of Ohio enclosure manufacturer Allied Moulded Products to find out why enclosures are more than just a box.

While solar component costs are decreasing, balance of system and soft costs remain a huge obstacle to completing many commercial solar projects.  But concept3D,  a Colorado-based software studio and media services company,  has partnered with NREL to help lower the soft costs of solar energy. concept3D received $1.3 million in funding from the DOE’s Sunshot Initiative to develop simuwatt Solar a tool that uses 3D modeling to streamline the entire process from sales to engineering, to permitting in a single application. We spoke with the company's CEO Oliver Davis to find out more.    

In the second part of Solar Power World's conversation with Arno Harris, CEO of Recurrent Energy and chairman of SEIA, the industry leader discusses what must happen for the solar industry to be considered a mature member of the U.S. energy mix. Among the things the industry has to do are: Act like it's been at the grownup table before Develop a plan to deal with the challenges that adding more solar to the grid will bring Advocate intelligently for the extension of the solar ITC in 2016. Tune in next week for the final installment of this series, when Arno discusses what’s on Recurrent Energy’s horizon in 2014 — and beyond. This podcast is brought to you by Festo. Hear Damon Turley offer tips on keeping production costs low and saving you money. Festo — your partner in the solar industry.     Listen to Part I of our conversation with Harris.

In light of the Senate's proposal to reduce the investment tax credit for solar, we spoke with Jamie Hahn, co-founder and managing director of Northeastern solar developer Solis Partners (also a Solar Power World Top 250 Contractor). Jamie helped clarify what this reduction would mean for the solar industry and if it's likely to pass in 2014. He also shared examples of other financing options such as crowdfunding, as well as his insight on securitization. Listen to this episode of Solar Speaks to hear the whole conversation.

As the commercial sector drove much of the growth in the solar industry in 2013, Recurrent Energy led the way. The company worked with Google, MetLife and Duke Energy, just to name  few. To say Recurrent has developed projects for some of the heavy hitters in the commercial sector would undersell its accomplishments. We talked to Arno Harris, Recurrent's CEO, to get his perspective on what drove the industry in 2013 (including the loosening of financing), and how it feels to have the United States finally competing with with Germany as a world solar leader. Hear what Arno has to say in this first of a three-part conversation. Next week, Arno discusses grid-interconnection and the looming expiration of the investment tax credit (ITC) that faces in the industry in 2016.   This podcast is brought to you by Solectria Renewables.

For every megawatt of residential solar power that SolarCity installs in 2014, the company will bring light to a community by donating a solar power system and battery combination to a school without access to electricity, through its new charitable arm, the Give Power Foundation. We thought we’d get the details straight from the company itself in this edition of Solar Speaks.

Welcome to another edition of Contractor’s Corner, a Solar Power World podcast series in which our editors talk with solar contractors and installers just like you. This podcast series is a companion to the Contractor’s Corner column in our print magazine and on our website. In this episode, we hear from James Dumas, a founding principal at Solect, a Hopkinton, Mass.-based solar installer and member of the Solar Power World Top 250 Solar Contractors list. Read the Contractors Corner column featuring Solect Energy from our print issue here. 

Welcome to another edition of Solar Speaks, Solar Power World’s podcast series that gives you the opportunity to hear from the industry’s biggest newsmakers — in their own words. In this episode, we talked to Rob Threlkeld, renewable energy manager for General Motors. GM joined SEIA in February, and in October they announced that they will be installing a 1.8 MW on their Toledo Transmission Plant.

I’m Kathie Zipp, managing editor of Solar Power World magazine. Welcome to another edition of Solar Speaks, Solar Power World’s podcast series that gives you the opportunity to hear from the industry’s biggest newsmakers in their own words. We spoke with Youness Scally of Everybody Solar, a San Francisco non-profit that works to protect the environment and strengthen communities through solar energy projects. Youness is here to tell us more about the work his organization does, particularly how Everybody Solar is working with a fellow non-profit, Homeboy Industries, to stop gang-violence. Find out how you can help too. If you'd like to make a donation to the Homeboy Industries project, or suggest one in the San Francisco Bay area for 2014, please visit www.everybodysolar.org

Welcome to another edition of Solar Speaks, Solar Power World’s podcast series that gives you the opportunity to hear from the industry’s biggest newsmakers — in their own words. Today, we’re talking to Gilad Almogy, CEO of Cogenra Solar, which announced last week that it had introduced a ground-mount solar system that installs for 50 cents a watt.

  Solar Speaks, Solar Power World’s podcast series that gives you the opportunity to hear from the industry’s biggest newsmakers — in their own words. Today, we’re talking to Brad Mattson, CEO of Siva Power (formerly known, up until last week, as Solexant). The transition has been two years in the making, with the goal of creating a path to 40 cents per watt soar power, along with unprecedented production scale.