Liz's Comments

What a great profile of some of the characters that inspire clean energy professionals to work harder, faster, and smarter. It takes these cause-motivated and talented leaders to break the rules, or invent the new rules, to make the renewables sector 'business as usual.'

These leaders all share their experience and knowledge, confident in their understanding that we have to work together to expand the pie, rather than wasting time trying to protect any one piece.

Thanks Elisa!

This is an important issue and should be clarified, "authorized," or stopped ASAP so as to avoid another set of hearings from clean energy opponents. I hope we get clarity on the facts at Solar Power Int'l.
Thanks for digging into it Jim!

Very cool event and glad it'll happen again. Solar folks got talent! The McCarthy video is very well done. Thanks SolarFred!

While change is the biggest constant in the RE biz, this is quite the bummer! REW podcast has been consistently insightful, informative, creative, and straight-forward. The industry loses a real resource with the retirement of your podcast in this format and venue, but we'll most definitely be following your work Stephen.

Thanks to Molly Sterkel for reminding me about the SGIP incentive program and providing this link to the data: https://energycenter.org/index.php/incentive-programs/self-generation-incentive-program/sgip-documents/sgip-documents
It includes another 920 PV systems installed before 2007, 50 of which are under 50kW.

Thanks for the support all!

The cost per watt might be skewed high since the 3rd party owners may have inflated their contract prices. We need more pricing transparency and consumer awareness of what is fair, and a good value. Lowest price isn't always best, but price inflation due to lack of customer awareness hurts the industry too.

There is a HUGE need for continued pricing data in the marketplace, especially now that the CSI is sunsetting.

Or, perhaps as useful, how did the three companies who weren't installing much pre-2007, end up in the top ten since 2007? Stout & Berg Electric, Sungate Energy Systems, and Verengo must have been doing something worth watching to achieve such growth.

Thanks for sharing your analysis of CSI data. Great stuff!
While it's Calif specific, CA represents >65% of the U.S. market and its various sub-regions are not bad indicators of what will happen elsewhere.

I agree there are more disaggregated PV install businesses entering the fray, even as the top ten are rapidly expanding. The trend is coming in wave following incentive programs. When the incentives die off the short-term installers disappear as well.

I see the solar install business model having to change from offering only solar to offering the complete building energy solutions package. I just don't see how the small solar-only installer will be able to compete against the mid and larger sized companies who will offer HVAC, retrofit, renewables, and automation controls. And financing for the whole package.

Thanks FreeAsTheWind!

RE: the question by Anonymous about Lease financing being an option for all installers. The short answer is "no."

One of the key benefits of Lease financing should be that it puts the pressure on the installer to ensure the system meets performance guarantees. If something goes wrong with production, the money to fix it comes out of the investor/owner's pocket - at least for the first few years.

So, leasing companies want to work with the highest quality and well established companies. Installers need a good track record, and good credit since they are on the hook if something if something goes awry.

This article still ranks high in Google when searching "power vs. energy," which is great. Unlike previous comments, I don't find discussing the different technologies helpful to clarify the terms "energy" and "power" as they relate to solar technology.
I've seen more clear explanations from Dr. Sklar, and my favorite as it applies to solar is from Dr. Sean White: http://www.pvstudent.com/Power-v--Energy.html

When you google "difference between power and energy" you get 50% sites stating Power is time related, and the other half stating Energy is time related.

I'm sticking with Sean's memory trick: PoWer = Watt (think W's.)

I think the author raises important considerations. It'd be helpful to see a comparison of the number of lobbyists dedicated to promoting natural gas and oil (which are two sides of the same business - drilling and piping fossils) against the number of renewables lobbyists (from all clean tech.)

The days of being energy-agnostic because NG is cleaner than coal are over. To be effective we have to know what NG tells pols about renewables, and combat their public 'information' campaigns. We need creative yet positive messages, like the PluginAmerica campaign http://www.youtube.com/pluginamerica that build the truth about NG

Thanks for the update PeterRenton. Most of the warnings I see about P2P are about investing, not borrowing. I'm hoping non-lease (or PPA) lenders will jump in here and promote their residential loan products.

Thanks for clear coverage of the study Ucilia.
It isn't surprising that the IOU's are signing contracts that reflect solar is more expensive than natural gas, especially since natural gas still doesn't pay for major environmental externalities like carbon emissions, water table pollution, or removal of wetlands.

The term "perceived rush" to describe our RPS goals discounts the rational urgency needed to reduce GHG emissions. The irrational thing is to delay and repeat 'business as usual' which is what the MPR is all about.

Arguing for least cost is fine when all the costs are on the table, but the legacy utility grid was built without internalizing its full costs. Paying a premium for clean renewable power is a 'rational cost' to meet an urgent objective.

Stephen, you should send a bill to CitizenRE for business consulting. Your article is full of research, objective information, and on-point questions that could help them form their basic business plan.

Yet their written answers read like jargon filled double-speak.
There's no "there" there. Odd they didn't at least change their name since last go round.

At least they make interesting fodder for us peanut gallery industry-watchers.

Nice summary of the recent merge-quake of solar installers.

By 2012 there will be:
1) the "Top 3" very big nationally recognized solar installation companies,
2) the "Next 20" mid-sized multi-state competitors,
3) and 8,000 or more smaller, regional coverage businesses that offer solar along with HVAC, Roofing, Electrical, and Energy Efficiency retrofit services.

The "solar-only" small installer will have a hard time competing in this environment.

If you sell products and services to solar installers now (e.g. distributors, manufacturers, professional services, financing products, etc.) the question is, what will those 8,000+ businesses need from you?

You heard it here first.