Tor 'Solar Fred''s Comments

Thanks all for the @PVAddict memories and appreciations. I've seen a lot of people sending her a last Tweet-farewell on her Twitter page. I'm sure Heather is beaming even brighter receiving all that solar tribe luv, as well. :)

27940,

I totally agree with you that solar installers need to educate, and although I've taken multiple courses about solar PV and a little solar hot water, I would never attempt to install it, but I do know how to explain it very well. I leave installs up to those that can and have done.

That being said, you can have all the educational materials you want, but if it just sits in one place where nobody reads it or sees it, what's the point? We have to spread useful info (#2 above.)

As a professional marketer AND a solar advocate, I want more people to be educated, not less.

Bottom line, if this info isn't helpful to you, ignore it. Please keep doing what you do. I sincerely wish you great solar success.

Donald, you can easily track usage using "Google Analytics." It's a free tool that tells you how many people are visiting your site and what pages and how long they stay on your site.

The success or failure of a blog depends on many factors, but useful content is king. Then you have to make the effort to spread that useful content using the avenues above. That being said, if you don't have or don't want to make the time, then you're right. Don't start one, because a blog only works if you do, as the saying goes. The good news is that, unlinke web ads, it costs almost nothing to set it up, and people actually come back and read you and treat you like a solar authority... if your content is useful.

Hope that helps.

I like the investment analogy, John, and I've mentioned several times now that sales people shouldn't position solar as an alternative to any large purchase.

The point here is to make common solar concepts less "foreign" and easier to understand.

Hey, Summer and Alison, thanks for the shout out. As I noted in the post, I wouldn't advise solar sales people to favor the client buying solar instead of their dream car. While the points you make are true, chances are that the person may be thinking about buying a car in the near future, and the argument shouldn't be that you're wasting money buying a car instead of solar. Rather, solar can lead to you saving money to buy your next car! Especially with a lease or solar PPA product, which have low up front costs.

Good point, Evelyn... although 6 year payback is going to depend on you location, rebates, and a lot of other factors, as you probably know. But I like the free gas analogy. Thanks!

Carter, I think there's definitely a status aspect to it right now. That's why entire neighborhoods become seeded with solar after the first visible install. Thanks!

Vineland, I think any incentive is better than nothing, but of course, SCRECs and FiTs have proven to be great incentives.

What's nice about the upfront rebate, although they may not be completely accurate, they do reduce the upfront stickershock psychology. SRECs go up and down, giving some uncertainty about the investment/ROI. Of course, FiTs are great so long as they're not unexpectedly reduced and made widely available. I think both consumers and large scale installers appreciate "certainty," and upfront rebates provide some level of that.

Regarding Boulder, again I think the community was ripe and ready to go with any incentive.

Hey, Bruce. Thanks for the shout out.

I think streamlining permitting and regs come under the city/state support that I mentioned above. But all that you've mentioned will get the price down. As the industry becomes more plug and play, that too will bring labor costs down, hopefully not to the detriment of safety, efficiency, and actually kWh produced.

Thanks for the shout out, SRoeCoSolar. Hope it helps you guys sell a lot of solar.

Thanks, Steve. If I've got the right place, I'm thinking a ground mount would still work. He could lose some trees.

One of my points is the uncertainty that the complaint has caused the entire industry, especially large projects. If demand goes down further over the next year, this will hurt all manufacturers, BOS, inverter companies, and installers, including SolarWorld. I understand the jobs situation, but will it be at the expense of other industry jobs? Once again, I do not believe SolarWorld is serving its customers through this complaint, and that is a PR/marketing decision that I believe will hurt what had been a strong brand until now. Time will tell whether this decision hurts the profits as well as their brand.

Actually, Jason, I think we were finally getting over the hump of Solyndra, and that we were on our way to restoring our reputation and celebrating our collective successes. As mentioned above, SolarWorld's announcement distracted from all that. I do agree that SEIA handled it well.

Thomas, this much more than about a name. This is about building a relationship with your customers that turns them into advocates for your company, spreading word of mouth. But I agree and have written about the commoditization of solar PV. I disagree that there's nothing to do about it and to just let price and the market decide winners and losers. I point to Apple and Harley Davidson because these are both brands that are able to charge a premium for their respective commodities, computers, cell phones, and motorcycles. Solar needs to have that same market dynamic.

It's a great topic and a difficult balance, Jenn. Off the top of my head, one solution --for solar-- is to use all of the available developed areas first. America has so many unused rooftops. I do know that there are utilities and some PPAs that are starting to rent these rooftops and developed spaces, but of course, these have challenges and scale problems as well. It's more manageable to build on empty land than a hundred rooftops. I know. But I wonder if these challenges and scale problems are less expensive and less challenging than the going through the time and expense of battling our fellow "environmentalists?" That's perhaps for the green MBAs to figure out.

Personally, I'm okay with the solar developer extra-mile approach, but I'm admittedly very biased for solar development.

Finally, the solar industry is heading into main stream advertising and event PR.