Steve's Comments

As a developer of PV site performance analytics & assessment services--pvwizard.com, I'm quite curious how valuable a 'backup service agreement' can be, over investing into resources for production or revenue assurance. One is a passive, or reactive strategy, while the latter is active, with positive impact on enhancing cash flow.

I'm glad to hear people getting 100%, even 115% production from their PV array after a few years, without human cleaning. Also, the mention of solar array going strong after 40-plus years! I've seen dirt and grime on every solar site i visited. Without effective, or professional cleaning, these arrays suffer at least 5% in degraded output. Solar arrays are not maintenance-free. Every bit of care and oversight will be paid back with enhanced production. They need to watched over time to time.

I applaud the event sponsor's efforts. Innovation is what can help the U.S. a leader in industries, and our per capita productivity. No idea is silly. Why not turn your critical energy into constructive
suggestions? These teams had devoted hundreds of hours and precious dollars to show-off their innovative ideas and work in progress.

1. National Feed In Tariff at $0.15/kWh
2. Uniform, simplified permitting process & fee
3. National Cap and Trade

Well, there is a winner, or two--the DOE SunShot program's goal of seeing $1/watt has been accelerated and reached. Also, the American consumers benefited from the Chinese subsidized products, or generally compressed prices of competing solar modules.

Solyndra had no value proposition. I could not find any demo or reference installation, with production data to validate performance.
Then its modules costed 3 times as much to make! over conventional thin-film modules. No case.

Are we seeing a comic distraction tactic? Solyndra would not have survived even without the Chinese PC cells or modules coming to America!

There can be different ways of looking at this situation. The American solar industry(and end customers) benefited from Chinese subsidy, from a record gigawatts of added PV installations. Then the retro-active import tariff brings hundreds of millions dollars into the US Treasury. If the ITC finds harm done to U.S. manufacturers, the tariff amount will expand. Some economist should give us an over-all balance sheet accounting, as further trade war continue.

This study result should alleviate some of the reluctance utilities have about adopting solar power. Why do we still have a cap on incentive for renewable ?

Joe,
Good thinking. In fact, it makes great sense for solar charging stations to have solar panels as well. These could be producing DC power that charges the car batteries with higher efficiency too.

As a startup in analytics-diagnostics web-services on PV arrays, we lament the $1.1B loss suffered by investors. That amount would have launched 1000 startups like wattminder!

This is a wonderful example of collaboration goodwill by the instinutions mentioned. By adding batteries and chargers, systems like this can offer longer hours and extended coverage.

I can see new transmission capacity will be needed if the multi-MW plants are concentrated in remote areas. But if economics justify private capital to help build new capacity, it will happen.

I agree with '.. panel-level data insight with advanced analysis and diagnostics tools that remove the need for human vigilance and interpretation.' I've visited a number of the so called Solar Operations Centers, and pity the shift supervisors who must get dizzy watching over wall full of computer monitors with trend charts, tabular data, and flashing text boxes. I also like Anatoli's comment about limitation of analysis by comparison. Wattminder is building a solution that is heavy on analytics and diagnostics, with minimal string level sensors.

At PVwizard.com we have a growing database of PV arrays around the world. Entries are created by users who can checkup on their site's performance quickly. The site parameters in the database is viewable by anyone. We welcome the open sharing of databases to the extend our users are in agreement, or are comfortable, per our privacy policy.