There’s long been a Catch-22 about residential solar: despite staggering market demand, it’s been hard to make money doing it—until now. Sunrun Inc. said Wednesday that it’s cash-flow positive. And Blackstone Group LP-backed Vivint Solar Inc. expects to hit that mark next year. [...]

This week, we review the spectrum of backup power solutions from generators to home battery backup power systems connected to solar. I’ve been installing home battery backup power systems on and off for 20 years.  [...]

Black Hills Energy has proposed rates that would increase fixed charges for all residential customers and put net metered solar customers in a separate rate class that would have to pay even more. COSEIA filed testimony opposing the  proposed rates, which increase fixed charges by 54 percent for net metered customers, claiming they  are discriminatory and seek to undermine solar generation in Colorado. However, the Office of Consumer Counsel, which receives tax dollars to represent ratepayer [...]

Over the summer about 33 customers in Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PG&E’s) territory started a new journey with their utility. PG&E is hoping that through this and other pilot projects, it will learn how responsive batteries, solar PV and smart inverters are when they receive a signal from the utility.  [...]

Over the past few months we’ve experienced a solar eclipse, several devastating hurricanes, another under-construction nuclear plant shutdown, and a backwards-looking Department of Energy Grid Reliability study.   [...]

Since unveiling its solar roof tile designs a year ago, Tesla has been testing the product, which CEO Elon Musk says is going to be a significant part of the company’s business down the road. [...]

Solar entrepreneur Bill Gross, the CEO of Edisun Microgrids, has successfully penetrated the commercial and industrial solar market segment with dual-axis trackers, promising a 30 percent performance boost for a cost increase of only 10 percent compared with a standard fixed-tilt PV installation, at optimal U.S. locations, he says. [...]

Listen to Blake Jones and Aaron James discuss solar loans and the decisions consumers are making about financing today, new financing options and services, and the question of transparency in the solar loans market. [...]

In a hearing held today, October 31, the U.S. International Trade Commissioners announced their recommended tariffs, quotas and other recommendations for solar modules imported into the United States from anywhere else in the world.  [...]

The solar PV industry is at a high degree of capacity utilization in 2017 driven by strong demand in China for PV deployment. Globally from 86 GWp to 92 GWp is on track to be installed in 2017. Currently the industry has 92 GWp of manufacturing capacity and at the beginning of the year there was 3 GWp of inventory on the supply and demand sides.  [...]

Tesla Inc. is preparing to bundle about $340 million of solar power purchase agreements and leases into a bond offering. [...]

Utility customers in Ohio and Nebraska are among those taking advantage of a new and simpler technique for connecting solar arrays and other renewable energy systems to the grid. [...]

The prospect of using solar power on a temporary basis, including for disaster response and recovery, is not new, of course. Indeed, Hurricane Hugo in 1988 is believed to be the first time that solar power was used for relief in the aftermath of a natural disaster.  [...]

In 2013, the California Independent System Operator published a chart that is now commonplace in conversations about large-scale deployment of solar PV power. The duck curve—named after its resemblance to a duck—shows the difference in electricity demand and the amount of available solar energy throughout the day.  [...]

SunPower Corp., the second-largest U.S. panel manufacturer, arranged more than $53 million in financing for residential-solar installations. [...]

Considering the reputation of crowdfunding and also the state of the EV startup scene, which hasn't delivered in a while, it's pleasantly surprising to see some actual progress with a new electric car concept. After a successful crowdfunding effort, German startup Sono Motors has unveiled the Sion, a battery-electric car partly powered by solar power with onboard solar cells, earlier this year. [...]

Big solar farms helped create a power-grid predicament in California. And now they’re offering to help solve it. Solar panels have proliferated in the Golden State, flooding the grid with power supplies in the middle of the day when the sun’s out — and then quickly vanishing after sunset.  [...]

Solar leasing promoters have long claimed that electricity costs will keep rising, but we haven’t see this happening – yet.  Actually, almost all of the standard generation sources are benefiting from lower costs – natural gas is low, coal is low, and nuclear is… well it’s not dramatically more expensive than it has been. There is no doubt in my mind, however, that prices are going to go up. [...]

At the Intersolar Middle East Conference, which took place on September 26 and 27 in Dubai, 86 international speakers presented past, present and future solar PV market developments. A total of 408 attendees made the Intersolar conference in Dubai the biggest standalone PV conference in the region. [...]

Post Date: October 12, 2017 Job Title: PV Team Curriculum Developer Location:  Remote To Apply: To apply, please submit your resume, including industry-specific training, cover letter, and three references in one combined PDF to *protected email* The the application deadline is October 30th. Job Description: Successful candidates for our PV Curriculum Developer position will: combine PV technical knowledge with the ability to effectively communicate these concepts to various audiences; enthu [...]

There has been talk for years about the need for the industry to mobilize rooftop solar owners into one group that together would represent one large voice in favor of solar-friendly local, state and federal policy. With more than 1,000,0000 installations in the U.S., that voice would certainly be loud and strong. A loud, centralized voice couldn’t be more important in U.S. politics right now, where the Trump administration is eying tariffs, policies and rules that could crush the solar indust [...]

As the Atlantic continues to churn out some of the deadliest storms on record, the repercussions continue to rock the South and southeastern U.S. Whether it is the physical impact of the recent storms on solar projects or the economic impact throughout energy markets, how do these events affect the solar industry, and to what extent? [...]

Post Date: October 12, 2017 Job Title: PV Team Curriculum Developer Location:  Carbondale, CO To Apply: Send cover letter and resume to *protected email* Summary Sunsense Solar is seeking a PV System Designer.  The PV System Designer is responsible for producing high quality permit, construction, and record/as-built drawings for residential and small commercial grid-tied systems, and residential PV plus battery systems, based on site visit information collected by the Sunsense Residential/S [...]

In its 30th year, the organizers of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge have made the journey even more challenging in 2017 by reducing the size of the solar array that powers the cars. [...]