January 2026
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Technology • Development • Installation
ALSO INSIDE: TARIFFS, LAWSUITS PLAGUE MODULE MARKET RESIDENTIAL TPO CONTRACTS INCREASE ROCK CLIMBING ORGANIZATION GOES SOLAR
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#05-213 - 2023 NEC 705.82
#02-316 - 2023 NEC 690.12(D)(2)
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#03-308 - 2023 NEC 690.7(D) & 690.8(A)(1) THE DISCONNECTION OF THE GROUNDED CONDUCTOR(S) MAY RESULT IN OVERVOLTAGE ON THE EQUIPMENT pvlabels.com
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NOMINAL OPERATING AC VOLTAGE
A
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DC JUNCTION BOX
MAXIMUM VOLTAGE MAX CIRCUIT CURRENT pvlabels.com
ELECTRIC SHOCK HAZARD DO NOT DISCONNECT UNDER LOAD
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MAXIMUM DC VOLTAGE
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Includes 2023 Placement Guide
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#03-327 - 2023 NEC 690.13(B) PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM DISCONNECT
VDC AMPS
DC JUNCTION BOX
PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER SOURCE
#03-396 - 2023 NEC 225.41(C) EMERGENCY DISCONNECT
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MAXIMUM DC VOLTAGE OF VOLTS PV SYSTEM:
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PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER SOURCE
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MAXIMUM AC POWER MAXIMUM AC CURRENT
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CAUTION SOLAR CIRCUIT
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RAPID SHUTDOWN SWITCH FOR SOLAR PV SYSTEM
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SINGLE 120-VOLT SUPPLY DO NOT CONNECT MULTIWIRE BRANCH CIRCUITS
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ELECTRIC SHOCK HAZARD
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SOURCES: UTILITY GRID AND PV SOLAR ELECTRIC SYSTEM
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#05-346 - 2023 NEC POPULAR ITEM
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#05-809 2023 NEC 690.13(B)
SOLAR PV DC CIRCUIT pvlabels.com
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MAXIMUM DC VOLTAGE OF VOLTS PV SYSTEM: pvlabels.com
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THIS EQUIPMENT FED BY MULTIPLE SOURCES. TOTAL RATING OF ALL OVERCURRENT DEVICES, EXCLUDING MAIN SUPPLY OVERCURRENT DEVICE, SHALL NOT EXCEED AMPACITY OF BUSBAR.
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POSITIVE NEGATIVE
SOLAR PV DC CIRCUIT
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POWER SOURCE OUTPUT CONNECTION DO NOT RELOCATE THIS OVERCURRENT DEVICE
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POSITIVE
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PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER SOURCE
VOLTS
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ELECTRIC SHOCK HAZARD TERMINALS ON THE LINE AND LOAD SIDES MAY BE ENERGIZED IN THE OPEN POSITION
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AMPS
#05-330 - 2023 NEC POPULAR ITEM
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PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER SOURCE pvlabels.com
POSITIVE
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RATED AC OUTPUT CURRENT NOMINAL OPERATING AC VOLTAGE
03-315
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#05-383 - 2023 NEC 690.31(B)(1)
ELECTRIC SHOCK HAZARD TERMINALS ON THE LINE AND LOAD SIDES MAY BE ENERGIZED IN THE OPEN POSITION
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PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM POWER SOURCE
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#05-215 - 2023 NEC 690.13(B)
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THIS IS BUILDING IS SUPPLIED BY MULTIPLE SOURCES OF POWER WITH DISCONNECTS LOCATED AS SHOWN:
#05-379 - 2023 NEC 690.31(B)(1)
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CAUTION
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MADE IN USA
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TURN RAPID SHUTDOWN SWITCH TO THE “OFF” POSITION TO SHUT DOWN PV SYSTEM AND REDUCE SHOCK HAZARD IN THE ARRAY
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Reflective
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PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER SOURCE
PV SYSTEM kWh METER
PV SYSTEM DISCONNECT
#05-805 & 05-806 2023 NEC 690.31(B)(2)
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Largest Selection
#05-341 - 2023 NEC 690.4(B)
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Metal Signs
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Code Compliance
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Vinyl Labels
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Special Price
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TURN OFF PHOTOVOLTAIC AC DISCONNECT PRIOR TO WORKING INSIDE PANEL
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SOLAR PV SYSTEM EQUIPPED WITH RAPID SHUTDOWN
SALE
$39.00
#05-372 - 2023 NEC 110.27(C)
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Plastic Placards
#05-112 - 2023 NEC 690.12(D)
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UV Film Lamination
#05-109 - 2023 NEC 690.13(B) PV SYSTEM DISCONNECT
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Custom Items
2023 Pack - 88 Pieces
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NEC 2023 PACKS NEC 2020 PACKS NEC 2017 PACKS NEC 2014 PACKS NEC 2011 PACKS IN STOCK - NOW
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Staff
First Word
EDITORIAL Editor in Chief Kelly Pickerel kpickerel@wtwhmedia.com Managing Editor Kelsey Misbrener kmisbrener@wtwhmedia.com Senior Editor Billy Ludt bludt@wtwhmedia.com
CREATIVE SERVICES & PRINT PRODUCTION Art Director Allison Washko awashko@wtwhmedia.com
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Director, Audience Growth Rick Ellis rellis@wtwhmedia.com Audience Growth Manager Angela Tanner atanner@wtwhmedia.com
MARKETING VP, Marketing Annie Wissner awissner@wtwhmedia.com Webinar Manager Lindsey Harvey lharvey@wtwhmedia.com
CUSTOMER SERVICE Customer Service Manager Stephanie Hulett shulett@wtwhmedia.com Customer Service Representative JoAnn Martin jmartin@wtwhmedia.com Customer Service Representative Tracy Powers tpowers@wtwhmedia.com Customer Service Representative Renee Massey-Linston renee@wtwhmedia.com
New beginnings IT'S A NEW YEAR in solar power, and a new beginning for me — after nine years, I am signing off as an editor with Solar Power World to continue my career elsewhere in the renewable energy industry. I started at SPW in 2017, right when the first Trump administration took office. I had a very limited knowledge of the solar industry then, based mostly on what my dad told me in his work as a project manager pursuing renewable energy contracts for Kent State University. Along with a crash course in all the technology that goes into solar arrays of all sizes, I quickly learned the importance of policy for the solar + storage industry in my first days at SPW, and I took that on as one of my beats. Now, it's 2026. We're one year into the second Trump term, and much has changed. Homeowners no longer get tax credits for installing solar power, and largescale developers have new restrictions and parameters for collecting the credits that help their projects pencil out. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit concerned about the impacts of these changes. But I also have seen in my neardecade in solar how resilient the industry can be. While it's bittersweet to leave SPW, I'm so grateful I'll still be working in the industry and telling the stories of how solar is helping the grid and the country, despite the current headwinds working against it. Since 2017, SPW has given me the chance to learn and try so many new things.
Volunteering on a residential solar project on a roof in Berkeley, California, watching the morning fog burn off as we hoisted panels up a ladder. Attending SEIA's policy conference in Washington, D.C., and sitting in on an International Trade Commission hearing on solar tariffs. Corralling lambs on Silicon Ranch’s co-located solar project and lambing operation in Georgia. Meeting so many friendly faces at RE+ and Intersolar, and enjoying all the new cities along the way (still sad New Orleans didn't pan out). Experiencing all of these things is the stuff I could have only dreamt about in college in the early 2010s, when even the professors weren't sure what the future of journalism looked like in the smartphone age. Thank you to everyone who has trusted me to tell your stories over these past nine years. And thanks especially to Kelly and Billy for being the best coworkers and friends I could've asked for. I hope you enjoy this 2026 Trends in Solar + Storage issue, where we take a look into our crystal ball about what the year ahead holds for the industry. SPW
Kelsey Misbrener
Managing Editor
Customer Service Representative Trinidy Longgood tlonggood@wtwhmedia.com WTWH Media, LLC: 1111 Superior Avenue, Suite 1120, Cleveland, OH 44114 • Ph: 888.543.2447 • Fax: 888.543.2447
LEADERSHIP CEO Matt Logan mlogan@wtwhmedia.com
SALES Ashley N. Burk 737.615.8452 aburk@wtwhmedia.com Jami Brownlee 224.760.1055 jbrownlee@wtwhmedia.com Daniel Glazier 773.835.0800 dglazier@wtwhmedia.com
SOLAR POWER WORLD does not pass judgment on subjects of controversy nor enter into disputes with or between any individuals or organizations. SOLAR POWER WORLD is also an independent forum for the expression of opinions relevant to industry issues. Letters to the editor and by-lined articles express the views of the author and not necessarily of the publisher or publication. Every effort is made to provide accurate information. However, the publisher assumes no responsibility for accuracy of submitted advertising and editorial information. Non-commissioned articles and news releases cannot be acknowledged. Unsolicited materials cannot be returned nor will this organization assume responsibility for their care. SOLAR POWER WORLD does not endorse any products, programs, or services of advertisers or editorial contributors. Copyright © 2026 by WTWH Media, LLC. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Free and controlled circulation to qualified subscribers. Non-qualified persons may subscribe at the following rates: U.S. and possessions, 1 year: $125; 2 years: $200; 3 years $275; Canadian and foreign, 1 year: $195; only U.S. funds are accepted. Single copies $15. Subscriptions are prepaid by check or money orders only. SUBSCRIBER SERVICES: To order a subscription or change your address, please visit our web site at www.solarpowerworldonline.com SOLAR POWER WORLD (ISSN 2164-7135) USPS PUBLICATION # 22130, Copyright © 2026 by WTWH Media, LLC is published 6 times per year: January, March, May, July, September and November by WTWH Media, LLC, 1111 Superior Avenue, Suite 1120, Cleveland, Ohio 44114. Business and Editorial Offices: WTWH Media, LLC, 1111 Superior Avenue, Suite 1120, Cleveland, Ohio 44114. Accounting and Circulation Offices: WTWH Media, LLC, 1111 Superior Avenue, Suite 1120, Cleveland, Ohio 44114. Periodicals postage is paid at Cleveland, Ohio and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Solar Power World, 1111 Superior Avenue, Suite 1120, Cleveland, Ohio 44114
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First Word SPW 01-26 v8 final.indd 4
SOLAR POWER WORLD
JANUARY 2026
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J A N U A RY 2 0 2 6 • V O L 1 6 N O 1 • W W W. S O L A R P O W E R W O R L D O N L I N E . C O M
4 The First Word
Operations 8 Solar vs. gas turbines Solar hits the grid faster than gas, but by how much?
Installation 11 Rock climbing equipment A Pennsylvania factory makes “Solar Sewn” bouldering gear
Policy
ON THE COVER
15 Leasing the roof for savings
Now that the residential investment tax credit has expired, homeowners can still reap ITC savings on projects through thirdparty ownership scenarios like leasing.
Third-party ownership keeps the ITC alive in residential solar
Technology 21 Panels Solar panels contend with tariffs, opaque import rules and FEOC
Palmetto
26 Inverters This device makes home solar + storage simpler and cheaper
30 Mounting PV canopies can open access to rooftops on urban dwellings
35 Storage
8
Despite being shown indoors, storage is often built outside
21
26
Special Section 2026 Trends in Solar + Storage
PAGE 37 U.S. solar is entering a year fraught with challenges. But international insights and advancing technologies spell optimism for the industry.
Ad Index AceClamp ........................................................29 American Wire Group .................................. 33 Anza ..................................................................20 APA Solar Racking ........................................36 Baker Electric ................................................... 3 CAB Products ...................................................19 Create .............................................................. BC Fotronic ............................................................ 47
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FranklinWH Energy Storage Inc. .............. 35 Jinko ..................................................................43 M Bar C Construction ...................................13 PV Labels .........................................................IFC Rev Drill ............................................................ 23 Roof Tech ............................................................7 Roof Wrangler .................................................. 2 S-5! Attachment Solutions ............................ 1
JANUARY 2026
SiteCapture ...................................................... 31 Snake Tray ......................................................... 5 Sol-Ark .............................................................. 27 Solar Mounts .................................................. 32 Sukut Construction ........................................18 Sungrow ............................................................14 Yaskawa Solectria Solar ........................... IBC
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How much faster can
solar be built vs. gas turbines? billy ludt • senior editor
Installers place solar modules on a singleaxis tracker. SOLV Energy
T
he U.S. solar industry’s federal incentive ecosystem has been drastically reshaped by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). With subsidies passing or in the rearview, the solar industry has shifted its messaging to tout photovoltaics’ speed to the grid compared to other energy sources, namely gas turbines.
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As the demand for new power-hungry AI data centers rises, so does the need for quick-to-grid generation sources. The number of announced gas projects has grown over the last year, but it still takes years to get a new turbine ordered and in hand. Utility-scale solar projects can be physically built quicker, but must still wait in interconnection queues. As
JANUARY 2026
it stands today, solar projects beat new gas generation to the grid, despite interconnection delays. Here’s how it all works and what solar is doing to become faster. A nation of fossil fuels in a renewable transition Similar to wind turbines, gas turbines
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1/14/26 12:12 PM
Operations
produce electricity through rotational energy by burning natural gas. According to the National Energy Technology Laboratory, 894 gas turbine plants produced 277.46 GW in the United States in 2024, excluding legacy gas plants installed before 1999. As of 2023, natural gas-powered plants produced 43.1% of the country’s total energy output, according to the Energy Information Administration. “Interestingly enough, for the past several years here in the U.S., gas turbines have been the primary source of generated electricity,” said Bobby Noble, senior program manager of gas turbine R&D at the Electric Power Research Institute. Solar is closing in on gas turbines’ market share and accounted for 266.2 GW of energy capacity on the U.S. grid through 2024. Large-scale gas turbines come in two primary models: Simple and combined cycle. A simple cycle unit is composed of a gas turbine with a generator. A combined cycle unit has a gas turbine, a bottoming cycle, a heat recovery steam generator, a steam turbine and corresponding generators. A Siemens 9000HL 50 Hz gas turbine operating as a simple cycle can generate almost 600 MW, and in a
combined cycle can generate more than 900 MW. Compared to a solar project of a similar size, a gas turbine occupies significantly less acreage. However, these plants are primarily powered by natural gas, with backup fuel options in diesel and hydrogen. The lead time to get a new large-scale gas turbine is five or more years, Noble said. Smaller gas turbines — with power ratings of about 30 MW — have lead times of two to three years. “The manufacturers, all of them have made commitments and are working toward expanding their production capabilities, so those lead times are anticipated to start shortening,” Noble said. “But right now, most people are being told, ‘If you’re wanting a gas turbine by 2030, you’re probably too late in the process.’” Gas turbine project development takes between two to four years, and construction is another one to two years. “It’s going to heavily depend upon what type of gas turbine that you’re ordering,” Noble said. Solar development timelines When solar project development technically begins is debatable. Silicon
Ranch, a national solar developer, considers development started when assessing site locations. Developers are responsible for arranging contracts and agreements to de-risk a project from a financial perspective — agreements regarding revenue, interconnection, the project’s EPC and land purchase or leasing. Therefore, the development process for utility-scale solar projects can take years, and it’s back-ended by interconnection queues of varying lengths. This is especially the case as projects scale into the range of hundreds of megawatts. “We are now in early ’26, and there are projects that are being discussed that, from an interconnection timeline perspective, you’re post-2030,” said Boris Schubert, chief operating officer at Silicon Ranch. “It used to be two to three years, depending on the region, depending on the market.” However, solar project development times have still shortened in the last decade, he said. And unlike gas turbines, large-scale solar projects can be developed and installed modularly. For example, a 300-MW solar project can be completed in three phases of 100 MW to shorten development and
The U.S. solar industry hopes the technology’s speedto-grid will keep it relevant as demand for new energy sources rises. SOLV Energy
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JANUARY 2026
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Operations
construction times while bringing new power to the grid. “With your grid operator, they can build this up incrementally as well,” Schubert said. “And I think that is just the beauty of this technology.” Solar construction lengths The project EPC takes over when development is completed and a full notice to proceed is issued. SOLV Energy, a large-scale solar + storage EPC, provided the expected timeline for an under-construction 355-MWAC solar project in Texas. Construction times can vary significantly by region. Nick Edgmon, VP, operations manager at SOLV, said the Southwest is ideal for solar construction, because the weather is predictable there and the land is often more open. “If you’re doing a solar project in the Midwest, where you’re going to get a lot of weather, you’re going to get a lot of mud, there’s going to be days you can’t work,” he said. “Because it rains and takes three or four days to dry out, or freezes and there’s ice. We still work through all these conditions, it just is going to slow you down a lot more, compared to a job in Texas or Arizona. You can just fly.” This Texas project is expected to reach mechanical completion, where the array is built but not interconnected, in about one year. Then it will likely take four more months for the utility to interconnect the array.
Students visit a solar project site developed by Silicon Ranch. Silicon Ranch
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Workers inspect a gas turbine at GE Vernova’s assembly plant in Greenville, South Carolina. GE Vernova
“Now, this is an accelerated schedule. It’ll be one of the fastest ones that we’ve done, but it’s where the industry is trending, and that’s the norm that our clients are expecting us to build,” Edgmon said. Conversely, a 120-MWAC project SOLV worked on in Illinois was completed in about 16 months. Project timelines can be shortened by having all materials on the site at the start of construction. EPCs can be responsible for procuring most project components, except for modules. Having an established domestic supply chain with factories serving specific regions has shortened procurement lead times, as well. Edgmon said that solar construction timelines have been cut in half in the last decade alone, thanks largely to the growing efficiency of solar modules themselves. “They’re bigger and they’re heavier, so they’re a little slower to install, but you’re installing far less total quantity of material — units, piles, racking, modules — to get to 300 MWAC,” Edgmon said. “Whereas 300 MWAC 10 years ago would have taken a lot more land, a lot more piles, a lot more modules.” EPCs are trying to shorten project timelines through automation. SOLV has
JANUARY 2026
deployed robots on certain projects to pre-assemble and drive tracker rows out into the field for installers to place. Solar project timelines are still shortening, but U.S. federal policy is favoring gas turbines with lengthening lead times. Either technology still requires years to build at scale, but solar does have the edge in terms of speed to grid. SPW
Sheep graze between solar module rows at a Silicon Ranch project site. Silicon Ranch
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Installation
Organic Climbing is known for producing brightly colored chalk bags and crash pads used for rock climbing. Organic Climbing
BILLY LUDT SENIOR EDITOR
ORGANIC CLIMBING J
osh Helke started rock climbing at five years old. Throughout a lifetime spent in a sport that relies on steady, deliberate movement, he also built a business based on those tenets. Helke started the company Organic Climbing in his garage in Laramie, Wyoming, in the early 2000s, sewing together crash pads used for cushioning climbers when they fall from a rock face. Today, Organic Climbing and its sibling brand Nittany Mountain Works
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Installation SPW 01-26 v8 final with ad added.indd 11
MAKES ROCK CLIMBING ACCESSORIES IN A SOLAR-POWERED FACTORY
operate out of a facility in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, that employs more than 20 people. The Organic Climbing brand is known for using bright swatches of fabric, and each chalk bag and crash pad comes with a little tag reading “Solar Sewn.” The humble textile factory has a solar project on its roof generating twice the amount of energy the operation needs. “We produce all the energy we use currently,” Helke said. “It was one of the best choices we ever made.”
Organic Climbing has practiced sustainability from the start by recycling packaging and using leftover materials in its other sewing projects. These environmentally friendly methods of production are even written into the company’s job descriptions. While the larger rock-climbing accessory market was homogenizing its products, Helke said he was making crash pads with brightercolored fabrics and using leftover swatches to make bags with multiple colorways.
JANUARY 2026
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Installation
This method kept cut fabric from the landfill and helped him make more products, but it also paid off in free advertising. The bright Organic bags and pads were easy to spot in photos in major climbing magazines. The next step — or rather, hand hold — in Organic’s sustainability route was bringing solar to the factory. “In retrospect, I think Josh always had the ‘Solar Sewn’ tagline in his head,” said Jason Grottini, president of renewable energy services at Envinity. “He had a vision.” Envinity is a solar and energy efficiency contractor based in the nearby town of State College. The company installs solar, tightens building envelopes and constructs energy efficient homes. In the region, Organic’s business had grown alongside Envinity, and the contractor had previously conducted an energy audit on Helke’s home. When it was time to add solar to the factory in 2018, Envinity was the first choice for an installer. Local installer Envinity With financial built the 60.5-kW solar assistance from project on Organic the federal Climbing’s factory in investment 2018. The array was tax credit, a sized to produce double regional utility the energy used by the solar rebate and factory. a low-interest Envinity loan through the Small Business Administration, Organic could afford to install a 60.5kW solar project on the factory’s roof. The PV project was assembled in three sub-arrays that feed into one three-phase SMA Sunny Tripower Core1 string inverter. Helke requested U.S.manufactured components, so the system is composed of CertainTeed panels attached to the metal roof with S-5! standing seam clamps. Building the project was as straightforward as they come. “I wish solar was more complicated, but sometimes it’s really just putting small rectangles on big rectangles, and his roof was the epitome of that,” Grottini said. The irony of having a solar project on Organic’s rooftop is that beneath the factory is a coal vein. Helke’s neighbors
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www.solarpowerworldonline.com
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Installation
told him to use the coal to cover the cost of the PV array, but “you can’t sell coal to pay for solar, that just doesn’t work,” he said. Organic paid off the array seven years after it was completed, and without coal money. Since coming online, it’s more than covered the energy consumption at the factory. Organic is a small shareholder at a rock-climbing gym in State College, and the additional production subsidizes that facility’s energy costs, as well. Having solar on the roof has given the company more economic predictability in a time when energy costs are rising exponentially. Central Pennsylvania was a region that once had a booming textile industry, and Organic hopes to keep the trade alive and its people employed for the long-term. Solar is assisting in some part. “I like making stuff. It’s really hard work, but I can’t imagine it feeling good to have shipping containers of stuff in plastic bags that you bring from overseas and sell,” Helke
said. “The sense of family that we have because we work alongside each other and make a product — you don’t get that often. That’s something people probably lament about the loss of manufacturing. That is special.” Organic’s website leads with messaging pointing to the fact that the factory is powered by solar. The company produced a two-and-a-half-minute video about the solar project, which features Helke reading prose about rocking climbing and photovoltaics. When people tour the factory, he shows guests how much the array is producing through SMA’s Sunny Portal. As the tag states, solar is sewn into the fabric of Organic Climbing. “This is a case where Josh really wanted to sell the marketing side of solar and you just don’t get a lot of that anymore — people making decisions based solely on public perception impact,” Grottini said. “But this is 100% of a case where I think he almost had to put solar on the building for his business.” SPW
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Policy
KELSEY MISBRENER MANAGING EDITOR
HOW
THIRDPARTYOWNED ROOFTOP SOLAR PROJECTS WORK
ap
GoodLe
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T
he residential investment tax credit (ITC) has helped millions of Americans go solar over the years by making installations more affordable. In tax year 2023, more than 1.2 million homeowners claimed the 30% tax credit, but that number will fall to zero in 2026 with the residential ITC ending December 31, 2025. While the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) eliminated the Sec. 25D direct homeowner solar incentive, it preserved one other roundabout tax credit for the residential solar sector. Third-partyownership (TPO) companies successfully lobbied Congress to keep the Sec. 48E ITC, giving them until at least 2027 to place projects in service and still collect the tax credit. TPO companies lease solar projects to homeowners for set monthly rates for an extended period, typically 20 to 25 years. The homeowner does not own the system and thus does not collect tax credits directly, but these companies say they pass their tax credit savings down to consumers with competitive rates to offset increasing utility prices. Loan to lease movement Loans reigned supreme for residential solar purchases in the early 2020s thanks to low interest rates, but the past few years of sky-high rates coupled with the Sec. 48E ITC for third-party-owned projects changed that. "We’ve seen a major shift over the last three years from loans to leases and PPAs, driven in large part by the fast and steep rise of interest rates. This spike altered the economics for the average homeowner, and contractors followed that trend," said Dan Lotano, COO and chief strategy officer at financing company GoodLeap. Solar marketplace EnergySage found in its H1 2025 report that as median loan rates climbed to 7.5% on the platform, 38% of contractors reported decreased loan demand as customers sought alternative financing options like solar leases. “Even as higher interest rates have made traditional loan financing less attractive, we’re seeing that demand for solar hasn’t gone away, it’s simply shifting,” said Emily Walker, director of
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insights at EnergySage, in a fall 2025 press release. “We expect attractive new financing models to emerge next year, which will keep residential solar adoption moving forward.” Companies like GoodLeap hope to step in and offer such options to installers across the United States. "There's a big rush and flurry of activity from installers to complete out their pipeline for the 25D 'going out of business' sale, if you will. But then we and others expect the vast majority of the installers to switch over to the leasing business going forward," Lotano said. "That's going to be your predominant financing mechanism for the next few years." Companies typically offer two different financing options in the solar lease business — a traditional lease, with a set monthly payment for the duration of the contract, or a power purchase agreement (PPA), where the homeowner is compensated based on how much power is produced by the array. TPO financiers say these structures help installers keep their pipelines full
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as well as offer competitive project pay. Lease options can be integrated directly into the most popular point-of-sale technologies for installers — including Aurora and OpenSolar — making the sales process seamless if a customer opts for a leased system. How TPO programs work If solar contractors want to add leased options to their services, they must first sign on with a TPO financing company. TPO firms hold electrical and general contractor licenses but use thirdparty solar contractors to perform the installations as well as any ongoing O&M. The installation companies, in turn, are typically responsible for sourcing customers, managing permitting and working with the utility to achieve permission to operate. Once complete, the financier owns the project and handles the O&M and monitoring, often using the same installer to fix issues as needed. After contractors go through the financier's various checks and are underwritten and signed on as certified
JANUARY 2026
Leased solar systems cut out the high initial costs of residential installations in favor of long-term contracts. Palmetto
installers, they have access to the company's financing tools to price and sell leased solar projects to customers. Firms like Palmetto LightReach have online pricing tools to show installers how much they will make on a given project, considering the potential production value and the monthly rate charged to the customer, including any annual rate increases. Those firms pay the installers directly for each project. The onboarding process for installers to partner with leasing companies includes some business, sales and administration education too. "There's a lot more requirements from our side — because we own the assets — when it comes to: How was it installed?
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Policy
What equipment can you use? How big of a system can you install? There's just a different layer of quality control that certain installers just are not used to," said Sean Hayes, SVP and general manager of Palmetto LightReach. Along with explaining the quality and equipment standards unique to TPO projects, financiers give installers sales talking-points to close deals, including the long-term O&M coverage not typical in loan or cash projects, production guarantees where homeowners get bill credit if the system produces less than 90% of expected energy, as well as extra opportunities like virtual power plant enrollment. "We understand it's a different product than what some folks have traditionally sold, so that education is helpful," Lotano said. Financing companies have also worked to safe harbor enough materials to minimize inevitable industry supply chain issues and meet future ITC material sourcing rules. Both GoodLeap and LightReach say they have enough safeharbored product — inverters, batteries and panels — to last until 2030. "Financiers have taken it upon themselves to secure a lot of this equipment so that it would be in compliance with future changing rules. Some of the installers may not have access to that on their own, because they're typically not thinking out two, three years in the future, and so we're also helping
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currently allow third-party solar power purchase agreements. Some states, Partnering with like Colorado, Nevada TPO financing and Texas, have system companies can size limitations. Others, help installers fill like Indiana, Minnesota their pipelines as and Washington state, the market shifts. do not allow any entities GoodLeap besides regulated utilities to sell power to consumers. TPO companies are working to change this and have already seen some success. "With the current tax regime being what it is, it forces the industry to move in that type of direction," Lotano said. "Whereas some of the states and regulatory bodies were maybe more the industry to manage through any resistant in the past, you're seeing brandshort-to-medium supply chain issues by new acceptance to those discussions and also making sure that this equipment is going to be compliant with future tax law," helping them think about how to move it in that direction." Lotano said. Virginia was one state shut out to TPO firms until the state legislature passed a TPO installer networks bill in summer 2024 allowing TPO solar Both LightReach and GoodLeap expect to projects. Lotano hopes that legislation increase their statewide installer networks serves as a model for other states that as the residential ITC comes to an end. currently prohibit the practice. Right now, LightReach has about 600 "Virginia is a perfect example of certified contractors in 30+ states, while somebody who realized being the data GoodLeap has about 250. center capital of the world, they needed to According to the NC Clean Energy get more electrons, and they shouldn't let Technology Center, at least 29 states some archaic rules stop that," he said. plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico Palmetto
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Solar leasing concerns Although third-party-owned systems may lower the bar of entry for solar participation with minimal upfront costs, they're not flawless. Over the past decade, the industry has seen plenty of TPO companies rise and then fall just as quickly, leaving customers with rooftop systems they don't technically own and no one to turn to for O&M help when things go wrong. From Sungevity to Sunnova, these specters of TPO companies gone skeletal aren't easily erased from the industry's consciousness. To ensure they’re getting a good deal, consumers should read contracts very carefully before signing up for a solar lease, said Roger Horowitz, VP of Go Solar programs at residential solar nonprofit Solar United Neighbors (SUN). SUN operates a free Solar Help Desk for anyone who wants a second opinion on a TPO contract. "The main thing that I'm always looking out for with third-party ownership
is: Who's going to be doing the maintenance? What are the terms if the system stops working? Is there a production guarantee to make sure that you're not paying if the system isn't working?" Horowitz said. When it comes to escalation clauses, or annual rate increases, his team advises consumers to ensure the escalation is always below the projected utility rate growth of around 5% a year. That way, they know they’ll continue to save money from the agreement. "I've seen a lot of great terms. I've seen a lot of customers who are really, really happy with third-party ownership, whether a lease or PPA. It just brings a new level of complexity that a lot of people are not prepared to dive into," Horowitz said. "I definitely encourage people to look at it even more carefully than you would do for a sales contract, just because you are locking yourself into a long-term agreement." SPW
“I'VE SEEN A LOT OF GREAT TERMS. I'VE SEEN A LOT OF CUSTOMERS WHO ARE REALLY, REALLY HAPPY WITH THIRD-PARTY OWNERSHIP, WHETHER A LEASE OR PPA.” — Roger Horowitz Solar United Neighbors
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Panel Technology
TARIFF UNCERTAINTY, IMPORT RULES AND FEOC PLAGUE SOLAR PANEL MARKET KELLY PICKEREL • EDITOR IN CHIEF
T
here are a lot of factors determining how much a solar panel costs in the United States. Imported panels face tariffs on many components. The country’s domestic manufacturing market is largely focused on final panel assembly, so it’s difficult to not include at least one imported portion of the polysilicon supply chain, even in American-made panels. Long-standing Chinese and Southeast Asian import tariffs may be getting easier to navigate, but now more countries are under investigation and more
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elements of the supply chain are being scrutinized. The country’s longest government shutdown didn’t help quicken various processes, and many in the solar industry are still awaiting federal guidance to build important solar projects. Solar Power World gathered information on every trade case, Dept. of Commerce investigation and Dept. of the Treasury ruling still ongoing in the solar panel space to report the latest updates and estimated deadlines. >>
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RETROACTIVE DUTIES WERE ORDERED TO BE COLLECTED, BUT MAY NOT BE In August 2025, the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) ruled that President Joe Biden’s 2022 tariff pause on imported solar panels was illegal, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) should not have followed it. This ruling meant that retroactive duties would be collected on Southeast Asian solar cells and panels imported between April 2022 and June 2024. The case was brought to the CIT by Auxin Solar, a small solar panel assembler in California, which claimed the president’s June 2022 executive order was “an abuse of discretion” and duties should have been collected. Biden ordered the two-year pause on duty collection to ensure a sufficient supply of solar panels was entering the country to meet domestic electricity generation needs. When the Dept. of Commerce began investigating whether Chinese solar panel manufacturers were working in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to circumvent existing antidumping/countervailing duties (AD/CVD) in 2022, supply from the popular import area effectively stopped. The tariff pause allowed panels to continue to be imported between April 1, 2022, and June 6, 2024, without threat of extra taxes. Then the CIT ordered that tariffs should have been collected during that two-year period, and CBP was required to go back and collect duties on Southeast Asian solar panel imports. During the CIT case, the Dept. of Justice stated there had been approximately 44,000 imported solar products between April 2022 and June 2024. It also estimated that U.S. importers brought in roughly 88.2 GW of solar cells and panels from the four affected countries during that time frame, which could result in over $50 billion in retroactive duties. One month after CIT’s decision was released, a motion was granted to delay retroactive duty collection until a “final and conclusive judgment and the conclusion of all applicable appeals” is reached. In late October 2025, the Dept. of Commerce and other defendants filed an appeal with the federal appeals court. Conservative estimates say this won’t be sorted for at least another year. SPW
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DOMESTIC MANUFACTURING HOPEFUL MAXEON SHUT OUT OF MARKET Maxeon has filed its own complaint in the CIT against CBP for preventing Maxeon panels from entering the country. The solar panel manufacturer has been battling “erroneous” actions by the agency for almost two years, as the CBP holds Mexicanassembled Maxeon panels for reviews under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). Maxeon has provided the necessary information showing its supply chains and no documented connection to alleged forced labor conditions in China, yet CBP continues to detain the modules. In March 2025, CBP denied Maxeon’s protests on the detained shipments of solar panels. CBP offered only a “generic and arbitrary conclusion that the documentation submitted by Maxeon was supposedly insufficient,” despite the company providing thousands of pages of documents demonstrating full compliance. In July 2025, Maxeon filed the complaint with CIT. The panel detention has been a huge blow to Maxeon, especially since the once-global company now only focuses on the U.S. market. Maxeon sold its European, Asian and Latin American sales channels and entities, while keeping its Mexican assembly plant and moving forward with plans for a 2-GW solar panel factory in New Mexico. With most products unable to get into the country, Maxeon financials have nosedived. The company reported $39 million in revenue for the first six months of 2025, whereas it reached $371 million for the same period in 2024. Plans for the U.S. factory have been paused. The CIT was scheduled to provide an update on this case in midOctober, but the government shutdown prevented any progress before our magazine print date. Qcells also had solar cells detained by CBP under UFLPA review. The Korean company was importing the solar cells for module assembly at its factories in Georgia, and the inconsistent supply forced Qcells to furlough 1,000 employees and initiate a reduced Imported solar work schedule in panels are met early fall. Qcells with varying said imports were tariffs. eventually cleared Arch Solar through CBP, as the products were compliant with UFLPA rules, but it would take time to ramp the factories back up to a full workforce. Qcells has taken no further action against the federal agency. SPW
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Panel Technology
POLYSILICON TARIFFS WOULD IMPACT FULL PANEL SUPPLY CHAIN In July, the Trump administration initiated a Sec. 232 investigation into the polysilicon industry. An affirmative Sec. 232 ruling would let the federal government impose tariffs on imported products if they are deemed a threat to national security. The “goal” of Sec. 232 tariffs is to limit imports and boost domestic manufacturing. The Dept. of Commerce received almost 50 public comments on the matter, including from domestic solar panel players, polysilicon-focused companies and various trade associations. Most of the commenters were involved with the solar industry, although some groups commented on polysilicon’s role in the semiconductor industry, including Tesla. Commerce was analyzing the demand for polysilicon in the United States and whether domestic production can meet such demand. Polysilicon production in the United States was essentially gutted during the China-America trade war of the 2010s. The three main U.S. polysilicon producers — Hemlock, Wacker and REC Silicon — saw their market share shrink from $1 billion in 2011 to $107 million in 2018 after China placed high duties on American-made polysilicon. China has since overtaken the global market, now estimated to hold a 93.5% market share. Hemlock and Wacker are still producing polysilicon in the United States, both for the solar and electronics markets, but REC Silicon has since dropped out. New company Highland Materials is attempting to start a polysilicon production plant in Tennessee. There are also a handful of non-China players that contribute to the solar industry, including OCI in Malaysia and Wacker’s German plant. Intertek CEA estimates that there is only 92,000 metric tons (mt) of polysilicon capacity currently operational outside of China. Meanwhile, China’s operational polysilicon capacity reached 3,250,000 mt in 2024. It's generally estimated that it takes 2,500 mt of polysilicon to make 1 GW of
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Polysilicon production at Hemlock’s manufacturing site in Michigan. Hemlock
silicon solar panels. If the United States took all 92,000 mt of the non-Chinese polysilicon supply available, that would produce just 36.8 GW of panels. The United States is averaging a 50-GW solar demand annually, showing that not only can the domestic polysilicon industry not meet the country’s solar demand, nor can the entire non-Chinese supply. But not just polysilicon is involved in the Sec. 232 investigation — the government is looking at every product that contains polysilicon. Not only could pure polysilicon imports be tariffed, but silicon wafers, solar cells and panels could be tacked with an additional tax too. One of the commenters, bipartisan group Coalition for a Prosperous America, suggested a range of tariffs on solar products under Sec. 232: • Polysilicon – Annual tariff-rate quota (TRQ) of 40,000 mt of polysilicon imports for trusted allied countries with non-Chinese-controlled supply chains. (Meaning the first 40,000 mt of imported polysilicon would not be tariffed.)
JANUARY 2026
– •
•
•
Out-of-quota imports subject to $10/kg tariff. Ingots and Wafers – TRQ of 30 GW of ingot or wafer imports for trusted countries. – Out-of-quota imports subject to 7¢/W tariff. Cells – TRQ of 30 GW for cell imports for trusted countries. – Out-of-quota imports subject to 10¢/W tariff. Panels – All imported silicon solar panels subject to 20¢/W with no in-quota relief.
A decision by the federal government was not reached by year’s end. Roth Capital Partners reported in late summer that PPAs were already being drawn up with “reopeners” that would allow contracts to be renegotiated based on changes to tariffs, due to the uncertainty around the Sec. 232 investigation. SPW
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Panel Technology
AD/CVD INVESTIGATION STILL ONGOING FOR INDIA, INDONESIA AND LAOS, BUT IMPORTS HAVEN’T STOPPED In August 2025, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) decided to start an AD/CVD investigation on solar cells and panels imported from India, Indonesia and Laos. An uptick in solar imports from Indonesia and Laos has been noticeable — more so than from India — but now the Dept. of Commerce is determining potential tariff amounts for solar imports from all three countries if the ITC finds unfair trade practices. American panel manufacturers first requested the investigation in July, alleging that companies had relocated their operations to India, Indonesia and
NextEra Energy
Laos to avoid tariffs placed on imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The ITC is investigating further. Commerce was scheduled to reveal its preliminary AD and CVD amounts in 2025, but the government shutdown prevented that. The petitioners have identified dumping margins of 89.65% for Indonesia, up to 249.09% for Laos and 213.96% for India. An updated schedule was not released before our magazine print date. SPW
Indonesia
Laos
India
Cells
Panels
Cells
Panels
Cells
Panels
Average monthly imports (2024)
12 MW
150 MW
64 MW
101 MW
22 MW
367 MW
June 2025 imports
831 MW
1,420 MW 1,380 MW
875 MW
15 MW
520 MW
July 2025 imports
696 MW
1,250 MW
554 MW
8 MW
415 MW
729 MW
FEOC RULES COULD CHANGE SOLAR PANEL BRAND TRENDS IN UNITED STATES The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) established new rules for what type of solar products are eligible for certain tax credits. The foreign entity of concern (FEOC) rule denies the federal investment tax credit to projects that use too many Chinese components and prevents U.S.-made products that use too many Chinese components from accessing Sec. 45X credits. It’s a convoluted exercise for the solar panel market, where it’s nearly impossible to avoid using some Chinese component in the final product.
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The FEOC rule also denies tax credits to companies that have Chinese investments or are under Chinese technology licenses. The market is awaiting final FEOC explanation from the Dept. of the Treasury (now expected sometime in 2026), but there has been a scramble to scrub supply chains and finances since HR1 passage. China-influenced companies with U.S. manufacturing plants have been selling or altering operations ownership to comply with assumed FEOC requirements. Trina Solar sold its Dallas solar panel assembly
facility to T1 Energy; JA Solar sold its Phoenix solar panel plant to Corning; and Canadian Solar established a new U.S. division to own its solar panel and battery operations relevant to the American market. Roth Capital Partners said that various Washington, D.C., contacts have stated that “the government knows who the FEOCs are and no amount of restructuring, ownership changes or legal maneuvers is likely to work if the substantial portion of the business is in China, the IP being used is Chinese [or] the Chinese company has effective control.” SPW
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Inverter Technology KELSEY MISBRENER • MANAGING EDITOR
Meter collars cut costs and simplify logistics on home solar + storage installations Enphase’s IQ Meter Collar on a combination electric panel. Enphase
REDUCING THE STUBBORN soft costs of solar + storage is a much-discussed topic that will only become more important as the residential tax credit ends. While the prices of major solar equipment like panels and inverters continue to come down, the specialized electrical work required in many solar installations keeps costs high. "All that fat, soft cost in the middle is still basically the same. You have more sophisticated ways of doing permitting, more sophisticated ways of doing the evaluation of the roof and things like that. But at the end of the day, it's still
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an industrial project," said Whit Fulton, founder and chief product officer for ConnectDER. Homes typically need a 200-A electrical panel to support the extra power from a solar, storage and/or EV charger installation. Until recently, solar projects required installing a dedicated circuit breaker on the electrical panel — a costly upgrade that could only be done by a licensed electrician. If the home's electrical service was lower than 200 A, they would likely need an entire main panel upgrade or new subpanel installation to go solar.
JANUARY 2026
Increasingly smart products called meter collars have the potential to simplify solar + storage interconnection and take a big chunk out of those expenses. These tools, manufactured by companies like ConnectDER, Enphase and Tesla, started as utility products that allowed customers to add temporary backup support like generators. ConnectDER's founder saw the potential for meter collars in the renewable energy space while working for a company selling DIY-style packages of batteries and inverters. The product was
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Inverter Technology
(MID) that disconnects the project from the grid and switches to battery backup when the grid is down or when it's programmed to take advantage of time-of-use rates. "If you look at any vendor in the market, they've all had some type of gateway-style device, and inside the gateway is a device called an MID. What ConnectDER has done is they've taken that same MID, and they simply moved it from one location to another, so it's easier to install," said Alex Dinh, director of residential product management at SolarEdge. In many Western states including California, meter collars are all but required for a solar + storage project to disconnect from the grid. Meter/main combination electrical boxes with the meter directly connected to the front of the main service panel are the norm in that state and some others. There is no simple way to install a disconnect switch in front of the electrical panel on combo boxes, unlike split boxes that have separate electrical panels and meters. "Instead of ripping out the entire service panel and rewiring the whole thing, which costs many thousands of dollars, you could just put this in between, and it gives the system the ability to do backup," Fulton said.
A diagram showing the structure of the Tesla Backup Switch meter collar. Tesla
meant to be accessible and low-cost, but the wiring and electrical work required to interconnect it made the job much more expensive than intended. After watching a utility meter change-out, Fulton started thinking of the potential for avoiding those exorbitant electrician-based charges by plugging solar + storage installations directly into the meter. "I realized, 'Oh, let's see — it's a house-sized socket, and if we create an intercept there, we can just plug solar in, or batteries, or even [EV] chargers or whatever comes along … in a much more cost-effective way that is universal, instead of all the bespoke customization,'" he said. Fulton received a Dept. of Energy SunShot Initiative grant to work on the concept in 2012, and ConnectDER was born. Meter collar evolution Around 2017, California established a new rule requiring the use of smart solar inverters that communicate autonomously
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with the grid. Before long, most inverters on the market had these kinds of "smart" capabilities. As inverters evolved, meter collars did too. "Inverters need more than just a power place to interject. They need to have a reading of the power flow through the meter. They need to be able to have that for both PCS (power control system) control, to reduce their output in order to be installed on smaller services without doing a service panel upgrade, and they also need it for third-party ownership," Fulton said. Along with providing information on power flow for third-party ownership contracts and PCS requirements, meter collars can make it easier to add EV chargers to homes without electrical upgrades, as seen with ConnectDER's EV meter socket adapter. Perhaps most importantly, as storage attachment rates continue to grow, meter collars like ConnectDER's IslandDER can act as a simple microgrid interconnect device
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Meter collar market Many residential battery manufacturers, including SolarEdge, FranklinWH, Lunar Energy and EcoFlow, are compatible with ConnectDER's meter collars. SolarEdge chose to white-label the ConnectDER solution because of its solid track record and flexibility with different brands, in case customers want to pair a SolarEdge inverter with a different battery or vice versa. "We knew we wanted a meter collar product that would help ease the installation experience with our customers, it was gaining good utility adoption, and we knew that we needed a solution that would help to isolate the home from the grid to allow a good and efficient backup system," SolarEdge's Dinh said. "There was already a good solution on the market from ConnectDER, so we didn't want to reinvent the wheel." Although many companies chose to partner with ConnectDER for meter collars, a few major power electronics
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Inverter Technology
manufacturers offer their own solutions. Tesla sells its Backup Switch to reduce the components needed for Powerwall installations. The company says it cuts Powerwall installation times by more than six hours. Enphase recently rolled out the IQ Meter Collar in its 4th-generation Enphase Energy System, part of a package that includes a battery and combiner box. Meter collars were an obvious addition for the company that is championing decentralized, intelligent whole-home energy systems. "What you are looking at now is something that we've been pushing — decentralization, where the home is a unit of intelligence. The point of common coupling, which is the meter, is where we are now adding a lot of intelligence," said Raghu Belur, co-founder and chief products officer at Enphase. Belur said Enphase's IQ Meter Collar can autonomously decide when to disconnect from a faulty grid and
reconnect when it's back up and running. It also collects information on both ends of communication — assessing grid performance as well as Enphase system performance, and relaying that back into the cloud. Belur thinks meter collar technology can lower barriers to residential renewable energy moving forward. For example, EV owners could purchase just a bidirectional charger and a meter collar to have whole-home backup. "For our installer partners, that really dramatically opens up the available market that they can go serve," he said. Utility approval roadblocks Meter collars can be a breakthrough for lowering solar + storage install costs, but they're still not widely available. Since installing meter collars requires interaction with utility-owned infrastructure, utilities must individually approve their use. Meter collar manufacturers are actively working
with regulators to expand approvals nationwide. In some jurisdictions, utility workers are the only ones who can install these devices, which comes with an additional fee. ConnectDER is working to change that too and get to a point where credentialed installers can put the meter collars in themselves. Fulton believes every state will be open for meter collar business eventually. "We're not asking for incentives. We're not asking for ratepayer money, we're not asking for taxes. We are asking simply to allow a customer to use their own infrastructure in their home to connect things more easily," he said. "That argument has worked really well in regulatory legislative work that we've been doing in various states, and it is beginning to trundle forward a bunch of states where we didn't have to do regulatory legislative work, where they're just like, 'OK, this makes sense.'" SPW
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Mounting Technology BILLY LUDT • SENIOR EDITOR
Solar canopies turn flat city rooftops into multi-use home power plants FLAT ROOFS ARE traditionally sites for sprawling, low-built solar arrays meant to maximize energy output within the building's footprint. However, some flat roofs may be better suited to smaller solar canopies that act as elevated shade structures on shared rooftops. Rooftop canopies come with a whole different set of structural requirements to attach to buildings than groundmounted carports and canopies. Instead of poured concrete columns for the foundations, solar canopies are typically attached to the parapet walls or structural beams on a roof.
Brooklyn SolarWorks, a PV contractor based in Brooklyn, New York, saw potential for solar canopies in a city where rooftop gathering spaces far outnumber grass lawns. New York City fire codes require a clear 6-ft path both front-to-back and side-to-side on residential buildings for firefighter access; and roof obstructions like hatches and vent pipes minimized sizing potential for roof-mounted solar projects. "We knew if [a canopy] was 9-ft high it should meet the fire code requirements," said Gaelen McKee, president and cofounder of Brooklyn SolarWorks. "We
engaged with a design studio and an engineer, and we finally got this concept, and we brought it to a fabricator and made a prototype." The company iterated on that first solar canopy, making it lighter and faster to install, but still able to withstand the elements on New York City rooftops. Brooklyn SolarWorks was manufacturing aluminum canopy structures for its own projects, but other contractors around the country also wanted to build these arrays. So, Brooklyn SolarWorks started distributing them under the name Brooklyn Solar Canopy Co. "It finally flipped so that we're actually selling more canopies third-party than we are using ourselves," McKee said. Brooklyn Solar Canopy produces four different types of canopies and carports. Its A-Frame and Post-Truss structures can be installed on the ground or roof. The A-Frame uses pairs of triangular supports attached at the top to trusses, and guiding rails hold the solar panels. Post-Truss uses upright columns for foundations, and supporting trusses run along the exterior and between column rows, with module-guiding rails atop. Canopy components can be hoisted or, if there is enough space in the stairwell, carried by hand to the roof. Installing a solar canopy requires reviewing building blueprints to determine what size rafters are under the roof surface, how far they're spaced apart and their material. Base tracks on columns are positioned parallel to the top of a masonry/parapet wall or other roof surface so lag bolts can be driven perpendicularly into the rafters, which are often wooden. Attachment points should be spread across different rafters for proper load distribution.
A solar canopy project built on a residential building in Philadelphia. Solar States
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"So, all the point loading is not on the masonry wall, but right inside of it, on the wood," McKee said. "We will sometimes mount those structures to the actual parapet walls themselves, but because it's New York, because its building stock is 150 to 200 years old, a lot of that brick is fairly degraded. You're in a better position to fasten to the wood, just because the brick can be pretty crumbly and uneven." In new construction projects where fresh concrete is poured, the canopy can be bolted directly into the concrete wall. Solar States, a residential and commercial PV contractor based in Philadelphia, has made solar canopy projects a regular part of its output, and many of those elevated arrays have been installed on new or recently built homes. Many Philadelphians add shade structures to town- or rowhouses with roof access — locally known as "roof decks." Solar States wanted solar canopies to be an option for Philly roof decks, but the city initially considered them an "unknown use." They weren't traditional rooftop solar or a canopy. They were considered an auxiliary structure and required individual zoning variance with each project. "If you look around Philadelphia, there's tons of people that go to Home Depot and buy a backyard patio or pergola and just throw it up on the roof. That's not permitted," said Jared Pashko, director of sales and marketing at
This solar project uses both the stairwell enclosure and a canopy structure as module attachment points. Solar States
Solar States. "We need to do everything permitted, and in order to get it permitted, it needs to be structurally stamped." The company successfully advocated for a piece of legislation that codified solar canopies for rooftop construction within the city. Every city will have individual quirks for this type of solar project. When building solar canopies in Philadelphia, Solar States isn't covering the entire roof. These 5- to 8-kW arrays often occupy about one-third of the space, due to obstructions like stairwell enclosures on roofs. There's more material involved in building a solar canopy than a traditional
rooftop solar project, but Pashko said the costs are comparable to having a non-PV shade structure built on a roof — except these ones are creating more living space in a home while increasing its property value and saving on energy costs. "I think that being able to offer that to homeowners is great. Separately, for solar contractors, it opened up a new market segment for us," he said. "We're able to install high-profit-margin projects that customers are asking for where there's not a lot of competition, and that's a really great thing. It gives us more resources at our disposal to deploy solar and transition to a sustainable economy." SPW
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Storage Technology KELLY PICKEREL • EDITOR IN CHIEF
Residential energy storage and the great outdoors DEPENDING ON THE jurisdiction, contractors can be limited in their installation locations for residential energy storage systems. Indoor setups may be preferred for accessibility and protection, but they must comply with clearance and safety requirements. It’s often easiest to install batteries outdoors, and most brands have outdoor-rated systems engineered to operate reliably under most environmental conditions. Now, residential battery suppliers are thinking even further ahead, anticipating evolving weather due to climate change and designing systems that will continue performing well into the future unknown. Outdoor ratings Despite product photos mostly showing interiors, residential energy storage systems are rarely installed indoors. Even garage setups can prove difficult. “The majority of installations that we see are mounted outdoors on the wall,” said Sequoya Cross, VP of energy storage for Briggs & Stratton Energy Solutions. “Regulations for indoor installations are more restrictive as they need to be in a non-habitable space — usually a garage. There are additional limitations … somewhere where it cannot be impacted by a car and is far enough away from any ignition sources. This can be limiting for many homes that may not have space in a garage.” As batteries have become more modular, all the electrical bits are condensed into one enclosure, just like in Briggs & Stratton’s SimpliPHI system. When stacked, the SimpliPHI system is rated at IP65 — the common outdoor rating for the residential storage market. The International Electrotechnical Commission’s ingress protection (IP) rating scale consists of two numbers, with the first designating dust protection (on a scale of 0-6) and the second designating water protection (on a 0-9 scale). IP65-rated enclosures are
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A Fortress Power battery system installed on an outdoor wall. Colorado Mountain Solar
dust-tight and have above-average water protection. IP65 systems are protected against water jets, which is well above the protection needed for falling waterdrops and spraying and splashing water. FranklinWH has gone even further with its aPower 2 and aPower S systems. These 15-kWh batteries are rated at IP67 — still dust-tight but now also protected against the “effects of temporary immersion in water.” The FranklinWH systems should withstand temporary flooding conditions. The Tesla Powerwall variants also have an IP67 rating. “Choosing IP67 wasn’t about chasing a spec; it was about resilience,” said Ke Bi, COO of FranklinWH. “From wind‑driven rain to standing water after a storm, higher protection helps the system ride through real‑world conditions and deliver reliable backup when the grid goes down.” Temperature control Along with ensuring outdoor elements can’t get inside the battery, making sure that battery can perform in a range of temperatures is equally important. Fortress batteries have the highest operating temperature in the industry at 140°F — almost 10° beyond the usual -4°F to 131°F range. Matthew Daniel, 48-V product manager with Fortress, said that although extreme temperatures are not typical conditions, the growing frequency of record-breaking-heat days led Fortress to increase operating temperatures further. “Higher ambient temperatures often correlate with increased electricity consumption and, consequently, higher
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energy costs. Our goal is to deliver a reliable and efficient energy storage system that not only mitigates the challenges of exceptionally hot summer days, but also helps reduce overall electricity expenses,” he said. On the other extreme, most U.S. locations don’t reach -4°F, but even mildly cold weather can wreak havoc on a lithium battery’s performance. “Cold weather starts to become a consideration as lithium batteries do not perform well in those environments,” said Cross with Briggs & Stratton. “If the area is cold, the batteries will need some form of heating and even protection from the elements.” Companies usually include some type of heating element with their residential battery systems, including FranklinWH’s “heating blanket” and an integrated heater on EG4 units. Fortress Power systems also use a heater to ensure batteries aren’t impacted by below-freezing temperatures. When the internal cell temperature reaches 41°F — 9° above freezing — the heater turns on and warms the Fortress system to 50°F. With weather conditions varying across the country, Daniel noted the importance of reviewing spec sheets and qualifications for every unique installation. “Not every outdoor-rated battery will come equipped to mitigate climate changes,” he said. “Regardless of the installation location, it is essential that all ESS units carry UL 9540 certifications to ensure compliance with established safety and performance standards.” SPW
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WE REALLY HATE falling back on the "solarcoaster" trope, but, man, 2025 was some ride, huh? There's still a lot to sort out this year, including the rules around altered solar provisions in the OBBBA, but more stable trends are emerging. The Solar Power World team brings you the latest happenings in the U.S. solar and storage space in our annual Trends in Solar + Storage special section.
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We wanted to find a market that went through similar policy turmoil, so we looked at the United Kingdom. A decade ago, that country abruptly stopped its solar incentives and is just now coming out on the other side. The United States is already feeling the impact of this new market’s shaky foundation with layoffs and company closures unfortunately seen across the country.
But there are still some positive trends in U.S. solar — inverter companies are making it easier to repair and replace older models, more lithium batteries are being made in the USA and tracker companies are offering larger product suites besides just single-axis mounts. The solar market of 2026 is evolving, and Solar Power World has what's trending in the following pages. >>
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2026 Trends in Solar
The UK solar market collapsed one decade ago after losing incentives. Will the US do the same? KELLY PICKEREL • EDITOR IN CHIEF
THE U.S. SOLAR INDUSTRY is in a transition period. With the residential investment tax credit now expired, and the 48E tax credit for large-scale projects on its way out, the number of installations across all markets is expected to drop. Research groups say the U.S. solar industry won’t ever again reach the annual installation high of 50 GW seen in 2024. To predict how the United States will fare in a non-incentivized era, one could look at the last 10 years in the United Kingdom. That country altered solar incentive programs around 2016, and installation habits sharply declined — from a high of 4 GW in 2015 to just 268 MW in 2018. The U.K. has taken years to rebuild its solar efforts, and residential installs are just now surpassing 2015’s high. Although the two markets differ in many ways — the U.K. reached 20 GW total installed in 2025 while the U.S. manages twice that amount annually — the abrupt removal of incentives affected real people and jobs in the U.K., and the United States may face a similar disruption. The solar world is a different place than it was one decade ago, but there’s no guarantee the United States will come through the next few years completely unscathed. Here’s how the U.K. solar market navigated its own troubling incentive transition period.
tariff was originally set at around 40 pence/kWh. The export tariff was a separate payment for any electricity sent to the grid and was initially set around 3 p/kWh. Guaranteed for 10 to 25 years, the FIT payments contributed to a large increase in solar installations in the early 2010s, and U.K. residents and businesses could quickly recoup the expense to install solar with these favorable incentives. Eventually, deployment caps were introduced in 2016 that limited the size of installations that could receive the highest tariff rates, and adjusted tariff rates provided lower payouts. The FIT program stopped accepting applications in March 2019, with the government citing that it had served its purpose to grow domestic renewable energy. In the utility-scale market, the U.K. offered renewable obligation certificates (ROCs). First introduced in 2002, ROCs were issued for each megawatt-hour of electricity produced. Project owners could sell these certificates, alongside generated
power, for an additional revenue stream. Energy suppliers/utilities could buy ROCs to demonstrate compliance in sourcing requirements. The U.K. announced the closing of the ROC program in 2015 and accepted its last new applicants in 2017, but some certificates will remain until completely phasing out in 2037. Uncertainty around future incentives led the U.K. solar market to seriously contract in 2016. Advocacy group Solar Energy UK (then known as Solar Trade Association) said one-third of the industry’s 35,000 solar jobs were lost in 2016, and 40% of solar companies planned to exit the solar power sector entirely. The 2016 Brexit vote and 2020 exit from the European Union also contributed to a turbulent economic period in the U.K. The residential solar market stagnated between 2017 and 2020, barely surpassing 85 MW installed each year. It was clear a revamped program would be necessary to re-energize the U.K. solar industry.
The 373-MW Cleve Hill Solar Park, the largest solar project in the United Quinbrook Kingdom.
U.K. market history The U.K. government offered a feed-intariff (FIT) to the residential and small commercial market beginning in 2010, which incentivized energy suppliers to pay homes and businesses for generating and exporting renewable energy. The FIT was available to projects smaller than 5 MW and came in two forms: a generation tariff and an export tariff. The generation tariff was for electricity produced by a solar system, regardless of whether the home or business exported it. If you had a solar system, you got paid for the power it produced. The generation
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Recovery in the U.K. In 2020, the U.K. introduced the new Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) to residential and small commercial solar systems. A simple generation tariff was no longer on the table, but an adapted export tariff is included in the SEG. The program requires energy suppliers to pay system owners for the power they export to the grid, although a generation rate is not specified. Energy suppliers realized that higher payouts could attract new customers, so they adapted the SEG into multiple time-of-use (TOU) tariffs. Households can now earn more incentives than the old FIT program if they successfully navigate TOU export options. U.K. standards body MCS tracks the small-scale market and determined that 2025 will have been a record year for U.K. solar in terms of number of installations. It’s estimated that the U.K. will have closed the year with 235,000 total solar installs, exceeding the previous annual record of 203,125 installs set in 2011. Paying residential solar customers for the power they produce has unsurprisingly revitalized the market.
This graph of annual operational solar capacity in the United Kingdom shows Solar Power Portal the severe dropoff in 2018 once incentives were removed. On the utility side, the ROC program was replaced with the contracts for difference (CfD) scheme, which offers a fixed-rate contract that is essentially a power purchase agreement (PPA). This protects project owners from volatile electricity prices and guarantees a set price for electricity generation. CfD was first introduced to large-scale energy projects in 2014, but the government mostly favored offshore wind and didn’t
begin accepting solar to the auction rounds until 2021. Gareth Simkins, senior communications adviser for advocacy group Solar Energy UK, said that the U.K. market has been growing strongly since 2022, after incentive programs across all markets were stabilized. “We are now in build-out mode, with gigawatts of projects set to be backed by the CfD scheme in the coming years,” he said. Lessons learned Multinational investment manager Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners recently reached a milestone in the U.K., completing the country’s largest solar project. The feat didn’t look possible one decade ago, said Keith Gains, Quinbrook managing director and U.K. regional leader. But the CfD scheme, along with the government-supported Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project process, brought the 373-MW Cleve Hill Solar Park project online this past summer. “The U.K. market is the size of ERCOT in Texas. Previously, all planning consents are at a local level. A population of a couple hundred-thousand might decide whether a project goes ahead or not,” he said. “The government decided that if we’re going to hit our net-zero targets and we need these big projects, we have to take the decision-making away from the locals and take it to the national
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2026 Trends in Solar level. Cleve Hill was the first renewables project to be consented under the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project program.” That national support has been key to getting the U.K. solar market back on its feet. “There needs to be a pathway to reducing the risk around actually being able to deliver the projects,” Gains said. “A project the size of Cleve Hill — hundreds of megawatts — costs many millions of pounds to go through the development pipeline. If you don’t think you can actually deliver that project economically, you’re not going to put the first pound to work. Having that governmental approval process gives you a lot more confidence that you’re going to be treated equally and know the rules of the game you’re playing. The contract for difference gives you the price certainty, the backstop, whereby if power prices did reduce, you’re going to get that level of pricing.” During the U.K. market slowdown, Quinbrook shifted its investments to complementary areas in energy transition, like flexible generation. The group increased its presence in the United States, also funding the largest project here, the nearly 1-GW Gemini Solar + Storage project in Nevada. Gains said Quinbrook isn’t planning to pivot to other energy areas when faced with an unincentivized U.S. solar market. At least on the utility-scale side, there’s enough demand for new electricity to keep everyone busy. “When the ROCs ended, everything just ground to a halt [in the U.K.]. That’s not happening [in the United States]. The level of growth of demand from data centers is beyond everybody’s expectation. There is a lot of societal pressure on companies to decarbonize as well, and that pushes the companies toward wanting to buy power from renewable sources,” he said. “It’s just got to be a change of mindset. You can’t just sit there and rely on the tax credits. There’s a way to make these projects economic. These companies need power, and they will pay for the power. It’s not all doom and gloom in America by a long shot. It’s still the land of opportunity.”
KELSEY MISBRENER • MANAGING EDITOR
The 1-GW Gemini Solar + Storage project in Nevada. Quinbrook
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Inverter manufacturers simplify repowering process SOLAR PANELS MAY work for decades, but the more sensitive electronics required to process the power are more likely to fail after a shorter time. Inverter manufacturers are adding new hardware and software features to address the once-onerous repowering process and swiftly bring projects back to production. For residential inverter replacements, an installer or service tech must diagnose the problem, map out the wiring layout and assess a new inverter’s compatibility with the older system. Even when the system is well-documented, dealing with different inverter footprints can create extra work for installers, said JD Dillon, chief marketing and customer experience officer at Tigo Energy. Voltage differences between older and modern solar systems often force installers to restring arrays, adding time and cost to
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2026 Trends in Solar
New software from Tigo allows installers to set an inverter’s maximum AC nameplate rating directly in an app, eliminating the need to warehouse multiple inverter models. Tigo Energy
repowering projects. In the past, installers had to keep many different inverter models in stock to match repowering voltage needs. Tigo has improved upon this tedious and expensive process with its new Inverter Power Output Control (IPOC) feature. With this software, installers can set an inverter's maximum AC nameplate rating directly in the Tigo EI app, eliminating the need to warehouse multiple inverter models. "Combining the modular, openplatform ecosystem with advanced commissioning software, installers can save up to an hour per project, reduce post-installation service calls and maintain long-term performance across both new and repowered systems," Dillon said. To finish the process, the IPOC is fully documented for AHJ compliance through
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the product data sheet, label and installer letter. "The result is a simpler, faster and more predictable commissioning process that helps installers complete more jobs in less time," Dillon said. SolarEdge's single-SKU Home Hub inverter is another product built for easy residential system repowering. The inverter, which won Best in Show in Solar Power World's 2025 Top Products competition, can be configured to any required size (from 3.8 to 11.4 kW and legacy sizes 3, 5 and 6 kW) while maintaining 12.5 kW of continuous power output across all configurations. The inverter's nameplate capacity is permanently locked during commissioning through simultaneous scanning of two QR codes on the outside of the inverter, which prevents errors and helps with
verification and traceability. Choosing this inverter means homeowners can expand their systems later on thanks to its power class flexibility. For the large-scale solar market, SMA recently released a configurablenameplate inverter to meet repowering needs. The SMA Sunny Highpower PEAK3-FLEX-US-21 is delivered with a blank UL label, enabling customers to set the AC voltage to match the settings of the older inverter being replaced. Older C&I solar systems were typically built at standard grid voltages of 385 VAC, while modern inverters are built at 480 VAC or 600 VAC. The PEAK3 can bridge that gap. "The adjustability of the PEAK3-FLEX enables asset managers to repower their aging fleets with an inverter solution that can help to leave as much of the AC and even DC BOS in place as possible," said Tyson Schoelzel, strategic market sales manager at SMA. In situations where utilities and AHJs require power curtailment to avoid overloading the grid, the PEAK3-FLEX allows developers to match the exact power output settings needed, maximizing the project's power and kilowatt-hour yields. SMA is working to streamline repowering in the utility-scale space through its soon-to-be-released product made in partnership with Create Energy. The new skidded PEAK3 solution can replace central inverters that are no longer offered by the original manufacturers. "A multi-megawatt power block of premounted PEAK3 inverters with integrated AC and DC BOS will be an incredibly convenient solution to drop in place of the failing central inverters, especially as the PEAK3-FLEX can be adjusted to match the outgoing inverter," Schoelzel said. As solar systems of all sizes age, simplifying the inverter repowering process can ensure projects are producing as much power as possible for many years to come.
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Solar layoffs and closures run rampant in Trump’s first year back BILLY LUDT • SENIOR EDITOR
2025 WAS MARKED by a radical economic shift for the U.S. solar industry, with a shorter window for federal subsidies and a presidential administration that is actively halting renewable energy developments. Import tariffs, universal inflation and high interest rates for project financing have also dampened the recent solar boom. Bankruptcies, furloughs and layoffs have accompanied this sea change in the market, affecting installers, manufacturers and other groups within U.S. solar. Environmental business group E2's latest “Clean Economy Works” analysis reported that as of October 2025, nearly 30,000 jobs that would have been created from new major clean energy projects were canceled. Employment numbers in the solar and storage industries hit a record high to start 2025. The “National Solar Jobs Census 2024” determined that 464,053 people
worked in U.S. solar and storage at the beginning of the year, more than triple the amount of people employed in the U.S. coal industry. “Since these job totals are as of 2024, they do not reflect the seismic federal policy shifts that have occurred since a new presidential administration took office in January 2025 … we anticipate that this 2024 baseline will provide an important comparison point for how these policies have impacted the solar and battery energy storage industries when 2025 employment data is gathered in the coming year,” the report states. Now, the Trump administration is shifting the ambitions of President Joe Biden’s clean energy policy back to fossil fuel sources. The total impact of this hasn’t been measured yet, but the effects on domestic solar are already apparent.
U.S. solar bankruptcies and layoffs From a Solar Power World review of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices issued by state offices, at least 1,691 people working in U.S. solar were reportedly laid off in 2025, but these documents do not account for every job lost in the industry. Two months into Trump’s second term, national solar leasing company Sunnova laid off 300 people — about 15% of its staff — citing high-interest financing and policy uncertainty as the reasons for workforce reduction. Then in June, Sunnova filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, leaving the market with millions of dollars owed to creditors, including its installer clients, and shedding a staff of more than 1,000 people. Sunnova’s assets and business operations were acquired by GoodFinch Management and are now
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SOLAR SPOTLIGHT:
SAFE, SMOOTH AND SECURE ENERGY STORAGE
THE U.S. SOLAR INDUSTRY is constantly remaking itself to adapt to market demands, and so too are the manufacturers producing these renewable technologies. Following that notion, Jinko, a prominent PV module company, recently expanded its manufacturing operations to include battery energy storage systems. With the two complementary technologies under one umbrella, Jinko is supplying the utility and C&I segments with 24-hour energy from a single source. On this episode of Solar Spotlight by Solar Power World, Adam Detrick, director of product management and technical services at Jinko, discusses the company’s strategic expansion into energy storage and how it’s ensuring solar + storage projects deliver reliable, long-term performance. He also highlights Jinko’s focus on providing “Safe, Smooth and Secure” energy storage solutions through its comprehensive pre-integration services, robust long-term service agreements (LTSAs) and strong commitment to cybersecurity, giving customers confidence in the durability, reliability and security of their systems. SPW
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Adam Detrick director of product management and technical services, Jinko
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2026 Trends in Solar under operations of its subsidiary Solaris Assets. In a similar market segment, Spruce Power, a third-party residential solar financier, laid off 40 people and closed its Denver, Colorado, office in August, claiming the decision was based on company savings. In August, former PosiGen CEO Peter Shaper sent a memo to nearly all employees informing them that their jobs were terminated. Per WARN notice filings, 293 PosiGen employees were laid off in Connecticut, Louisiana and Pennsylvania. PosiGen’s company mission was to expand access to solar energy by installing projects for low-tomiddle income customers. According to the employee termination notice, PosiGen intended to stay in business if it could find other financing sources, even recently obtaining a $600 million investment by private equity firm Brookfield Asset Management. But ultimately, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November. “Hundreds of employees, including myself, were laid off with little warning,” said a former PosiGen employee who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Contractors and partners were left unpaid. Families who trusted our mission of ‘Solar for All’ were left in limbo.” Blue Ridge Power, the EPC subsidiary of developer Pine Gate Renewables, issued layoffs for 517 employees between its Asheville and Fayetteville, North Carolina, businesses in September. David Sanders, president of Blue Ridge Power, again blamed “regulatory and capital market environments” as the primary causes for workforce reduction at the EPC. Then in November, Blue Ridge’s parent company Pine Gate Renewables filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, selling off its businesses and its portfolio of solar and energy storage projects, with a pipeline of 10 GWDC underway.
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Beyond installation and onto factory floors, the domestic solar manufacturing segment also experienced layoffs and closures in 2025. Meyer Burger laid off 355 employees in May at its recently opened solar panel assembly factory in Goodyear, Arizona. Less than a year after beginning operations, the 1.5-GW PV module factory shuttered, with the company attributing the closure to funding issues. Increased component detainment by Customs and Border Protection reportedly caused solar panel manufacturer Qcells to furlough 1,000 employees and lay off 300 more from its two plants in Georgia. Powin Energy, an energy storage company based in Oregon with a global installed capacity of more than 17 GWh, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June. Solar shingle manufacturer GAF Energy laid off 138 employees and closed its R&D facility in California in December. Oliver Koehler, CEO of another solar shingle manufacturer SunTegra, decided to cease operations in October. “We’ve been impacted by tariffs from the first containers we had on the water, literally going back to 2014,” he said in a feature published in October. Mosaic, a solar and home improvement financier, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June. Vote Solar, an industry advocacy group based in California, laid off 11 people in August. And design platform Aurora Solar reportedly laid off 58 people in January 2025, according to state WARN notices. The effect of federal opposition to solar has reached practically every corner of the industry. Perhaps not every job lost or company closure can be solely attributed to the Trump administration rescinding the subsidies that once bolstered the industry, but companies are largely citing this hostility to PV as the primary factor.
JANUARY 2026
The US is on its way to becoming an oversupply market for ESS battery cells KELLY PICKEREL • EDITOR IN CHIEF
AS WITH MOST industries treated favorably in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, the domestic energy storage market was awash with new factory announcements. Companies like KORE Power, American Battery Factory and Pomega broke ground on gigawatt-scale production facilities throughout the United States, but nothing was ever built. They quickly realized it was expensive to build brand-new factories in a market wary of future federal support of renewable energy. But that’s not to say the domestic manufacturing market for lithium-based ESS is nonexistent in 2026; it’s just being led by another clean energy product: electric vehicles.
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2026 Trends in Solar The two operational lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) cell manufacturers today — LG Energy Solution in Michigan and AESC in Tennessee — had been making batteries for American EVs for over a decade before retooling existing lines to produce ESS batteries in 2025. Two more operational EV battery plants — SK Battery America in Commerce, Georgia, and Samsung SDI in Kokomo, Indiana — also intend to begin ESS battery production in 2026. Ford also plans to swap EV manufacturing for stationary storage. The strategic pivot by the manufacturers is also influenced by the IRA and its successor, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). The OBBBA removed incentives for EV owners while leaving intact IRA credits available to ESS installers and manufacturers. Suddenly, with waning EV demand and underutilized lines, domestic EV battery manufacturers had to make up revenue elsewhere. Now, they’re stationary battery suppliers. This manufacturing swap is actually more beneficial to the U.S. ESS market than waiting for new names to come
online in their own time. Where KORE Power, American Battery Factory and Pomega were only capable of supporting sub-5-GWh annual capacities, the EV battery makers are already set up for over 15-GWh outputs. That means more domestic batteries are available to U.S. project developers today when the grid needs them most. It's not as simple as a flip of a switch for EV battery manufacturers, though. EVs typically use lithium batteries made with nickel, manganese and cobalt (NMC), while stationary ESS benefit from the LFP chemistry. If the form factor is the same (prismatic vs. cylindrical vs. pouch cells), updating NMC lines to LFP should ideally take less than 12 months, said Anjali Joshi, market intelligence analyst at Intertek CEA. “If the form factor is the same, converting NCM to LFP cell production line takes several months to a year,” she said. As with solar panel manufacturing, the cell is the most important part of the ESS. If battery energy storage systems use domestically made cells, they can more easily access the ITC under foreign
entity of concern restrictions introduced by the OBBBA. Wood Mackenzie and the American Clean Power Association (ACP) expected the United States to install 49 GWh of storage across all markets in 2025, an amount that can easily be met by the four established domestic lithium cell manufacturers in 2026. “Energy storage is being quickly deployed to strengthen our grid as demand for power surges and is helping to drive down energy prices for American families and businesses," said Noah Roberts, ACP VP of energy storage. “Despite regulatory uncertainty, the drivers for energy storage are strong and the industry is on track to produce enough grid batteries in American factories to supply 100% of domestic demand. Energy storage will be essential to the expansion of the U.S. power grid and American energy production.” Joshi with Intertek CEA also feels confident in America’s lithium battery makers’ ability to meet domestic demand for ESS. “Based on announced capacity, the U.S. is likely to have around a 10% FEOCcompliant capacity surplus in 2026, with Korean suppliers accounting for over 80% of the FEOC-compliant ESS cell capacity,” she said. “However, these figures assume 100% factory utilization, while Korean EV battery plants have historically run at 70-80%. So, the actual surplus will depend on how quickly Korean suppliers can fully ramp up their capacity.”
LFP battery cell manufacturing at LG Energy Solution’s factory in Michigan. LGES
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JANUARY 2026
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2026 Trends in Solar
Solar tracker manufacturers are acquiring and expanding their way into new sectors BILLY LUDT • SENIOR EDITOR
SOLAR COMPANIES EXPANDING into complementary technologies isn't uncommon. Solar panel manufacturer Jinko recently dropped "Solar" from its name because it also builds battery energy storage systems (BESS). Inverter giant SolarEdge has also brought EV chargers and BESS under its umbrella. Solar tracker companies are now expanding beyond single-axis systems, acquiring companies in other segments and developing new technologies at a proprietary level. The largest example of this simultaneous consolidation of intellectual properties and expansion of first-party tech is Nextpower, which updated its name from Nextracker to better describe its company portfolio. Over the last four years, trackers have been experiencing a domestic manufacturing renaissance, with Nextpower opening and expanding seven factories with contract manufacturers, Array Technologies maintaining four plants across the country, OMCO Solar building a domestic tracker supply in four states and international supplier PV Hardware building its first plant in the United States. The factory openings have slowed from waning subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act, but tracker manufacturers haven’t stopped growing. They’ve gotten involved with stationary racking — Nextpower acquired Ojjo, and Array Technologies bought APA Solar Racking. Both Ojjo and APA produce solar foundations for deployment in less-than-ideal soil conditions. Tracker companies have also expanded their scopes to include electrical balance of systems (eBOS) and other technologies necessary in tracker operations. Terrasmart manufactures combiner boxes and wiring solutions in its factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan. OMCO developed its proprietary OMCO Star Tracker Control System, a wireless, long-range tracker
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controller. With yet another acquisition, Nextpower entered the eBOS space by purchasing Bentek and its trunk bus, combiner box and harness technologies. With their experience in steel and aluminum fabrication, tracker manufacturers have set their sights on module components. When OMCO opened its sixth factory in the United States, First Solar contracted the company to produce backrails for its Series 7 thin-film modules. Similarly, Nextpower acquired Origami Solar, a steel solar panel frame manufacturer. Nextpower could produce steel frames for a range of solar panel brands. Nextpower’s portfolio of solar components is increasingly considering more of the array than just the tracker itself. And that extends to post-installation upkeep as well, with the acquisition of
robotics company OnSight Technology and the subsequent launch of an O&M division. “Over the past several years, we have been systematically executing a strategy to expand our portfolio and create a comprehensive technology platform that delivers significant benefits across the solar value chain,” said Dan Shugar, CEO of Nextpower, in a press release. This mission among solar tracker manufacturers to expand products and services beyond the expected has transformed some of them from specific equipment suppliers to holistic energy platforms. The shape of domestic solar tracker manufacturing and the companies making them will likely continue to change.
Nextpower has made electrical balance of systems components a part of its product line, in addition to other non-tracker technologies. Nextpower
JANUARY 2026
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2026 Trends in Solar
States work to speed renewable deployment before ITC deadline
EA KEA K |
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ck
KELSEY MISBRENER • MANAGING EDITOR
THE ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ACT (OBBBA) kicked off a mad dash for solar + storage developers to take advantage of expiring federal tax credits. Some states are taking action to help bring as many renewable kilowatts to the grid as possible before the major start-construction deadline comes along on July 4, 2026. In Oregon and Colorado, governors themselves have tried to streamline permitting and cut other red tape to get projects online faster. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek put forth an executive order in October 2025 called "Accelerating Wind and Solar Energy Development in Advance of Elimination of Federal Clean Energy Tax Credits." The order instructs state agencies to take all steps necessary to accelerate and prioritize siting and permitting reviews for projects seeking to meet the July 4 ITC deadline. "With the elimination of promised incentives by the Trump administration, states must step up as the last line of defense against climate catastrophe. We have to get renewable energy infrastructure built, and quickly,” Kotek said in a press statement. “We cannot afford to lose this critical window; every wind and solar project we help complete now directly fights the irreversible climate damage we're racing to prevent." Similarly, in Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis released an executive action over the summer titled "State Commitment Prioritizing Deployment of Affordable Clean Energy," also directing state agencies to do whatever they can to speed deployment before the deadline. Polis announced a state commitment to adopt flexible interconnection — allowing more projects to interconnect to the grid using operational software that tailors renewable energy output to match the grid's needs.
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Beat-the-deadline efforts are also happening in state legislatures and utility commissions across the country. In New Jersey and Illinois, new actions have opened more capacity in state incentive programs to help developers stack incentives and lower costs for ratepayers ahead of federal deadlines. The Illinois Commerce Commission doubled the size of its Adjustable Block Program — opening incentives to 1,000 MW of community, commercial and small-scale solar projects. The expanded capacity prioritizes projects that can start construction before July 4. “By acting now, Illinois is ensuring that residents and businesses benefit from the lowest-cost solar projects while federal incentives remain available — cementing the state’s position as a national model for smart, affordable clean energy growth," said Stephanie Burgos-Veras, senior manager of equity programs at the Coalition for Community Solar Access. In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill into law that unlocked an additional 3,000 MW of community solar in October 2025. The state focused on community projects specifically to give more residents the chance to lower their bills with clean energy. “By accelerating the process for bringing new sources of energy online and rapidly building new energy storage facilities, we will meet growing demand while also making life more affordable for our state’s families," said Murphy in a statement. And in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to exempt solar developers from paying taxes on IRA benefits —
JANUARY 2026
keeping project costs down, helping to appeal to investors and spurring development before the deadline. “SB 302 will keep energy project costs down by allowing California energy developers to realize the full value of federal tax incentives," said Stephanie Doyle, California state director for SEIA. Newsom also signed a bill creating a West-wide regional electricity market that will allow California to develop and sell renewable energy to other states across the Interior West, and vice versa. These efforts create new opportunities for developers working to get as many megawatts in the ground as possible with the remaining tax incentives. “Rapidly expanding demand for new energy resources from data computing needs, aging transmission infrastructure and extreme weather conditions are raising the cost of electricity across the West. The stakes are high, and with passage of AB 825, we have an opportunity to collaborate and create a western regional market for cost-effective supply of newer clean energy resources,” said Vijay Satyal, deputy director of markets and transmission at Western Resource Advocates. States are taking different approaches, some more explicit than others, to expedite and incentivize renewable projects as time ticks down to the start-construction deadline. Speeding up permitting, removing bureaucratic roadblocks and changing tax rules are crucial steps to deploying as much solar + storage as possible before then.
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1/12/26 12:41 PM
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