Solar Power World March 2021

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Technology • Development • Installation

The

Residential Issue

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THE FIRST WORD

The residential solar market adapts to a year of change It’s officially been one full year since the country shut roofline. We also write about the state policy down due to COVID-19. The thing I remember most from that’s helping some installers overcome HOA those first days and weeks was how quickly everything roadblocks in tandem with the increasingly happened. The morning of March 10, 2020, our office attractive aesthetics of solar installations. decided to cancel our upcoming St. Patrick’s Day potluck Residential installations are the to avoid spreading germs. That same evening, our CEO foundation of solar acceptance on a told us we would all start working from home immediately. community scale. This issue goes out to On March 9, Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine announced three all the companies working these smaller Ohioans had COVID. Then the health director told us there projects and growing the solar fan base in was evidence of community spread, meaning 1% of the the United States — even in the face of the state’s population (around 117,000 people) was carrying toughest of obstacles. SPW the virus.

I still feel lucky to be able to do my job at home throughout this whirlwind of a year. I know many of our solar readers were not as fortunate and had to deal with furloughs or layoffs. Although all solar sectors were affected by the pandemic, residential installers bore the brunt of the impact. The door-to-door personal interactions that define the resi sales process were halted during the height of it, and although people learned to live with the new reality, face-to-face (or mask-to-mask) sales still aren’t what they used to be. Even when I get food delivered to my house now, I ask the kind delivery workers to just drop it on the porch.

Still, residential installers found a way to keep business alive despite the rapidly changing and continuously uncertain year. Contractors tried new Senior Editor software solutions to allow teams to work from kmisbrener@wtwhmedia.com home when possible and came up with measures @SolarKelseyM to ensure both homeowners and installers stayed @SolarPowerWorld safe during installation. Now past the hardest point in the COVID saga, installers in the Amicus Solar Cooperative told SPW they saw unprecedented residential demand at the start of 2021.

In this issue, we dive into all things residential. We look at the business practices that carried contractors through this tough time and the technological innovations making rooftop installations simpler and sleeker. We dive into the ways residential installations now inspire more neighborhood envy than eyesore complaints, including allblack modules and mounting solutions that blend into the

Kelsey Misbrener

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SOLAR POWER WORLD - VOLUME 11 ISSUE 2 - (ISSN2164-7135) is published 7 times per year: January, March, May, July, September, November and December by WTWH Media, LLC, 1111 Superior Avenue, 26th Floor, Cleveland, Ohio 44114. Periodicals postage paid at Cleveland, OH and additional mailing offices.

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CONTENTS

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ON THE COVER

The residential solar market had a tough year enduring pandemic lockdowns, but companies are coming out the other side with new, more efficient processes.

And COVID didn’t stop technological innovations that are making resi installs sleeker every year.

Photo courtesy Creative Solar USA

2 FIRST WORD

8 NEWS BRIEFS

6

54 CONTRACTORS CORNER 56 AD INDEX

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MARCH 2021 • VOL 11 NO 2 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

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BUSINESS

TECHNOLOGY

10 SAVING ORPHANED SYSTEMS

26 PANELS

These companies are providing maintenance options for homeowners with systems lacking support

POLICY 16 HOAs VS. SOLAR

New legislation in Virginia sets an example for other states on navigating HOA solar roadblocks

INSTALLATION 22 CASE STUDY

One contractor added solar + storage to his Florida home as a test site for interested customers

Installers are increasingly choosing allblack panels for residential installations that inspire neighborhood envy

29 INVERTERS

BIPV solar installations have multiple options for rapid shutdown compliance, some simpler than others

34 MOUNTING

Solar mounting considerations like skirts, clamps and wire management systems create a polished rooftop look

40 STORAGE

Module-level electronic choices can dictate how batteries fit into solar + storage systems

SPECIAL SECTION: REFLECTIONS ON ONE YEAR OF COVID

Contractors share their experiences from the past year and where they expect solar sales to go from here. | PAGE 45

MARCH 2021

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NEWS BRIEFS

SOLAR POLICY SNAPSHOTS A guide to recent legislation and research throughout the country.

California legislators are considering a bill to automate permitting in most cities using tools like NREL’s SolarAPP.

SEIA begins campaigning new administration to repeal Trump solar tariffs

Experts recommend automatic enrollment in community solar programs for LMI groups

Washington, D.C.

The United States

SEIA is leading a new effort to urge the Biden administration to repeal former President Donald Trump’s October 2020 solar proclamation that increased solar panel tariffs and rescinded the exclusion of bifacial solar panels from tariffs. Sixteen other renewable energy companies, including Swinerton and Pine Gate Renewables, joined SEIA in writing a letter to President Joe Biden asking to rescind the proclamation.

Vote Solar’s Access & Equity Advisory Committee released a policy brief recommending that low- and moderate-income (LMI) households, which statistically face the highest energy cost burdens, be automatically enrolled in community solar programs if they qualify for other certain income-based assistance. The group says this method would help LMI households pass the largest hurdles for community solar enrollment — income verification and program qualification.

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NEWS BRIEFS

Solar and environmental justice orgs team up for new ’30 million solar homes’ campaign

Missouri legislature considers taxing solar-powered households and businesses

Virginia bill would expand consumer choice in renewable energy provider

The United States

Jefferson City, Missouri

Richmond, Virginia

A national coalition of energy and environment organizations released a list of federal policy recommendations to achieve a new goal of 30 million solar homes within the next five years. The centerpiece of the group’s action plan is rapidly scaling programs that expand access to solar for low-income communities.

Two bills in the Missouri statehouse seek to modify the state’s net-metering program in a way that could create a discriminatory tax on solar homeowners.

The state’s electric cooperatives claim the penalty is necessary to cover costs incurred from interconnecting solar projects to the grid.

The Virginia House of Delegates passed in early February 2021 a bill that would let electric customers purchase renewable energy from companies other than their utility, according to the Virginia Mercury.

The bill is expected to face strong opposition in the Senate.

New Solar Access Act aims to implement automated solar permitting in most California cities

DOE announces $100 million in funding for new clean energy solutions

Midwest group files lawsuit for third-party solar financing access in Wisconsin

Sacramento, California

Washington, D.C.

Madison, Wisconsin

California state Sen. Scott Wiener introduced a new bill that would implement automated solar permitting in local jurisdictions with over 10,000 residents. The Solar Access Bill would also allocate $20 million to help AHJs switch over to automated permitting, according to SEIA.

The Department of Energy released a new $100 million funding opportunity for clean energy solutions that help support the Biden administration’s agenda to reach net-zero emissions by 2035. The funds will support technologies near commercialization and those that can build clean energy supply chains domestically.

The Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) filed a lawsuit against the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin for discouraging third-party financing for solar projects. MREA says the policy limits rooftop solar access to only those who can afford to purchase solar panels outright.

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MARCH 2021

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Without a lifetime of maintenance support, residential solar systems can be orphaned The

U.S. solar industry reached the landmark milestone of 2 million solar installations in 2019, and it will surpass 3 million arrays in 2021, according to Wood Mackenzie.

Millions of solar arrays are going to continue to be installed each year, and with that ramp-up comes the creation of new PV installation and manufacturing companies, and along with that, no doubt, the shuttering of others.

When a company goes out of business, it often leaves unanswered questions for labor and manufacturer warranty fulfillment. And with a number of new components coming out each year, product longevity can only be verified with in-lab testing.

“You’ve got 3 million systems, times 25 components on site —

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you’ve got 75 million components out there related to this stuff, growing at an exponential rate and all of it’s supposed to run for 20 years and none of it’s been tested in the field more than five years,” said Derek Chase, CEO of SunSystem Technology, a national O&M company servicing residential, commercial and utility market solar arrays.

Commercial and utility customers are often afforded access to legal teams capable of tracking and fulfilling warranty obligations, Chase said, but residential customers might not have the same support. So, solar maintenance, installation and insurance services are trying to fill in that gap left when companies go out of business and leave homeowners and their arrays in the dark.

MARCH 2021

ESTABLISHING A NATIONWIDE MAINTENANCE NETWORK

When SunSystem Technology started, it entered the solar maintenance field intending to focus on utility-scale arrays, but, due to the demand, was drawn into the commercial and eventually residential markets.

“I didn’t really understand how big the market was there, and a lot of groups didn’t want to do it because you’re talking $200, $300 a service call,” Chase said. “You’re dealing with homeowners. It’s way easier to go to some field in the middle of nowhere and do your work than deal with a homeowner and all the risks that are associated with that.”

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

Palomar S olar and R oofing

BILLY LUDT ASSOCIATE EDITOR

BUSINESS

BUSINESS

Palomar Solar and Roofing

but that doesn’t exist in the [solar] infrastructure we have today,” Chase said.

He suggests that part of the problem could come down to the sales process.

Solar sales companies can be entirely separate entities from the subcontractor installing the system. And handing full ownership of the solar array to homeowners instead of a lease-to-own setup can mean they’re fully responsible for the system off the bat.

“The group who sold it to you technically has this warranty liability, but they don’t have any infrastructure because they just subcontracted the job to somebody for the lowest price and this guy who did it for the lowest price, he’s not going to give you a 10-year warranty,” Chase said. “We’re trying to build something to where a homeowner is never truly abandoned. We’re building out infrastructure on their home so they can feel confident that if an issue arises and their installer is out of business, that there’s someone there to help them out and fix their system.”

Since its start, the company has established 20 service centers across the United States in “high-density” solar markets, where technicians can visit multiple homes a day. The majority of SunSystem’s customers come from partnerships with larger installers, but the company still accepts calls from individual homeowners after their original installer goes out of business.

SunSystem can fulfill certain manufacturer warranties, but not laborrelated warranties. Technicians are most often dealing with inverter issues on residential arrays. Having a microinverter on every module increases the chances of multiple failures, and locating which one failed is no easy task when monitoring programs are inaccessible. If it’s in the center of an array, technicians will have to take apart the whole system, and if it’s not under warranty, “it’s a lot 12

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CREATING 30-YEAR WARRANTIES

of work that turns into a $3,000 service AND COVERING ORPHANED SOLAR ticket,” Chase said.

SolarInsure opened its doors after Although many installers promise a founder and president Ara Agopian workmanship warranty at signing, if they saw a gap from manufacturer warranties go out of business, the system owner in the solar and wind industries. The likely won’t see that post-installation company offers a one-time purchase, zero support. Unlike the automotive or deductible, 30-year warranty on labor, HVAC industries, solar doesn’t have racking, panels, inverters, optimizers and an established nationwide network of roof penetrations on systems up to maintenance service providers. Certain 200 kW. installers will offer maintenance for the life IF I GO BUY A CAR, I DON’T of the system, sometimes with a fee attached, but WORRY ABOUT WHETHER TOYOTA’S that isn’t always the case.

GOING TO BE ABLE TO TAKE CARE “If I go buy a car, I OF IT. I KNOW I COULD GO TO ANY don’t worry about whether Toyota’s going to be able SERVICE REPAIR SHOP, I COULD GET to take care of it. I know THESE PARTS ANYWHERE, BUT THAT I could go to any service DOESN’T EXIST IN THE [SOLAR] repair shop, I could get these parts anywhere, INFRASTRUCTURE WE HAVE TODAY. www.solarpowerworldonline.com

BUSINESS

“There are things that happen that make it very difficult to stay in business,” said Dean Chiaravallotti, VP of partnerships at SolarInsure. “This is one of the most complicated construction projects you can do for a home, not only because you deal with the city, but you deal with the utility and all the different parts.”

The warranty package needs to be purchased at the point of sale, so if the installer or manufacturer goes out of business, that labor and hardware is covered. But SolarInsure just debuted its “Smart Energy Home Warranty” program to help cover orphaned solar systems.

The insurance package includes more smart home elements than solar, covering household appliances and electrical systems, for a monthly fee.

Like SunSystem, SolarInsure is trying to be an option for homeowners and solar contractors alike to support arrays for their operational lifetime. The company is working to keep legacy systems operating, and honors the warranties of hardware like SolarWorld modules after the panel manufacturer filed for bankruptcy in 2017, and has a growing list of approved manufacturers it can warranty.

The warranty, which is offered as a separate line-item by the solar installer, is structured so that a company like SunSystem could be called for maintenance, paid to do the labor and reimbursed for replacement components through SolarInsure. The service uses the original installer if available, or one on SolarInsure’s approved list of contractors.

“We get calls or emails every week from customers that have abandoned systems that don’t have our product…so they’re stuck,” Chiaravallotti said. “Then there are companies that don’t want to take the liability to go and work on a system they didn’t install, so it’s hard to find anybody that will be willing to work on their system.”

MARCH 2021

SOLAR POWER WORLD

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BUSINESS

HANDLING INSTALLATION AND MAINTENANCE

Palomar Solar & Roofing of San Diego primarily installs solar in the Southern California residential and commercial market, originally just offering postinstallation maintenance to its customers.

But the company started taking on maintenance calls from people outside of its customer pool after hearing from them so frequently.

“It’s daily,” said Adam Rizzo, partner at Palomar Solar. “It used to be monthly.

Now all those old systems that had 10year warranty inverters are starting to fail, and lots of companies that installed them are out of business and these people have nobody to turn to.”

There are often instances of companies still in business that aren’t returning customers’ maintenance calls, he added, leaving these arrays and their owners stranded. Palomar offers maintenance checks for non-customers, but the company isn’t able to fulfill labor or manufacturer warranties. Those new customers must pay out of pocket for any labor and component replacements, and it typically isn’t cheap, Rizzo said.

The failing arrays outside of Palomar’s installed customer base commonly have dated components that could be upgraded instead of replaced. In addition to inverter failures, roof leaks are another frequent issues the technicians encounter.

The company also set up a roofing unit to meet that need.

The systems Palomar does install come with panel-level monitoring through Enphase. Per-panel monitoring gives technicians and system owners the ability to see when an individual panel or inverter goes out and determine array issues quicker. If it’s a component on warranty, it’s no charge to the customer and it’s replaced. Otherwise, technicians are

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spending the day taking a system apart, troubleshooting and trying to determine an issue, “so something that should cost $120 turns into $3,000,” Rizzo said.

“That was never part of our equation, but the way that we’re looking at it is we’re trying to uphold the reputation of the industry has left. It’s pretty sad the amount of people that call and the amount of money they’re spending for us to fix it,” he said. “In some cases, they would have been better off staying with the utility company. If consumers spent the same amount of research in finding the right company initially as they are in finding someone to fix it, they could be avoiding this situation altogether.”

As the solar industry continues to grow, specific services will fill in the gap for oversights like post-installation maintenance. SunSystem continues to take service calls and SolarInsure will work to honor the warranties on new installations to prevent orphaned systems. But Rizzo believes solar contractors themselves should be invested in the lifetime of an array.

“I really think it comes down to the installer’s integrity,” he said. “That’s why we choose to partner with companies that have good reputations, like Enphase and LG. There’s certainly cheaper products in the marketplace that I can make a lot more money from, but I’d rather install great products and sleep like a baby at night knowing I’m not going to get calls like that.” SPW

ALL THOSE OLD SYSTEMS THAT HAD 10YEAR WARRANTY INVERTERS ARE STARTING TO FAIL, AND LOTS OF COMPANIES THAT INSTALLED THEM ARE OUT OF BUSINESS AND THESE PEOPLE HAVE NOBODY TO TURN TO. www.solarpowerworldonline.com

ADVERTORIAL

Landman and Attorney Jonathan R. Grammer:

Out in Front of the Mineral Rights/Solar Energy Collision in the State of Texas IF YOU’RE ENGAGED IN solar development in the State of Texas and don’t know Jonathan Grammer, it’s time you learned his name. The oil and gas trial attorney turned petroleum landman has not only been at the helm of Grammer Land & Exploration Corp for nearly the past 20 years, but also served as the head of Grammer Law Group, a small private oil and gas boutique law firm centered in the middle of the behemoth that is the Texas energy industry. While many companies are capable in leasing land for solar development, and others capable of understanding the legality of the oil and gas rights underneath them, Grammer has been one of a few who are well-versed in both.

With a unique perspective that stems from spanning the gap between alternative energy and conventional hydrocarbon development, Grammer’s two companies have worked in tandem in the solar realm with a specific focus in mind: helping solar development companies acquire surface acreage while adequately understanding the mineral rights underneath their projects.

With now approximately 5,000 MW of development encompassing about 30,000 acres in three states, Grammer has made it a point to not only be out in front of the solar/oil and gas issue but make sure his clients get there as well. Grammer sits on

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

several legislative committees charged with tracking bills affecting the solar/mineral rights issue and his legal group practices in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado.

“We have always been heavily experienced, both in our land staff as well as the attorneys working for us, in mineral title examination. We’ve done this both for acquiring oil and gas leases, surface rights-ofways, general oil and gas development and primarily, of late, solar energy development,” states Grammer.

When a solar developer decides to lease surface acreage for the purpose of constructing solar panels, the geographic footprint generally is all of the available land. This makes it problematic, and legally dangerous, when mineral owners underneath the property wish to explore and develop their minerals and no longer have sufficient surface acreage above upon which to place an oil well.

“I was shocked early on,” Grammer continues, “and remain so to this day, of the methods or lack thereof, that solar companies have developed in dealing with the mineral rights underneath the surface. Most don’t realize going into it the vast exposure of liability in not effectively dealing with the mineral rights owners underneath their solar

projects. The laws are clear in establishing that the dominant estate is that of the mineral owners, however unclear on how best to protect those rights when acquiring one hundred percent of the surface.”

“When obtaining any of these instruments it is imperative that the title work they are predicated upon is correct. Leaving out mineral owners and proceeding with development can have disastrous results, even decades into the project, if it is later determined that those same mineral owners have been precluded from developing their minerals. We have seen a great variation in methods, from stipulations of interests, waivers, purchase of mineral rights in fee and even obtaining the executive rights.

It is important when leasing land for solar that companies understand going into negotiations which method they are going to employ for dealing with the minerals and the risks and benefits of each.” SPW

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KELSEY MISBRENER SENIOR EDITOR

Other states can look to the commonwealth as a guide, but the law is still not flawless.

RESIDENTIAL speedbumps in the process from sales to solar contractors encounter plenty of

installation, whether that’s tire kickers, financing issues or logistical delays. Working with a client who lives in a homeowners association (HOA) subdivision could cost installers much more time and money.

In the worst-case scenario, it can even lead to cancelled contracts.

Residential solar advocacy group Solar United Neighbors (SUN) works to solve HOA roadblocks to solar installations through grassroots organizing and policy efforts. Ben Delman, communications director for SUN, said the best way to increase solar access for HOA residents is by pushing for laws that clearly define what rights solar homeowners have.

"It's very much a state-by-state issue," Delman said. "Many states have laws that protect solar homeowner rights with respect to HOAs. For the ones that don't, it can be a real barrier."

According to the Community Associations Institute, 27 states have legislation in place that protects solar access for HOA residents. Delman said the best example of this type of law is Virginia's HB 414/SB 504, which was signed by Gov. Ralph Northam in March 2020.

Virginia's bill improved upon prior bills in the state addressing HOAs and solar power. Previous bills stated HOAs could not impose unreasonable restrictions upon homeowners wishing to go solar, but didn't define what "unreasonable" meant. HB 414/SB 504 clearly defined "unreasonable" as either “increasing the cost of

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installation of the solar energy collection device by 5% over the projected cost of the initially proposed installation” or “reducing the energy production by the solar energy collection device by 10% below the projected energy production of the initially proposed installation.”

In order to prove these percentages, the law requires homeowners to "provide documentation prepared by an independent solar panel design specialist that is satisfactory to the community association to show that the restriction is not reasonable according to the criteria established in the bill."

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POLICY Ad

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MARCH 2021

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POLICY

Ipsun Solar

Documentation is only required if the HOA denies a solar proposal.

Virginia-based installation company Ipsun Solar has found a clever way to reduce costs for this additional step in the install process. Ipsun talked to fellow NABCEPcertified solar contractors and agreed to sign off on each other's documentation.

"I was surprised by how fast we just all called each other, like ‘frenemies,’" said Herve Billiet, CEO of Ipsun Solar.

"Our mission is to fight climate change by installing as many solar panels as we can. So if I'm helping one of my competitors in an area of Virginia where we are not installing anytime soon, if he can get more solar installed, it accomplishes our mission too."

Although the bill can create additional paperwork and lengthen the installation timeline, it gives contractors the legal backing to push a project to completion that wouldn’t have been possible before.

Overall, Virginia contractors said they haven’t had too much trouble with HOAs in general.

"In years being in business, I can count on one hand how many times we've had actual big problems where we just give up. Maybe two hands. So it's not bad compared to the hundreds

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upon hundreds of all the installations that we've done," Billiet said.

Nova Solar CEO Barklie Estes said his company doesn't have many issues with HOAs either.

"The new law has helped us in a couple instances. However, there are still instances where HOAs won't allow solar or certain placement of solar, irrespective of the new laws," Estes said.

Sometimes, even if companies go through the process to prove the restrictions are unreasonable, the HOA still won’t allow it to move forward.

If the homeowner wants it enough, they can choose to lawyer up and fight the restrictions in court. But occasionally, because of a unique Virginia constitutional provision, their efforts will still be futile.

Virginia's constitution says the state legislature cannot, through subsequently enacted legislation, modify existing contracts. The only exception to that provision is federal law, according to Pia Trigiani, partner at real estate law firm MercerTrigiani, who focuses exclusively on community association law in Virginia.

When a housing developer creates an HOA community, they draw up a declaration that becomes part of the

chain of title. When a person buys a lot in a community that has a declaration of covenants, conditions and restrictions, they are then subject to those limitations on their rights to use the property. The restrictive covenant is a contract, so if it says homeowners may not install solar, the new pro-solar law does not apply, per Virginia’s constitution.

"When you buy a property subject to restrictive covenants, you’ve got to read it. If solar panels are something you're interested in, then don't buy a home that says, ‘No,’" Trigiani said.

THE NEW LAW HAS HELPED US IN A COUPLE INSTANCES. HOWEVER, THERE ARE STILL INSTANCES WHERE HOAS WON'T ALLOW SOLAR OR CERTAIN PLACEMENT OF SOLAR, IRRESPECTIVE OF THE NEW LAWS.

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ADVERTORIAL

SOLAR SPOTLIGHT:

Baja talks carport design from coast to coast IN THIS SPECIAL EDITION of Contractors Corner, solar manufacturer Baja Carports talks about design considerations for solar carports across the country, and battery integration plans on the horizon. Below is a portion of the company’s Solar Spotlight podcast with Solar Power World, but be sure to listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast app for an inside look at carport design and timelines.

What are the different carport models Baja offers?

Baja offers a variety of steel canopies to fit any particular project location and work scope needs. We have basically three kind of structures we can do — light gauge high tensile steel, which is your most costeffective way of building a carport; threeplate system, which is kind of between the structural steel and the light gauge; and then of course we’ve got structural steel.

Everything we do is prefabricated steel, so out of those three types of structures, semi-cantilevered, which means the column is about where the door hinge is, is probably our most cost-effective product.

What goes into designing each solar carport system?

You have to worry about the location where it is, because you’re going to be affected by live load, wind load, snow load, seismic and clear height.

To get a really accurate bid, a soils report would be certainly helpful. Our structures are designed with a pure design embedded

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column as our primary design. We could also do raised foundation with base plates and anchors, it’s just a matter of preference with our customers.

What does a carport look like in Maine vs. in California?

In Maine, you’re going to have pretty substantial snow loads, so it’s probably going to have to be structural steel. On the East Coast, generally speaking, we don’t use poured-in-place footing. On the West Coast, we do pretty much everything poured-in-place, where on the East Coast, we use raised footings.

On the West Coast, you have a lot more seismic than you do on the East. On the East Coast, you have other issues on degree of pitch and what are you going to do with the snow — are you going to use snow guards, etc.

What is a typical timeline for solar carport design and installation?

Steel pricing is going up monthly, sometimes weekly. Production schedules are all over the board depending upon what kind of model you want and where it’s going. Steel manufacturers are running out of steel, there are shortages. Most of the manufacturers right now that we deal with are running from eight to 12 weeks, so after we do the plans and calc, it could take eight to 12 weeks to get the material from the time you place it to get it on the job site and if there’s a shortage, it’s indeterminable.

If you want a carport in four or five months, you better give us an order right now for two reasons: One is you want to have the steel on the site so it doesn’t hold up your project. The second reason is some suppliers are raising their prices 6-7% every month.

How are Baja systems incorporating batteries as storage technology is becoming more desirable and affordable?

We’re currently working on a large solar RV and boat storage facility that is around 7 MW that we will basically sell back to the utility, because there is a requirement now in California that the utilities are looking for power production that they can immediately receive the power for. So that opens up possible PPAs and some feed-in tariffs at a fairly good price.

That’s a perfect way to use batteries. Especially on such a large roof area, it really makes it easy, and with the two basically profit centers, it makes it very lucrative and a great business model.

We’re also working with some battery companies trying to figure out how to integrate the batteries within the carport itself. Our light gauge carport has pretty big areas inside the columns and the beams that you can actually put the batteries in there. SPW WWW.BAJACARPORTS.COM

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POLICY

WHEN YOU'RE WORKING WITH A CUSTOMER, THE FIRST THING YOU DO IS ASK THEM TO GET A COPY OF THE RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS THAT APPLY TO THEIR PROPERTY, AND THE DESIGN GUIDELINES. BEFORE THEY INVEST A MINUTE OF ENGINEERING TIME, THEY REALLY NEED TO KNOW.

An earlier Virginia statute regarding solar and HOAs makes it easier for potential buyers to know if their property is solar-friendly. That law requires developers to disclose any limitation on solar panels to the buyers.

"We're not going to tell a developer he can or cannot do anything in his restrictive covenants about solar panels, but by golly, he should be disclosing it," Trigiani said.

Restrictive covenants are not easily changed and typically require a super-majority of homeowners to do so.

A person who really wants solar on their home should avoid any HOAs with anti-solar covenants.

"People have choices. Read the documents. I think a lot of folks don't, and then they beg for forgiveness. And that's when it gets ugly," Trigiani said.

Virginia’s new HOA solar law really applies to HOA design guidelines, which are not contractual. If an HOA without a restrictive covenant against solar denies a homeowner’s project outright or tells them they must install the panels in a certain place on the roof, the homeowner can then go through the documentation process to prove the HOA's design guidelines are unreasonable because they either increase installation cost by 5% or reduce energy production by 10%.

Although there’s now some recourse in instances, Trigiani urged solar contractors to do their homework ahead of time for customers in HOA neighborhoods.

S O L A R R I G H T S A N D E A S E M E N T S B Y S TAT E

States with stronger protection for solar access

States with limited protections for solar easements

Community Associations Institute

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POLICY

"When you're working with a customer, the first thing you do is ask them to get a copy of the restrictive covenants that apply to their property, and the design guidelines," she said. "Before they invest a minute of engineering time, they really need to know."

Nova Solar does not do this upfront research because Estes said it's not easy to find the rules for most HOAs. "If a customer signs and we end up being unable to get the required approvals, we will refund their money and release them from the contract," he said.

Ipsun Solar also usually sells the solar project first and then looks into the HOA requirements later.

“They can take a lot of time, so it doesn't make much sense for us to do all the work with the HOAs if we don't have

a signed agreement in place,” Billiet said. “Sometimes, people know about their HOAs, they've done their research and can tell us during the sale process what their HOA requires.”

When Billiet has reviewed older HOA covenants, he's found sometimes the "solar generation" they prohibit seems to describe either solar thermal systems or PV installation practices of the past, which are much less discreet than current systems.

Billiet said public perception of solar PV should be improved to ensure antisolar provisions aren’t included in HOA declarations. He thinks people too often see outdated stock photos of residential solar installations and think they’re still bulky and blue.

“There's that one picture that irritates me that I keep seeing in all

those magazines, it must be like a stock image, of a home with a solar panel really sticking out above the roof," he said. "So much is wrong on that picture when you look into it. The solar panels don't even fit onto the eave and things are just wrong, but yet everybody uses that picture."

If the public is instead exposed to the all-black, flush rooftop installations of today, Billiet thinks HOA acceptance could also evolve. Trigiani agrees.

"One of the primary functions of common-interest communities is regulating the appearance of property, and not just because it's beautiful, but it's well maintained," Trigiani said. "The solar panel industry's done a great job of refining their product, and I think it's only going to get better." SPW

INSTALLATION Adobe Stock

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www.solarpowerworldonline.com

BILLY LUDT ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Florida contractor uses CEO's home to demonstrate reliability of

SOLAR + STORAGE TECHNOLOGY

In

many areas of the country, residential solar customers recognize the energy resiliency advantages, long-term economic benefits and environmental friendliness of solar + storage systems. But they still likely have questions on just how a solar array and battery will affect them on a personal level.

“My thing with storage in the pandemic was the realization that it’s a lot for people to sign on to a $30, $40, $50, $60,000 contract for a product that they’ve never had before,” said Daren Goldin, owner of Miami-based solar installer Goldin Solar. “They’ve never had solar before, they’re usually the first of their friends or family to buy this, and there’s a lot of trust involved in that and in the sales process.”

To establish that trust, Goldin invites customers to view a functioning solar + storage system — at his own home.

Goldin has an 11.7-kW solar array on his townhome in Coconut Grove paired with three Tesla Powerwalls. His house was also the first in the Southeast United States to use a Tesla Backup Gateway 2, and has become a demonstration site for Goldin Solar to show potential customers how reliable the technology is.

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Goldin will walk customers to his side yard and point to a light fixture inside that’s connected to the main breaker on the home. He tells the customers to keep an eye on that light and flips the breaker, simulating a power outage, showing how quickly the system will switch over to battery backup power.

“You hear the click and it’s like a flash — if you blink, you’d miss it,” he said.

Coconut Grove is a suburb in southern Miami, a regional hotbed for hurricane activity, with the superstorms causing annual grid outages, making energy resilience a necessity for residents weathering the storms.

“Chances are that you’re going to want to be able to keep your family at home during hurricane season,” Goldin said. “Chances are this hurricane season is going to be worse than normal. They just get worse because of climate change.”

Goldin’s home is a modern townhouse, like the ones appearing in upscale neighborhoods across the country. The unit has a flat roof with an 18-in. parapet wall surrounding it, concealing the array from street-level view.

The rooftop array is made of 41 SolarWorld 280-W modules and accompanying SolarEdge P300 optimizers, a SolarEdge SE11400-US inverter, SnapNrack Series 100 racking with 18in. standoffs and custom-made thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) boots for flashing.

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INSTALLATION

Goldin Solar

The roof covering is a newer version of TPO and required the custom-made boots that were welded to the surface with additional TPO material.

“That was the only challenge that we really had on the installation because it was a different process, it was a bit more sophisticated,” said Aldo Sosa, installation manager and crew leader at Goldin Solar.

“It’s not just making holes and putting in the screws with some water-tight sealant.”

Solar was originally installed on the building in December 2016. Goldin Solar added three Tesla Powerwalls and the original Backup Gateway in 2020. After the manufacturer contacted the installer

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about the new model, Goldin added the Gateway 2 system later that year in June.

The Gateway 2 is the component connecting the Powerwalls to the grid. It monitors the batteries and transfers power to backup storage when outages occur.

“The idea is, basically, in any traditional solar system the inverter is the brains of the system and it’s also the interface with the grid,” Goldin said.

“You have to make sure that you don’t send power to a grid that’s down and accidentally electrocute a powerline worker that’s trying to fix the grid. Instead of going straight from the grid to your loads, it goes first to the Backup Gateway

and then to your loads and that’s what shuts out the grid and allows you to have a little power island.”

Since Goldin's solar array already uses a SolarEdge inverter, the Powerwalls are connected to the system through AC-coupling, and Tesla's Gateway communicates with the entire system through AC lines. AC-coupling allows for multiple Powerwalls to be installed in succession and easily retrofitted on existing solar systems.

Since the initial installation of the solar + storage project on Goldin’s home, his company and crew of installers are putting Tesla energy storage solutions

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INSTALLATION

Goldin Solar

on about 30 solar arrays each month, with about half of those on new solar installs. Batteries can prevent homeowners from purchasing and burying gas-powered generators in their yards, which is beneficial in metropolitan areas like Miami where there’s not much free land to do so.

“I have a 5-ft-wide side yard. There’s no way in the world I could ever fit a generator on that house, but that Powerwall is 6 in off the wall,” Goldin said. “Battery backup is vastly superior to a generator because of no fumes, no noise, nothing to refill.

Forget about the three-block-long line out of the gas station as the hurricane is coming.”

Goldin reduced energy consumption in his home to take advantage of the solar + storage system, outfitting it with LED lighting, a hybrid water heater and an electrical panel that reports individual performance of its breakers, giving him the ability to see how much power something like his refrigerator is consuming and direct power loads where they’re needed most.

“His house is the most optimized that I have worked on, but he’s passing that on to other properties as well. I hope in the future that not only people with money can, but people with less resources can be able to access it,” Sosa said. SPW

KELLY PICKEREL EDITOR IN CHIEF

Aptos Solar

ALL-BLACK SOLAR MODULES RULE THE RESIDENTIAL ROOST Although

residential solar customers want systems with the highest power ratings for maximum utility cost savings, aesthetics still reign supreme when it comes to solar panel choice. If even a sliver of an array will be seen by neighbors, homeowners will usually pick all-black modules for a sleek, finished system.

There aren't many differences between "traditional" solar panels and their all-black counterparts. Traditional panels use white backsheets and silver frames, while all-black modules use — you guessed it — black backsheets and black frames. They're manufactured the same way through the same processes, except black adhesives may be used around junction boxes and other electronics on all-black modules.

The major difference between the two is their efficiency ratings. All-black modules run a bit hotter and

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offer fewer opportunities for reflected light absorption, so their efficiencies are slightly lower.

"When white backsheets are used, the empty spaces or gaps between and around the solar cells provide a reflection of the unused light and increase the likelihood of 'light trapping,' resulting in an increased generation of photocurrent," said Geoff Atkins, executive advisor of North American panel manufacturer Silfab Solar. "All-black modules have a more aesthetically pleasing look but lose the benefit of reflection and light trapping, resulting in a lower photocurrent — up to 3% less than a white-backsheet module. Three percent less current means about 0.5% lower absolute efficiency."

To even out this major difference, companies like Silfab will use higher efficiency solar cells in its all-black modules. The company also uses a back-contact design

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is to make sure the aesthetic is good while maintaining a very good panel output."

Aptos Solar's white- and blackbacksheet modules are identical in specs, except for that less-than-0.5% efficiency difference. Pham said that difference is moot when residential rooftop systems use microinverters. If the microinverter is powerrated for less than what the module will produce, it doesn't matter if the back of the module is black or white — might as well go with the more aesthetically pleasing option.

"If you're going to clip 30% of the power anyway and you're running a silver frame, you're just wasting it," Pham said. "You throw on something that is ugly? You're just wasting power and throwing ugliness up on the roof."

Customer demand reinforces the allblack trend. Many residential solar installation companies across the country now offer all-black modules as standard. Washingtonbased Northwest Electric and Solar works on both residential and commercial projects but keeps things simple for homeowners.

"We started offering all-black modules years ago for customers that had aesthetic

MARCH 2021

TECHNOLOGY

— wherein all busbars and electrical connections are moved to the back of the solar cells — along with a flexible, conductive backsheet to more effectively spread the heat produced by a module. This lowers the nominal operating cell temperature of Silfab modules, providing a higher module efficiency.

But a 0.5% efficiency loss isn't especially noticeable to the average residential customer, so often these extensive production efforts aren't made on all-black modules.

When Silicon Valley solar panel startup Aptos Solar Technology began making panels in 2019, CEO and co-founder Frank Pham knew his company's role as a newcomer in the industry was to stick to the mainstream — and that meant providing both white- and black-backsheet modules. Aptos wants to be competitive and innovative, but Pham said he can't ignore customer desire for attractive systems.

"The biggest advantage of all-black vs. white is the aesthetic. It's exactly why you would pay Tesla [more] for an electric car over a Chevy Bolt.

It's the same electric car performance, but it's about aesthetic. It's not about performance," he said. "We know that white backsheets will out-perform the black backsheets, but the key

Sunshine Renewable Solutions/Silfab Solar

SOLAR POWER WORLD

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PANEL TECHNOLOGY

Aptos Solar

SOLAR'S FASTEST ATTACHMENT NanoMount®

Rafter or Deck Mount The fastest roof attachment in solar Integrated Ultra Soft Weather Resistant gasket Eliminates the need to lift shingles and prevents damage to shingles Dramatically reduces the installation time High-Velocity Hurricane Zone Approved Passed TAS 100 (a) Wind-Driven Rain Test

concerns, and now they're part of our standard offerings," said Ian Robinson, energy program manager. "We pitch ourselves as a company that installs premium products and refuses to sacrifice on quality. Part of that is offering the best-looking modules possible. For that reason, we offer Solaria's all-black modules to all our customers."

Robinson said Northwest Electric and Solar will finish the project with black rails or rail-less mounting systems for the most visually pleasing array. But Pham with Aptos said all the major racking providers look good with all-black modules, as long as installers take time to finish the system in an attractive way.

"If you take special care, the installation will look just as good as any other," Pham said. SPW

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KELSEY MISBRENER SENIOR EDITOR

INVERTER TECHNOLOGY

BIPV solar projects have multiple options for rapid shutdown compliance The module-level PV rapid shutdown compliance option in the 2017 National Electrical Code was a major shift from previous string-level rapid shutdown requirements. But module-level shutdown is just one of three ways a solar project can comply with current rapid shutdown requirements in the widely adopted 2017 code. A new 2020 code is beginning to be adopted by some states, but the rapid shutdown compliance options remain largely the same — get the voltage both outside and inside the solar array down quickly.

The three choices for compliance should be welcome news for buildingintegrated PV manufacturers, some of Tesla’s Solar Roof tile s.

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which have been wondering how to costeffectively perform module-level shutdown of smaller solar shingles or tiles.

“The code offers those three options as ways to say there’s different installation practices that can be used depending upon the particular rooftop PV installation,” said Ken Boyce, senior director of principal engineering for industrial at UL. First: An important note. There are two separate requirements in NEC section 690.12 for rapid shutdown. One is for outside the array, where the conductors enter the building, and two is for inside the array boundary. Outside the array boundary, conductors are limited to 30 V within 30 seconds of rapid shutdown initiation. Some rapid shutdown approaches can satisfy both

requirements by bringing the voltage both outside and inside the array down to less than 30 V in 30 seconds, Boyce said.

This second category — inside the array boundary and its three rapid shutdown options — is the main focus of this article.

Under the “inside the array boundary” code requirements, there are two compliance options that are somewhat tailored to BIPV solutions like Tesla’s Solar Roof tiles or Luma’s Solar Roof shingles.

The first and probably simplest way for a BIPV system to comply with the code has to do with the materials used in the product. NEC 690.12(B)(2)(3) says projects can satisfy rapid shutdown

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INVERTER TECHNOLOGY

Luma Solar’s shingles.

for controlled conductors inside the array boundary if there are no exposed wires or conductive parts in the array. CertainTeed says it can use this compliance option with its Apollo II line of BIPV shingles, which has no exposed conductive parts.

“The flashing is all polymeric as is the Apollo frame, so we have no exposed metal,” said Mark Stancroff, CertainTeed solar director.

But this compliance option would not apply to products like Luma Solar’s shingles, which are made of conductive sheet metal.

For those metal BIPV offerings, 690.12(B)(2)(1) would likely be the simplest compliance option. This option is for projects to be listed or field-labeled as a PV rapid shutdown array — meaning the entire system, from modules to inverter, has been tested as a unit and proven to perform rapid shutdown. UL has created certifications for rapid shutdown PV arrays to prove just that. The newly published requirements in standard UL 3741 outline additional compliance options for accomplishing this.

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For vertical-market manufacturers like Tesla that make every component in a system from the Solar Roof tiles to the inverter, system-level certification might be simple. But a full PV array rapid shutdown listing might not make sense for all manufacturers, since the solar industry is constantly churning out new versions of products. Acquiring system certification for every single combination could be cumbersome.

Still, if BIPV manufacturers want a somewhat simple way to breeze through rapid shutdown approval by AHJs, they could choose a limited combination of different components to use in projects and have them tested and listed as “PV rapid shutdown arrays.”

“I think [UL 3741] may be something that ultimately will help with design options,” Boyce said. “There’s an assurance, there’s a set of safety requirements that apply to those products that then can give the electrical inspector confidence that the products are being evaluated, and they’re focused then on

[UL 3741 IS] SO COMPREHENSIVE IN THE WAY IT’S BEEN DONE AT THE CERTIFICATION LEVEL, IT MAKES IT MUCH EASIER FOR AN AUTHORITY HAVING JURISDICTION TO SAY YES.

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INVERTER TECHNOLOGY

making sure they enforce those code requirements rather than trying to figure out what’s going on inside the product. “[UL 3741 is] so comprehensive in the way it’s been done at the certification level, it makes it much easier for an authority having jurisdiction to say yes,” Boyce continued.

Projects that won’t fit under those two easiest shutdown options for BIPV for whatever reason can still opt for modulelevel shutdown of BIPV modules, even though “it certainly seems like it would not be the easiest way to comply,” Boyce said. Module-level shutdown is implied in the third compliance option 690.12(B)(2) (2), which requires controlled conductors within the array boundary to limit power to 80 V within 30 seconds of rapid shutdown initiation.

The module-level requirement is straightforward when the modules in discussion are standard 65- by 39-in.

solar panels. Clip or stick a rapid shutdown device on the back of each standard panel, connect the wiring and it’s compliant.

But achieving module-level compliance with BIPV offerings, which are much smaller products, isn’t as straightforward.

BIPV modules are almost always paired with string inverters rather than microinverters. Along with the sheer number of shingles or tiles per roof (around 125 shingles for a 10-kW Luma Solar roof), any device that’s tucked underneath must be able to withstand high temperatures.

“It’s like a solar thermal oven underneath the solar shingle. That’s the dilemma when you’re looking at a module-level rapid shutdown device or a rapid shutdown device that would be under 80 V within 30 seconds inside the array,” said Jeff Spies, president of solar design firm

IMO Automation’s solid-state rapid shutdown device.

Planet Plan Sets.

Some technologies could potentially work for that tough environment, like IMO Automation’s FireRaptor rapid shutdown device, according to Spies.

The FireRaptor is a solid-state switching device with no mechanical parts, making

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SOLAR POWER WORLD

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INVERTER TECHNOLOGY

it better equipped to handle high heat conditions. IMO Automation’s general manager Joe Covington said the product could be sufficient for these applications depending on the system configuration, since it can handle up to a sustained ambient temperature of 188°F before it initiates an automatic shutdown through its onboard temperature sensor.

Luma Solar has been looking at using module-level rapid shutdown for its solar shingle systems using APsystems’ or Generac’s rapid shutdown devices. Robert Allen, president of Luma Solar, isn’t concerned with much additional work on the jobsite since these devices are basically plug-and-play, but he acknowledges it will add an extra expense to the bill of materials.

“It’s just going to add costs, not only to our system, but others too,” Allen said. “But not anything that we can’t bear, because our product is a luxury product to begin with, so we don’t sell it on per-watt price points.”

At this time, AHJs across the country are still working on adopting and learning the 2017 code, so manufacturers likely have some time to determine the compliance options that work best for their products.

Still, if BIPV options are to grow out of a niche market, manufacturers will need to find easy ways to get their systems up to code to ensure quick inspections and commissions. SPW

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MOUNTING TECHNOLOGY

Pega

BILLY LUDT ASSOCIATE EDITOR

sus S olar

Racking hardware is integral to overall residential solar system appearance Many choices factor into a solar array’s overall appearance. The most forwardfacing elements are the modules themselves, but racking and mounting hardware play a major role in a rooftop system's aesthetics. Racking choices like positioning modules closer to the roofline, matching popular solar panel frame colors, keeping wires tucked away and finishing projects with attractive endcaps and skirts are just as important as what color the modules are.

There are different aesthetic options based on roof type, but all residential solar systems can make use of skirts, clamps and wire management systems for a nice, finished look.

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ASPHALT/COMPOSITION SHINGLE MOUNTING SPECIFICS

Manufacturer Pegasus Solar makes mounting products for tile and comp/ asphalt shingle roofs and knows how important color consistency is. The company sourced an assortment of PV modules and color-matched its mounting products to blend with the panels.

“I think aesthetics are where it really is down to the details,” said Kai Stephan, CEO of Pegasus Solar. “If I have a black clamp but the bolt’s silver and it’s a 1-in.wide gap between modules, that’s what you’re going to notice. By bringing that down so it is truly all black, even the edges of the clamps, so you have this really thin

gap between modules, it just makes the entire thing look more uniform and really boosts the aesthetics of your system.”

For shingled roofs, there’s a range of L-foot mounts with varying flashing options.

The staple among solar mounts is sheet flashing that slides underneath shingles, allowing an L-foot to be attached. Flashing is often found in a black or mill finish. Overthe-shingle, or top-mounts, are gaining traction in solar installations. They’re lowprofile mounts that use minimal flashing, like chemical bonding with adhesives or rubber pucks, and install directly through the shingle. When installed correctly, flashing should not draw attention to the roofline.

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MOUNTING TECHNOLOGY

TILE ROOF RACKING CHOICES

Tile rooftops are a tricky work environment since the roof surface can break or slide out of place, and nobody wants broken tiles sticking out from under their array.

Luckily, there are replacement tile mounts that come in the commonly used shapes of W, S and flat tiles. Some replacement models will color match tiles while others are simply black. As the name suggests, tiles are removed and the replacement tiles and mounts are slid in place, ultimately concealed underneath the array.

Other companies offer roof hooks that are fastened directly to the underlayment beneath the tiles. A tile is removed, the roof hook is installed and the tile is then replaced, leaving the mounting point exposed. Depending on the type of roof hook, tile could need to be cut to make room for the mount, but it will be concealed under the array upon completion.

I THINK AESTHETICS ARE WHERE IT REALLY IS DOWN TO THE DETAILS. IF I HAVE A BLACK CLAMP BUT THE BOLT’S SILVER...THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO NOTICE.

S-5!

STANDING-SEAM METAL ROOF OPTIONS

There are a lot more color options available for standingseam metal rooftops themselves, but when it comes to solar mounts, manufacturers produce the same mill and black finishes found on panel frames.

S-5! specializes in standing seam attachment solutions across several industries, including solar, carrying directattach mounts compatible with exposed-fastened and standing-seam metal roof types. S-5! founder and CEO Rob Haddock believes using mounts that attach directly to the seam is the most aesthetically pleasing option on metal roofs.

Unlike tiles and asphalt shingle roofs, the seam on the metal rooftops can act as a rail. Adding a rail to the 2-in. tall seams can make an array taller than necessary, Haddock said, but it’s important to find that balance, giving panels enough spacing from the roof and from each other for proper airflow.

“There is a point of no return, where you could hang that module on a skyhook from a tree and with air circulating all the way around it,” Haddock said. “You’re not going to get any better production or efficiency than once when the backsheet is 4 to 5 in. off the surface of the roof.”

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www.solarpowerworldonline.com

MOUNTING TECHNOLOGY

SKIRTS, RAILS AND CLAMPS

To conceal the underbody of an array further, installers can add skirts to the front edge of their systems.

“One of the biggest things that a skirt does is provide a sleek, refined looking edge to the part of the system that is typically most visible to both homeowners and passersby,” said Connor Morrison, residential product manager at Unirac.

“They can help hide less-aesthetic features, such as attachments and wires, under the system and help make the system look like it's ‘floating’ on the roof.”

He added that rail-less systems are gaining popularity and skirts along with them. If it’s being installed on a rail-based system, the skirt can be placed at any time during construction — or even retrofit. On rail-less projects, skirts like Unirac’s SM Trim are installed in early stages because

they are a structural element. Depending on the environment they’re installed in, skirts can keep debris that’s fallen onto the rooftop trapped underneath an array, which may cause airflow changes. But skirts aren't causing any more airflow issues than a rail traditionally does.

“The rail impedes some airflow, but if dimensionally the skirting is no lower than the rail, then it doesn’t impede airflow any more than the rail would,” Haddock said.

Rails have an advantage over rail-less systems because they are more adaptable to uneven roof surfaces. This may lead to awkwardly measured rails, sometimes causing a length of racking to be exposed at the edge of the array. That's where endcaps come into play, capping off the end of a rail for a more uniform look.

End- and mid-clamps, which slide along a rail’s channel to hold panels in

[SKIRTS] CAN HELP HIDE LESS-AESTHETIC FEATURES, SUCH AS ATTACHMENTS AND WIRES, UNDER THE SYSTEM AND HELP MAKE THE SYSTEM LOOK LIKE IT'S ‘FLOATING’ ON THE ROOF.

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MOUNTING TECHNOLOGY

S-5

place and provide necessary module-to-module spacing, also have a part in the overall aesthetics picture. Clamps are small components with big responsibility in terms of system layout and, despite their miniscule appearance, can clash with a panel frame if not color matched.

WIRE MANAGEMENT FOR THE WIN

Another aesthetic — and functional — decision made on pitched rooftop projects is wire management. In addition to looking sloppy, hanging wires can cause short circuits after wearing down from abrasion from the roof surface.

“If I’m the one who’s actually owning this system for 25 years, I don’t want a wire to short out and I lose production, and then for the installer having to do another truck roll because a failed inspection is very costly,” Pegasus Solar’s Stephan said.

Pegasus Solar released its Pegasus Rail System in March, a racking system that has a wiring channel built in to conceal cable runs; and Unirac has its SOLARTRAY, which is a wiring tray that clips onto the rail. Rail-based projects in general can use the rail as an attachment point for zip ties and wire clips. However, for rail-less systems, wire management options are mostly limited to the panel frame.

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!

To compensate for rail-less systems' lack of natural wire coverup, Marc Gies, director of solar business at S-5!, suggests taking the time to pre-plan wire routes, something that can be done off-roof. Then, when installers are on site, they can set up a staging area to clip hanging wires in a position where they can connect to the next panel when laid. S-5!’s trapezoidal roof attachment does give installers the option to run cable through a channel that the mount creates.

“It’s just automatically more aesthetically pleasing,” Gies said.

“The wires are out of the way when you’re up on the roof putting it together and it makes that an easier process because there’s no thinking involved. Everything’s within reach and preset, so every time a module is set in place that person knows where that clip is, where that connecter is, and can connect them.”

Residential solar systems are meant to reside on a rooftop for at least two decades. Making the right calls when it comes to their mounting hardware will help ensure that they do — and look good.

“People want their homes to look pretty, so use black components and lower the profile of your module to the roof by using direct module attachment so that it just looks less obtrusive and do the right job with wire management so that wires are concealed,” Haddock said. SPW

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SOLAR SPOTLIGHT:

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DE-RISK YOUR SOLAR CARPORT PROJECT. QUEST RENEWABLES DESIGNS AND ENGINEERS SOLAR RACKING SOLUTIONS THAT REMOVE RISK FROM SOLAR CARPORT PROJECTS BY OFFERING MORE FAVORABLE FINANCES, SIMPLER CONSTRUCTION, AND INCREASED ON-SITE SAFETY.

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KELLY PICKEREL EDITOR IN CHIEF

STORAGE TECHNOLOGY

NREL

Pros and cons of various modulelevel electronics in residential solar + storage systems More electronics are being incorporated into residential rooftop solar systems all the time, mostly due to updates to the National Electrical Code (NEC). With evolving rapid shutdown requirements and a strong desire for module-level monitoring, inverter or optimizer choice becomes important when determining how a battery fits into a solar + storage system.

When microinverters are used, the battery will have to be AC-coupled to the solar system, which requires an additional inverter. If power optimizers

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or rapid shutdown devices are used on each module, the battery could be DC- or AC-coupled, depending on installer preference.

A review on what this all means: Energy storage systems cannot be charged on AC power, so they must be fed by DC lines in some form. If a battery can be added to a system before the inverter converts solar's DC power to AC, then it is DCcoupled. If batteries must be added after the DC-AC conversion (like when microinverters are involved), a

second inverter is required to turn the AC power back to DC to charge the batteries. This is AC-coupling because the batteries are added after the initial AC conversion.

Darfon America manufactures microinverters, hybrid inverters and battery products, so the company is well-versed in all forms of solar + storage design.

"I have had many customers use our [hybrid inverter] paired with microinverters, and the reason is always they want to monitor each

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STORAGE TECHNOLOGY

Panasonic’s AC-coupled EverVolt system (left) and its DC-coupled version (right).

module," said Bryan Whitton, Darfon product manager. "I can appreciate that, but I always recommend [power optimizers] or RSD devices paired with our DC-coupled inverter as being less expensive and able to supply monitoring on a module level."

DC-coupled systems are generally less expensive since fewer inverters are needed. They're also viewed as more efficient than AC-coupled setups because power is only converted once.

Each time there is a conversion from DC to AC power or vice versa, some energy is lost.

But AC-coupled systems have their benefits too. In a DC-coupled setup, if that single inverter fails, both the solar and battery power are lost at once. An AC-coupled system allows 42

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for some consumption of power if one of the inverters fail — either you lose solar production or stored power, but not both.

Panasonic, which makes solar panels and now offers the EverVolt battery, says one of the main benefits of using multiple microinverters in an AC-coupled setup is this "inverter security" concept.

"When a microinverter fails, the other microinverters can still produce power," said Dan Glaser, Panasonic senior sales engineer. "In a DC-coupled system, when the inverter fails, the solar will be offline until the inverter is serviced."

Many energy storage systems, including the Panasonic EverVolt and the Tesla Powerwall, now come with their own paired inverters, making AC- and even DC-coupling a little more plugand-play.

"Our go-to is the AC-coupled Powerwall because of its reliability. We install optimizers and microinverters.

They both work well with the Powerwall," said Mike Kelley, coowner of East Coast installer Mass Renewables.

California installer Solarponics also prefers AC-coupling to ensure entire systems aren't brought to a halt if one component goes down. "[With AC-coupled systems], a regular installer can go out and install one of those systems, minus some of the electrical panel work. We don't have to retrain our workforce. It's easier to service down the road since it's a more modular system — plug-and-play stuff," said Mike Wiegel, Solarponics special operations officer.

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STORAGE TECHNOLOGY

A look at the microinverters inside the Enphase Encharge battery system.

Solarponics installs batteries with over half of its solar projects each year. The company is also a Tesla Powerwall dealer, since the unit's easy ACcoupling can work with both power optimizers and string inverters, as well as microinverterbased systems.

"We're an early adopter to SolarEdge and we love that product, but the stuff that Enphase is coming out with really has our attention," Wiegel said. "I would never go back to a DC-coupled system. There aren't great rapid shutdown products out there. With Enphase storage, you know that's all built-in — it's nice and easy. So for rooftop, it's definitely better to go that route."

The highly anticipated Enphase Ensemble launch has finally hit some markets. Enphase now offers an all-inclusive residential battery backup solution that includes a lithium battery with

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integrated microinverters in one enclosure, in addition to the microinverters on each panel. This AC-coupled system is grid-forming (essentially establishing a solar + storage system as its own microgrid) and only works with Enphase microinverters attached at each solar panel, so module-level rapid shutdown is built in.

More manufacturers are making system choices easier on installers — either inverter companies are getting involved with batteries or batteries are partnering with inverter brands to provide full system setups that also meet NEC requirements. No more grabbing various products and then figuring out whether the battery needs to be AC- or DC-coupled; installers can decide what they want to do up-front. SPW

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ADVERTORIAL

SOLAR SPOTLIGHT:

Fortess Power WWW.FORTRESSPOWER.COM

IN THIS SPECIAL EDITION of Contractors Corner, residential and commercial lithium battery manufacturer Fortress Power lays out the importance of correctly sizing a solar battery. Below is a portion of the company’s Solar Spotlight podcast with Solar Power World, but be sure to listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast app to ensure systems are sized for maximum longevity.

Where should contractors start when sizing a battery?

When we talk about battery storage, we have to categorize the different applications, so I would start with a backup or off-grid system. For back-up and off grid, what's really critical is what kind of appliance you want to back up during a power outage because that determines what you want to put on the backup load panel.

After that, you want to determine the autonomy — e.g., I want to be backed up for a day, two days, three days. And then you're going to also look into the solar PV array, because that's going to determine how quickly your battery bank can be charged.

For clients who don't have net metering or the electricity price is so high it doesn't make any sense for them to feed solar back to the grid, you really need to look into your PV array size and your daily consumption.

Ideally, you want the battery to be charged during the day and then to supply that power to the home during the night. You want to have that full cycle.

Then, you're going to determine what will be the optimum battery bank size. You don't want to over-size and you don't want to under-size, because you want to get the best economics for the customers.

You want to also set up the battery lifespans to be around 80 to 90% for lithium. Lithium batteries do allow you to discharge completely, but every time you completely discharge the battery, you're going to shorten the battery lifespan. That's

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why as a manufacturer, we suggest you use 80 or 90% depth of discharge so you can get a longer duration.

Why is battery sizing important?

Battery sizing is so important for the longevity of the equipment. You want the equipment that you're purchasing and investing in to work how it's supposed to work, so first and foremost, battery sizing will ensure that the equipment you're purchasing is going to do what you want it to do. There are going to be less defects down the road, less hassle, less people coming to do technical support on your system.

Sizing is very important as it's going to be a good foothold moving forward for the rest of your project. You don't want to go through all this effort to put in an energy storage system and solar with an inverter and then at one point, you turn on too many appliances at one time as this is going to turn off that battery-based inverter and then ultimately, it's going to turn off the energy storage system. That is more likely than not a safety feature of the battery, but it's

another point on why we want to size the battery properly and we want to size the critical load panel properly to avoid any unexpected shutdowns and expected turn-offs because of that under- or oversizing.

Are there tools to help contractors size batteries?

We actually developed a sizing tool for our authorized dealers. It helps you size the essential load panel to basically figure out the battery bank size that can meet the customer’s expectations.

Be creative with using different avenues to size your battery. Then, if you would like to run it through Fortress Power, you're welcome to email sales@ fortresspower.com that is monitored every single day and can help you size a project whether you're a homeowner or a solar contractor. It's certainly good to have an extra set of eyes, especially with sizing a battery, which is still relatively new, kind of how like sizing solar was 10 or 15 years ago. SPW

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THE

SOLAR INDUSTRY REFLECTS ON

COVID It’s been one year since the pandemic locked the country down and transformed the way solar installers did business. Instead of kitchen tables, contractors met customers through computer screens and waved from 6 ft away on installation day.

Solar Power World reached out to some Top Solar Contractors for their reflections on the past year and where they expect solar sales to go from here.

WANT TO HEAR MORE INSTALLER INSIGHT INTO COVID? Catch our Top Solar Contractors roundtable online and register to attend our monthly installer discussions in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the list.

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MARCH 2021

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SELLING

SOLAR DURING A

PANDEMIC Adobe Stock

A Q&A with A&R Solar CEO and co-founder Reeves Clippard

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HOW DID SOFTWARE USE FOR YOUR SOLAR BUSINESS CHANGE DURING COVID?

WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART OF SELLING SOLAR DURING THE HEIGHT OF THE PANDEMIC?

Like the rest of the world, we went online where we could to perform sales calls, hold meetings and stay in touch with staff. When we started the business, we didn’t have a physical office or warehouse space for several years, so remote working was already baked into our culture.

Even so, moving all office staff to remote was a challenge at our scale now. Those challenges were mostly around how to keep personal connections alive and make sure we were balancing working during a pandemic isolated at home.

We value the culture we’ve created by having our employees work side-by-side and the casual collaboration that can take place. Of course, that still happens with our field crews, but we don’t take for granted the relationships that are built because of the time we spend together at the shop. Since that’s no longer possible, we lean heavily on Google Meet. We definitely have more meetings now rather than those quick interactions that used to take place over a cubicle wall.

The cultural divide that can exist between office and field is still there, and in a lot of ways has gotten worse. We have not found a software solution that truly bridges the human need to see and interact with coworkers to build healthy relationships.

Oh man, where do I begin? Let’s see — a worldwide pandemic, another recession and both our Seattle and Portland employees watched the social unrest unfold in their cities and, in some cases, right outside their windows. We were also greatly impacted by the smoke from the West Coast wildfires. It was a drain on our staff. People trying to work from home with small children and partners who had to go off to work at night at a hospital. The stress and anxiety took a toll.

It was the same, of course, for potential customers. Some saw solar as an opportunity to become more resilient. Others were more cautious, wanting to make sure their jobs and retirement funds were secure before making a significant purchase.

HOW HAVE CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS OF THE SOLAR SALES PROCESS CHANGED AS A RESULT OF COVID? People are more cautious. We do have some folks who are ready to go, but we’ve seen a lot more people tap the brakes and take their time with making a decision.

Reeves Clippard CEO & Co-Founder A&R Solar

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

MARCH 2021

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htUp

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INSTALLING

DURING A PANDEMIC Contractors across the country explain how they got it done.

In addition to our standard high level of safety practices we follow, Clean Energy USA was an early adopter of mandatory masks for all installers.

Our area has a large percentage of retirees, who also make up a large percentage of our customers. We have been careful since day one to make sure we practice social distancing, wear masks and get tested regularly.

I give the installers and the whole team tremendous credit. While some people in other industries were getting paid to stay home, everybody at Clean Energy USA worked hard and got a lot of work done. I think everyone is thankful we were not as affected as some industries. We didn’t have our best year in terms of overall volume or profit, but I think we did in terms of what we did accomplish given the chaos in the world. I was more proud of my team in the past year than in any previous year.

We have used drones in a handful of ways over the years. But this year we're getting more involved in using drones just because of the limitations in travel. We can't always get people out to a site as effective as we want. We've been using drones to support the job, whether it's in construction to check the status of a project or just share that information with someone who can't be there in person.

John Sertich

Joanie Brooke

President Clean Energy USA

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VP of Operations Borrego

MARCH 2021

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

We initially drafted a letter of exemption that all the installers had to carry with them in order to travel during the shelter-in-place order. We purchased customized cloth masks for the entire staff and mandated that all customer interface be no-contact. Having the mask Arch-branded made our entire company aware of our safety practices. Our installers were encouraged to request that the customer not be home while we did our work, or at least quarantine during the time we’re in the home. We issued antiseptic wipes for all touch points, especially the vehicles, door handles, service panels, tools — anything that was touched.

We were fortunate to have only minor disruptions on many of our projects throughout the pandemic. The principal challenge for our installers is adapting to the new safety protocols when traveling.

J.D. Smith Business Development Arch Electric

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COVID has reduced the number of people in some situations. Since we do not move installers between crews, if one person is temporarily unavailable, they cannot be replaced with someone from another crew. We also do not send two crews to one jobsite unless it is very large and they can work in different areas.

The most difficult hurdle during the height of the pandemic was adjusting our sales, design and engineering site assessments and construction schedules to meet the ever-changing local and state COVID guidelines for business operations.

Jim Pullen CEO Eagle Point Solar

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Eag le Poi nt Sola r

PANDEMIC PRACTICES TO KEEP

Companies talk about pandemic-era practices worth maintaining.

We had a fairly flexible work-from-home policy before COVID, but seeing how productive our staff has been throughout the pandemic, we are rethinking how much office space we really need. I’m sure that many of us will spend a good chunk of time at the office once the vaccines have rolled out widely, mainly because we miss each other and will be a little excited to have social time not in front of a screen.

We will definitely continue with webinars and promote remote evaluations as a way to reduce vehicle miles traveled and our carbon footprint.

We also had to take a hard look at some of our expenses and have been able to cut some costs without sacrificing quality. That has been one of the positives to come out of this.

We began a partnership with DocuSign for remote contract signing and continued our usage of online industry software platforms for design, engineering, marketing and accounting functions.

Platforms for online chat, texting and social media have further continued to serve as effective channels for internal and external communications. At this time, we plan to continue to utilize these platforms due to their ability to provide remote accessibility and communication flexibility in our daily operations.

Reeves Clippard

Jim Pullen

CEO & Co-Founder A&R Solar

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CEO Eagle Point Solar

MARCH 2021

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The part of the business that was changed for the better had to do with how we interact with customers. We were very much of the school of thought prior to this pandemic that you had to sit down with someone, have a face-to-face meeting and develop this rapport through the kitchen table. To have that connection to sell a system is really important. What I found out is how resilient we are. Today, about 50% of our appointments are now set virtually. We let the customer decide what they want to do.

We realized how effective [Zoom] was from an appointment-setting standpoint. If our call center can set six appointments a day for one energy consultant to do in their living room, they can only do two or three at best before by driving across Texas. It goes back to leveraging the pool that was right in front of us, to improve efficiency in a positive away that now allows us to touch many more customers in the same day.

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Bret Biggart CEO Freedom Solar Power

For our residential team, transitioning from in-person to online selling had a ramp-up period for some salespeople. It required overhauling the sales process.

We asked our customers to take pictures of their electric meter and panel at the lead-qualification stage of the process. Most folks were accommodating and understanding as they didn’t want us coming to their home during a pandemic to gather that information on the front end.

Moving out of the pandemic, we will evaluate the lead-qualification process and minimize the burden we put on the customer to provide information on the front end. We’ve also implemented a software solution that allows the customer to take a site survey via their phone and easily upload photos. We’re hopeful that the customer will appreciate the ease of doing that, which will expedite the design/quoting process.

er

Matt Johnson o rP a l So om d e e r F www.solarpowerworldonline.com

w

Co-Owner Namasté Solar

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INDUSTRY OUTLOOK

AFTER COVID IS MITIGATED Solar contractors share their industry predictions after COVID.

We’re bullish. And let’s say it: People want batteries. We had a major winter storm and were overrun the next day with requests for Tesla Powerwalls. If there hadn’t been a national shortage, we’d be selling those plus solar like crazy.

Having the new administration, which is a strong supporter of solar, will go a long way, as will the extension of the federal investment tax credit. If that isn’t an indicator that solar is here to stay, then I don’t know what is.

What’s been cool is to see the evolution of what drives people’s decisionmaking. When I started doing this 10 years ago, people were very driven

by ROI. As people are now stuck at home with their families, trying to do their day-to-day job functions from their home and are sucking up electricity, it’s this strange phenomenon and a shift in how people think about their role on this planet. There’s been a real shift from customers asking how this project makes financial sense to, ‘Wow, I feel like I have an obligation as a human being that lives on this planet to make it a better place.’ It’s been a really inspiring thing. We’ve gotten to see how people feel obligated to do what they can to make this planet a better place.

Reeves Clippard

Bret Biggart

CEO & Co-Founder A&R Solar

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CEO Freedom Solar Power

MARCH 2021

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

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COVID has certainly made in-person communication more difficult, but it has not completely shut down the industry. As the vaccines roll out and more and more folks become immunized, we believe sales will continue to increase due to the ability to fully build and nurture relationships, in person. Additionally, increased on-site activities such as design and engineering site visits, construction, seminars, tradeshows and community events will further help to heighten awareness of the financial and environmental benefits of solar and directly contribute to new lead generation opportunities, increased availability and delivery of materials and faster completion of projects.

Jim Pullen CEO Eagle Point Solar

St ra

We feel that there is strong market demand for PV solar + storage, and the recent extension of the solar ITC is a very positive development. We also see an increased awareness in our market that there is a climate crisis and that going solar is a way to directly affect change. In the near future, we also think there will be a dramatic increase in storage and EV charging in the solar space that will help drive continued growth in the market.

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Matt Johnson Co-Owner Namasté Solar

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

MARCH 2021

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CONTRACTOR'S CORNER

CONTRACTOR’S CORNER:

Creative Solar USA The Georgia solar market is fairly dependable. Consistently in the Top 10 states by installed solar capacity, Georgia has a strong utility-scale pipeline, mostly fueled by large arrays that support major corporations. But the residential and commercial markets are just as strong, said Russell Seifert, CEO of local installer Creative Solar USA. In this episode of the Contractor’s Corner podcast, Solar Power World editor-in-chief Kelly Pickerel talks with Seifert about how Creative Solar has found success in the Southeast market for the last 13 years. Early inclusion of energy storage into its service offerings likely contributed to the company’s steady

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growth. Seifert said over 70% of Creative Solar USA’s solar installations come paired with storage.

A portion of the interview is below, but be sure to listen to the full podcast for even more insight, including how Creative Solar explains whole-home backup to customers and why representation in local and national solar groups is important.

We also have a bonus conversation with Solar Power World editors Kelsey Misbrener and Billy Ludt about how new products are transforming the installation process.

Find the Contractor’s Corner podcast on your favorite podcast app.

There are new solar products coming out all the time. How do you get comfortable with new products, and what’s the process at your company for deciding when it’s time to try something new?

One of the things I thought [at the beginning] is that I didn’t want any of our clients to be guinea pigs on a beta project or beta material. So we’ll typically wait for the second generation to come out and see what their challenges were on the first goaround and see where they end up on the second. We didn’t become a Tesla dealer until just last year. They asked us why, and I said, “Well you guys are having problems.

You’re also having issues with your delivery times.” When they said, “How about if we can prove to you we can give them to you in 10 days?” I said, “I’m game.”

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CONTRACTOR'S CORNER

When it comes to our roofing, we have a mock-up roof that we do our training with. When we get a new product, we’ll have them send us samples and we’ll ask the team what they think. They’ll look at it and see if it’s time-effective as far as the installation, if it’s any better than what we’re using and if it’s universal with other manufacturers. Sometimes we’ll have good responses, and other times we’ll get “meh.”

Now with the ITC extended at 26% for two more years, does that change your marketing efforts? Do you think the industry needs tax credits?

We were anticipating a big push because of the ITC going away on residential, and now with this, we see people taking their time a bit more and not feeling rushed. I still think [the industry] needs tax credits but I don’t think they need them as bad. Some people may differ, but I don’t think we need rebates. We have enough debt in our country right now due to the pandemic, but I think tax credits are a good incentive for people. The cost of solar will come down to get to the point where we can [make it affordable for those with] below-average income. I’ve been in the market 13 years and we’ve seen the cost of an installation go down 60%.

It’s going to happen, it’s just a matter of time.

What would Creative Solar USA like to accomplish in 2021?

People always want to be able to grow and create opportunities for the people inside their company.

That’s what we’re really focused on this year: to get the existing people that we have within our company to grow on a personal level to where they’re still passionate, they’re engaged with us. We want to create a stronger position to where it allows us to grow in outside states. One of them we’re looking at is Colorado.

We are implementing a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, which is a cloud-based platform. It has been a serious learning curve, but if we are to grow and to become more efficient, these are some of the things that you have to start thinking about. You’ve also got to get your people on board and have your people also staying up-to-date and trained. I think it’s really important that you find people that are engaged, passionate and committed, and you let them take the ball and run with it. SPW

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

PEOPLE ALWAYS WANT TO BE ABLE TO GROW AND CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE PEOPLE INSIDE THEIR COMPANY.

Podcast Alert!

Listen to this and other Contractor’s Corner episodes on your favorite podcast app.

MARCH 2021

SOLAR POWER WORLD

55

AD INDEX

LEADERSHIP TEAM VP of Sales Mike Emich 508.446.1823 memich@wtwhmedia.com @wtwh_memich Managing Director Scott McCafferty 310.279.3844 smccafferty@wtwhmedia.com @SMMcCafferty EVP Marshall Matheson 805.895.3609 mmatheson@wtwhmedia.com @mmatheson

AD INDEX AceClamp .......................................... 9

M Bar C ............................................ 25

Altech Corporation .............................3

Nine Fasteners ................................. 32

Baja Carports ................................5,19

PV Labels Inc. .................................IFC

Central Garden & Pet ...................... 13

Quest Renewables ........................... 39

Chiko ................................................ 31

QuickBOLT ..........................................1

Chint ................................................. 33

RBI Solar ..............................................7

Fortess Power .................................. 44

Shoals Technologies Group .............BC

Grammer Land & Exploration Corp. 15

Snake Tray ........................................ 37

Hanwha Q Cells ............................... 21

SolarPod ..............................................4

Hardrock Drilling LLC ....................... 49

Soltec ..............................................IBC

K2 Everest Systems .............................4

Sunmodo .......................................... 28

Associate Publisher Courtney Seel cseel@wtwhmedia.com 440.523.1685 @wtwh_CSeel

WE HAVE YOU COVERED.

SALES Jim Powers 312.925.7793 jpowers@wtwhmedia.com @jpowers_media Neel Gleason 312.882.9867 ngleason@wtwhmedia.com @wtwh_ngleason Ashley N. Burk 737.615.8452 aburk@wtwhmedia.com Jami Brownlee 224.760.1055 jbrownlee@wtwhmedia.com

56

SOLAR POWER WORLD

MARCH 2021

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

OTHERWORLDLY TRACKER: ENGINEERED FOR GREATNESS

SOLAR SPOTLIGHT:

WWW.FORTRESSPOWER.COM

soltec.com

1400 Shoals Way, Portland, TN 37148 Solar Power World 2019.pdf Solar Power World 2019.pdf

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8/22/19 8/22/19

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615.451.1400

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sales@shoals.com

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www.shoals.com

2:01 PM 2:01 PM

NO MUss. no Fuss.

NO MUss. no Fuss.

The first and only above-ground, The first andthat onlydoes above-ground, patent-pending system not require patent-pending system thattrenching, does not require combiner boxes or in-array and can combiner or in-array can offerboxes $avings in the trenching, field up to and 62.5% offer $avings in the field up to 62.5%

® ®

combiner boxes combiner field o&mboxes field o&m combiner boxes torquing combiner field o&mboxes torquing cable field o&mtrays torquing cable trays torquing trenches cable trays trenches cable trays trenches re-combiners trenches re-combiners re-combiners re-combiners

The BLA (Big Lead Assembly ) takes all the guesswork out of wiring your solar field. Using Shoals’ latest in-line fuse and wire manufacturing technology, we offer youLead a siteAssembly free of DC stringallcombiners.

The entire is combined a single of aluminum conductors from the string combiner The BLA (Big ) takes the guesswork out ofload wiring your solarinto field.

Using pair Shoals’ latest in-line fuse andrunning wire manufacturing technology, to the There’s need to trench for DCThe feeders hangisstring combiner terminated with therunning BAC connector, whole array is we offerinverter. you a site free no of DC string combiners. entireorload combined into aboxes. singleAnd pairwhen of aluminum conductors from thethe string combiner in the the inverter, just walk away!boxes. And when terminated with the BAC connector, the whole array is toplug-&-play. the inverter.Plug There’s nopanel need strings, to trenchplug for into DC feeders or hangandstring combiner plug-&-play. Plug in the panel strings, plug into the inverter, and just walk away! ®

®

1400 Shoals Way, Portland, TN 37148 1400 Shoals Way, Portland, TN 37148

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615.451.1400 615.451.1400

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sales@shoals.com sales@shoals.com

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www.shoals.com www.shoals.com