Solar Power World - NOVEMBER 2018

November 2018 www.solarpowerworldonline.com

Technology • Development • Installation

2018

TOP PRODUCTS

Sports teams

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November 2018 www.solarpowerworldonline.com

Technology • Development • Installation

2018

TOP PRODUCTS

Sports teams

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THE FIRST WORD

Consumer-led initiatives pave exciting new pathways for solar Two sessions at Solar Power International about voluntary, consumer-centric solar initiatives made me excited for the solar industry, despite the shadow of anxiety on the show floor about the trade war. The two magic words were SRECs and CCAs. I already had a basic knowledge of SRECs, but I hadn’t thought too critically about their implications before this panel.

According to epa.gov, a renewable energy certificate (REC) is a market-based instrument that represents the property rights to the environmental, social and other non-power attributes of renewable electricity generation.

Solar RECs (SRECs) are created for each megawatt-hour of electricity generated from solar energy systems. A panel at SPI discussed how purchasing SRECs can be a “gateway drug” for solar power.

A panelist from Jackson Family Wines, a California winemaker deeply committed to sustainability, said the organization began its solar journey by purchasing SRECs and was then inspired to add onsite solar generation to two of its wineries. It initially bought RECs to offset the impact of emissions from purchased electricity that cannot be reduced or avoided. It’s since built a 280-kW solar system at its Carneros Hills Winery and a 162-kW solar system at its Hartford Family Winery.

The company has found success in marketing the sustainability message of its wines to larger business-tobusiness clients like hotel chains, but the winemaker is looking for more help in marketing its RECs and onsite solar generation directly to its consumers.

A SunPower panelist said the company’s salespeople work diligently to educate its customers on the green marketing implications of selling or retaining SRECs. More and more businesses want to be able to tell a green, sustainable message. But if businesses install solar and choose to sell their SRECs, they cannot claim they’re going solar or reducing corporate carbon emissions.

A panelist from a sustainability consulting firm said the bottom line is that accurate and clear public messaging about renewable energy purchases can add

value and is encouraged. But inaccurate representation of REC ownership is unethical.

Community choice aggregation (CCA), also known as municipal aggregation, is another unique solar value proposition that excited me at this tradeshow. According to epa.gov, CCAs are programs that allow local governments to procure power on behalf of their residents, businesses and municipal accounts from an alternative supplier while still receiving transmission and distribution service from their existing utility provider. CCAs give customers more control over their energy sources, more renewable options and wholesale power rates—like the Costco of electricity.

One CCA represented on the SPI panel was Peninsula Clean Energy, which was launched collaboratively by California’s San Mateo County and all 20 of its cities to clean up the environment through renewable energy and help customers save money through lower rates. Another motivator was helping the member cities reach REC goals.

Although most of the panelists represented California CCAs, seven other states have enacted CCA legislation— including my home state of Ohio!

Hearing about new and exciting consumer-driven solar initiatives and their potential across the country helped me stay positive amidst the general unease about the trade war at this year’s SPI. I was also heartened to see all the new technical advancements on the show floor this year—from innovative rapid shutdown integrations to new frontiers in 3D solar design. We compiled our Top Products in this issue that we think will transform the solar industry even further in the coming years. SPW

S en i o r Ed i to r Ke l se y M is b r e n e r kmi s brener@ w t w hm ed i a .c o m

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CONTENTS

Nove mb e r 2 0 1 8 • vol 8 n o 6 w w w. so l ar po w e r w o rl do nl in e .co m

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ON THE COVER ON THE COVER Solar contractors that can clinch sports venue projects get a great marketing advantage with the high visibility of these partnerships, but they’re often a considerable challenge.

20 28 45 60 BUSINESS

10 SOLAR IN SPORTS

Sports teams are great solar customers with their high energy consumption

16 HOAs

Solar can work with tricky housing associations if installers stay vigilant

TECHNOLOGY 28 INVERTERS

Battery-based and hybrid inverters can future-proof solar+storage installations

33 PANELS

Two brand-new solar panel companies want a piece of the Made-in-USA market

38 MOUNTING

Smart tracking technology ushers in new era of increased energy harvest on large-scale sites

INSTALLATION

Photo courtesy LG

42 STORAGE

Adding storage to an existing solar array isn’t always easy, but it’s also not impossible

20 CASE STUDY

Portland’s homeless get a helping hand from a nonprofit solar install

3 FIRST WORD 8 NEWS BRIEFS

6

60 CONTRACTORS CORNER 63 2018 LEADERSHIP WINNERS 64 AD INDEX

SOLAR POWER WORLD

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26 TRAINING

NABCEP explains how to find a better job with the right certification

45 2018 TOP PRODUCTS

Our editors chose their top products after scouring tradeshow floors and news releases

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11/13/18 4:54 PM

HIGH EFFICIENCY MEETS HIGH POWER

Introducing the 340W HIT®+ We’ve been pioneering solar power since the green revolution began back in 1975. But at Panasonic, solar innovation never sleeps. Our new high efficiency 340W HIT®+ module provides one of the world’s lowest temperature coefficient and one of the lowest degradation rates. Install it once and your customers will generate more electricity year after year.

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[NEWS BRIEFS]

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Solar policy snapshots

New Virginia energy plan aims to greatly expand solar

A guide to recent legislation and research throughout the country.

Richmond, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s new 2018 Virginia Energy Plan sets forward-looking recommendations for the state’s energy system. The plan calls for developing new solar purchase options for corporate customers and adding 3,000 MW of solar and wind to Virginia’s grid by 2022. SEIA said in a statement that it will “work with policy leaders, manufacturers and installers across Virginia to meet these benchmarks.”

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New York awards incentives for solar+storage installs

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Albany, New York The governor’s office has made $40 million available to support solar projects that include energy storage to help reach the state’s energy storage target of 1,500 MW by 2025. The incentive is for the commercial and industrial sectors and includes community solar gardens.

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DOE invests in solar and grid resiliency

Washington, D.C. The U.S. Department of Energy announced up to $46 million in research funding for improving resiliency of solar power on the grid. The money will go to about 10 projects that will be charged with developing and testing control strategies, system monitoring, communications and other technologies to help improve grid resiliency.

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California makes it harder for customers to break up with utilities

Sacramento, California The California PUC voted to raise the cost of monthly “exit fees” customers must pay investor-owned utilities (IOUs) if they choose to switch to a community choice program, or CCA. The exit fees are meant to help cover costs of energy contracts signed by the old utility to provide customers with power, but CCAs and utilities have never agreed on how to calculate the fees, according to the Desert Sun. The higher fees could deter customers from leaving IOUs and harm CCA enrollment.

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Virginia could see an uptick in solar installations thanks to Governor Ralph Northam’s 2018 Virginia Energy Plan.

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Arizona regulators reject fixed solar charges

Phoenix, Arizona The Arizona Corporation Commission rejected two utilities’ requests to impose monthly fixed charges on new solar customers in the state. Vote Solar said the proposed Grid Access Charge and inflated monthly Meter Fee sought to stifle the growth of rooftop solar, so the decision was a win for the industry. However, the commission also eliminated net metering for new solar customers by implementing the Arizona Value of Solar decision.

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Massachusetts SMART program is ready to rock

Boston, Massachusetts The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) will soon launch its new Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) program. The program is designed to add 1,600 MW of solar capacity to the state’s energy portfolio. Solar supporters say the program will help get the Massachusetts solar market moving again after being stalled for two years.

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[NEWS BRIEFS]

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Duke Energy works to expand commercial renewables

Columbia, South Carolina Duke Energy wants to give commercial and industrial customers more options for renewable energy. The utility’s proposed Green Source Advantage program gives large nonresidential customers the chance to receive bill credits for energy produced on a solar site not on the customers’ premises.

It also allows customers to retain the RECs produced by the offsite facility.

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Coal bailout quietly tabled

Washington, D.C. Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s efforts to prop up failing coal and nuclear power plants in the name of national security have been shelved due to opposition from Trump’s National Security and National Economic Council advisers, according to Politico. The outlet reports Trump has also stopped talking about potentially rescuing coal in the past few months.

Nevada businesses form pro-solar coalition

Carson City, Nevada Clean Energy Works for Nevada is a new coalition of businesses and advocates committed to a strong clean energy economy in the state. The group highlights that the falling cost of solar has led to more solar investments in Nevada and aims to ensure state policies help rather than hinder further solar growth.

Report finds solar will lead renewables electricity generation by 2050

The world A report from DNV GL found that solar PV will help meet almost half the demand of renewable global electricity production over the coming decades.

As distributed energy resource use increases, utilities will have to be more flexible and incorporate new technologies like energy storage to help manage the grid.

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KELSEY MISBRENER SENIOR EDITOR

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Vaha Energy's installation for the Los Angeles Lakers UCLA Health Training Center.

Credit: LG

SOLAR COMPANIES CAN

WITH SPORTS VENUE INSTALLATIONS SOLAR CONTRACTORS

that can clinch sports venue projects get a great marketing advantage with the high visibility of these partnerships, but they're often a considerable challenge even for the most seasoned installers due to aesthetic requests and massive energy consumption.

Vaha Energy learned this lesson firsthand on its installation for the Los Angeles Lakers' UCLA Health Training Center.

The building had a large, unobstructed flat roof that would've been perfect for solar panels. But Vaha couldn't put panels on it, because the Lakers wanted to instead use that space for its logo.

"One thing with a sports team is everything is about branding and logos, so there was marketing value to them to put [the logo] there that, to my understanding, was worth more than the value of the power offset," said Geoff Tomlinson, CEO of Vaha Energy.

The Lakers were after a LEED Platinum certification, a points-based green building rating system. Solar can add a considerable amount of points to a building's tally.

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Hannah Solar’s installation at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Credit: Hannah Solar

The idea of how our look would fit in with the overall look and feel and the aesthetics of this major, unique stadium was always part of the design considerations from the beginning.

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Joseph McCormack, the Lakers CFO and senior VP of finance, said in a press release, “One of our goals as an organization is to be at the forefront of energy efficiency, and these panels further our commitment to sustainability."

Tomlinson and his team were left with limited options to install enough solar to offset 16% of the building's energy usage. The north and south sides of the building were available, but had some obstructions. Vaha installed what it could on those surfaces and then put the rest of the system on a preexisting carport onsite.

"Thank god the carport was there," Tomlinson said.

The architects had solar-readied the building by running conduit from the roof and carport underground into the electrical room inside. That preparation was crucial.

"It's a brand-new building. We would've had to have torn up their parking lot to run conduit," Tomlinson said.

The job was further constrained by the fact that the Lakers did not want the solar panels to be visible to people below.

"They didn't want to see the modules at all, so everything had to be back enough that it wasn't visible from the ground-up," Tomlinson said.

Because of these constricting factors, Vaha had to use high-efficiency panels to pull this project off. The company went with LG's 72-cell modules to get the highest power density along with trusted name recognition.

LG made a flashy case study video to highlight the project and its highprofile sports partner and demonstrate how LG was able to fit a rather specific need for this complicated project.

"It really highlights how the panels that we provide and that efficiency meets the needs that others just may not be able to provide," said Garry Wicka, head of marketing for LG Electronics Business Solutions.

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BUSINESS

Wicka and Tomlinson agreed that increased exposure for this high-profile solar install made it a great marketing opportunity, but the two still see sports venues as a niche market.

Sports install struggles Tomlinson said Vaha Energy has had talks with other sports teams after the Lakers install, but one challenge pervaded those discussions.

"A lot of these facilities have tremendous energy use. So even though, for example, with the Lakers, we covered as much real estate as possible, we're only offsetting around 15 to 16% of their power," Tomlinson said. "We were looking at another sports facility and even to counter like a quarter of their power, we had to cover every surface they had available."

When Vaha Energy did the energy modeling for the Lakers' new building, the team assumed it would be operating from about 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Now that the facility is in use, it's actually been operating nearly 24/7, with players coming in at all hours to practice.

Hannah Solar ran into different challenges when it was chosen to add solar canopies at the brand new Atlanta Falcons Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The stadium itself is an angular, futuristic design of triangles. The triangles in the roof open up to make the stadium open-air.

The Falcons were primarily motivated by LEED Platinum certification like the Lakers, but the team also wanted the solar to be visible to fans below.

Hannah Solar was contracted by Georgia Power to do the EPC work on the project.

"The idea of how our look would fit in with the overall look and feel and the aesthetics of this major, unique stadium was always part of the design considerations from the beginning," said Anthony Coker, VP of sales for Hannah Solar. Hannah Solar worked with the architecture company designing the stadium from the beginning to seamlessly incorporate solar into the overall design.

The project required a lot of customization. The largest array in this project sits atop the Falcons' parking deck at 455 kW. Hannah Solar used RBI as its steel canopy fabricator and engineering team on this feature, along with Trina Solar frameless, glass-on-glass, clear-backsheet panels so sun could stream through.

Hannah Solar custom-designed the other canopies covering the

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BUSINESS

security and administrative entrances and VIP and owner parking spots, and hired a local steel fabricator to create them. It used Lumos's bifacial GS X modules for these other canopies.

Altogether, there were many moving parts in this dynamic installation.

Coker said the eight-canopy, ~670kWdc project was the most difficult solar project the company has ever worked on, but that Hannah Solar had to take it on.

"We would definitely do it every time if somebody came to us and said, 'You're going to go solar on the most green stadium in the world and it's in your backyard.' Atlanta's our headquarters. We competitively wanted that project and we would be honored to have it and we'd feel neglected if we didn't," Coker said.

High visibility advantage The high visibility and large fan bases can make sports venue solar projects pay off for contractors, despite the challenges during installation. Winning one of these projects may mean winning a team's fans too.

"More and more sports venues are embracing solar by adding to existing stadiums or incorporating in new builds. At Mercedes-Benz Stadium, we have 4.000 solar PV panels and can annually power nine Atlanta Falcons games or 13 Atlanta United matches," said Scott Jenkins,

communities where people live and play.

"We're dedicated to positively impacting our community and showing fans that sports venues can make a positive environmental impact.

As the popularity of solar continues to grow, so too will the sports industry's incorporation of solar into their venues."

North Carolinabased Power Home Solar (PHS) recently added solar to the parking deck at the Detroit Lions' home base of Ford Field as well as on an equipment storage rooftop of the Lions’ training facility in Allen Park in an interesting partnership.

According to Crain's Detroit, PHS invested $1.5 million with the Lions over three years including panel costs and a sponsorship deal. The parking garage installation at Ford Field powers the parking garage lights and the Allen Park install helps offset some of the training facility's electrical costs. PHS said it can't disclose the size of the systems at Ford Field and Allen Park due to the NFL contract.

PHS does some commercial projects but is mostly a residential installer. This sponsorship investment was also a marketing tool for PHS's residential sales in the Detroit area, allowing the company to tell homeowners who may be Lions fans that PHS added solar to that stadium.

We’re dedicated to positively impacting our community and showing fans that sports venues can make a positive environmental impact. general manager of Mercedes-Benz Stadium and board chair of the Green Sports Alliance, a group that leverages the cultural and market influence of sports to promote healthy, sustainable 14

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Power Home Solar’s installation for the Detroit Lions.

Credit: Power Home Solar

The installer is planning its next sports install projects with the Cleveland Browns and Carolina Panthers.

"Really it's bringing down that fence to where consumers usually are worried, 'Oh am I being sold something,' and we try to build that credibility by saying, 'Hey look, we partnered with the Detroit Lions or the Cleveland Browns,'" said Jayson Waller, founder of Power Home Solar.

Although the tight design parameters and high energy consumption can make sports venue solar projects difficult, the contractors that make them work can enjoy high visibility and a prime marketing opportunity. SPW

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11/13/18 2:09 PM

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KELLY PICKEREL

BUSINESS

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Solar does work within HOAs, but installers have to stay vigilant According to the resource website HOA-USA, there are over 351,000 homeowner associations (HOAs) in the United States, representing over 40 million households or 53% of owneroccupied households. That means the large majority of residential solar installers have had to deal with HOA rules concerning solar on certain homes.

And boy, do those rules vary. Only about half of the 50 states have laws preventing HOAs from denying solar applications for aesthetic reasons. How a HOA will react to solar requests in the other states is a toss-up.

HOAs are organizations in neighborhoods that make and enforce rules for the houses or condominiums within their jurisdiction. Those living

within these established communities pay fees that go toward having and maintaining common areas. A major directive of the HOA is neighborhood uniformity and/or a high standard of appearance for each property—which is why so many HOAs choose to deny a homeowner’s right to go solar.

Indiana made headlines this year for its solar HOA problem. Many central Indiana residents wanted to go solar, but severely outdated HOA bylaws that forbid “solar heat panels” often led to solar PV application denials. When solar was approved, it was usually restricted to the back of a home—a common “compromise” HOAs make throughout the country—regardless as to whether that’s the best location for solar generation.

“The HOA solar problem tends to be more subjective rather than objective,” said Laura Ann Arnold, president of the Indiana Distributed Energy Alliance (IndianaDG), a group working to promote renewable energy and distributed generation. “Some HOA boards just don’t seem to understand that installing solar panels away from the street but on the north side of the home is not a reasonable solution and is just not cost effective.

There is a lack of understanding about the technology and the economics.”

Indiana legislators stepped up, and a solar bill to give homeowners in HOAs more solar rights passed the state Senate but ultimately died in the House last year.

IndianaDG is working with Republican Rep. Woody Burton to introduce new legislation during the next session to address the issues HOAs have with solar.

A Boulder, Colorado, neighborhood.

Photo by Dennis Schroeder / NREL

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“The bill will prohibit HOAs from enacting absolute prohibitions on solar panels and will also prevent HOAs from limiting the intended maximum efficiency of solar panel systems by dictating where solar panels should be installed on a roof,” Arnold said.

Many states (like California, Texas and Oregon) have already passed specific legislation—called solar access laws— preventing HOAs from prohibiting solar installations. In states with these laws, HOAs cannot prevent homes from going solar, but they can make certain requests, like no ground-mounts in front yards, as long as these requests do not make the proposed solar system less effective or more expensive. Solar easements, a different kind of pro-solar document, are legal contracts solar owners work out with neighboring properties to guarantee adequate sunlight exposure to their systems. This is where requirements

proving to be difficult. The homeowner said other solar companies had presented ground-mount systems, but the HOA still wouldn’t give approval. So Victory Solar suggested a ballasted system.

“I showed them one below the fence line, and it got approved,” said

are written down, like making sure a neighbor’s trees don’t shade the array.

There was once a national effort to get supportive solar laws on the books. The Solar Opportunity and Local Access Rights (SOLAR) Act was introduced to the

Some HOA boards just don’t seem to understand that installing solar panels away from the street but on the north side of the home is not a reasonable solution and is just not cost effective. There is a lack of understanding about the technology and the economics.

House in 2011 but wasn’t passed. The act would have required each state to adopt a net-metering standard and prohibited “any restriction impairing the ability of the owner or lessee of a one-family residential structure to install or use a solar energy system upon such property,” among other things.

Arnold said a good federal solution for the solar industry would be similar to what was enacted for satellite dish installation. The FCC rules for satellite dishes (passed in 1996) protect a property owner’s right to install, maintain or use an antenna.

Until more cohesive solar access laws are passed, solar installers have to get comfortable working around dated HOA bylaws. Although Texas does have supportive solar laws, local installer Victory Solar still had to jump through many hoops for a San Antonio homeowner wanting to go solar.

Victory Solar was the fourth solar company to give the homeowner a quote on a system. The house had a Spanish tile roof and working with the HOA was

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Victory president Mike Busby. “We put up a black mesh fence screen, so the neighbors couldn’t see it. We took out all the grass, put in white rock. It’s a flat roof commercial system but on the ground. If we did a normal groundmount it stuck above the fence.”

Busby said the company deals with HOAs on about 90% of its projects.

Many have stipulations—like an array can’t be street-facing—but Victory Solar has never been denied on an application. Busby said Victory Solar has a process down after many years dealing with HOAs. “We’ve put an emphasis on the beginning that paperwork is the most important,” he said. “The paperwork has to be precise and on-point, iron-clad at all times. It’s become very streamlined with us, dealing with [HOAs]. We know exactly what they’re looking for. We probably send them too much paperwork—they want to know the color

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of the modules, the racking, what it will look like on the roof. So we send them the whole design packet.”

Arnold said the best way for solar installers to be proactive with HOAs is to have proof of other successful projects and data that shows solar is good for a community.

“Solar installers need to provide examples of installations done that mirror the home types in that neighborhood and also show that solar panels increase property values,” she said. “Solar installers should explain that this is just strictly about solar panels and that an HOA board

should not infer that approving a request for solar panels would lead homeowners to asking for other things that may be prohibited in the covenants.”

IndianaDG has found in its research that while HOA boards may deny solar applications “for the good of the community,” the majority of homeowners approve of solar.

HOAs fear that if solar is approved, residents will request other prohibited items, like chain-link fences or above18

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ground pools—the “slippery slope” logical fallacy—when that doesn’t seem to be the case.

The solar industry as a whole needs to stay vigilant on HOA issues and work to educate the public as more people want to go solar, Arnold said.

“Unfortunately, many homeowners are totally unaware of their HOA’s prohibitions or restrictions on solar,” she said. “The solar industry needs to be proactive to educate prospective homeowners to ask questions about solar prohibitions and restrictions before they buy a new home.” SPW

The solar industry needs to be proactive to educate prospective homeowners to ask questions about solar prohibitions and restrictions before they buy a new home.

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

11/13/18 2:11 PM

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Twende volunteers work on the PRM project

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11/13/18 2:14 PM

KELSEY MISBRENER

SENIOR EDITOR

Massive nonprofit installation helps

in a powerful way

The problem of homelessness is unavoidable in Portland, Oregon. In the short Lyft ride from Portland International

Airport to a solar conference this year at a hotel near downtown, a number of homeless encampments dotted the highway medians and other green spaces as I looked out the window.

The Oregonian reported in 2017 that the city’s homeless population increased by 10% from 2015 to 2017, and there are now around 4,000 people without permanent homes on any given night in the city.

Local nonprofit solar installation company Twende Solar had only worked on international installations until it made the decision to help with the problem at home by reaching out to the Portland Rescue Mission (PRM).

"The Portland Rescue Mission is doing some really great work in the community to help address the issues of homelessness and addiction and that is something that as Portlanders…that's a part of our everyday life," said Marissa Johnson, executive director of Twende Solar. "We work to support well-established organizations with mission-driven programing, and they definitely fit the bill as a highly respected nonprofit in the area addressing some critical needs."

The mission had explored the option of solar before but couldn't pencil it out with a traditional solar company since it wasn't eligible for any tax breaks to ease the financial burden. Twende does charge nonprofits a fee for the installation— but it's nowhere near the price of a traditional installation, since parts and labor are mostly donated. The fee is to ensure the organizations have some stake in the projects and an incentive to take good care of the systems over time.

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INSTALL ATION

services [instead], and that really rung "It's not as much about us getting true with our entire organization." money from them in order to actually Thirteen regional companies complete the project, it's really the sponsored this project by donating either exercise that the organization has to products or labor. SunPower contributed go through, like the mental exercise, to deeply discounted modules, Solectria decide that, 'Yes, this project has value donated string inverters and IronRidge to us. We can see that we're having to spend money, but we can see the benefit and we can determine that that is of value to us,'" said John Grieser, Twende board president and founder.

At first, Twende was looking at installing a system to offset just 10% of the building's energy use, about a 25-kW install, which Twende originally thought was TOP: Portland Rescue a bit of a daunting ask Mission's new solar for manufacturers and installation volunteers.

Serendipitously, the BOTTOM: Some PRM executive director of PRM residents volunteered on the project, like at the table the day the Rebecca (on right) two groups hashed out logistics happened to be an engineer who used to work donated the mounting solution. in the solar industry. He asked if they This project size required massive could go for 30% or 40% offset instead. people-power, but Twende had no Grieser told the group that size trouble recruiting area solar companies would be much larger than what most and other industry workers to help. In non-profits attempt, but that he would fact, it had the opposite problem—so check and see if the manufacturer many people were willing to pitch in that donors would go for it. some had to be turned down.

"About two weeks later we get a "We were just blown away at the call back from John and he says, ‘Guess pent-up supply of people willing to what, we're on for a 40% offset—100 kW contribute to work like this," Grieser rather than 25.’ So we were thrilled," said said. "We pretty much had some Ron Arp, marketing consultant at PRM. volunteer from every competing solar Better yet, even though the install contractor across the state contribute in was large, it still would only take five person on this project." years to pay back.

Grieser said he observed different "We started thinking immediately solar companies checking out the tips about the number of meals we could and tricks of their usual competitors serve, the number of shelter nights that while installing side by side. During we could provide instead of paying for lunch, the group would convene and talk electricity in years six through 25," Arp about their different installation methods. said. "We're going to be able to provide 22

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INSTALL ATION

"I think the collective knowledge base of the industry just rose from working on this project together with everybody," he said.

One of the most inspiring aspects of this project came in the form of two volunteers from PRM. This PRM site is a women and children's recovery center, and when the organization asked residents if anyone was interested in helping with the solar project, two women raised their hands right away.

The experience did not disappoint— both women enjoyed it so much that they entered electrical pre-apprenticeship training with local Portland organization Constructing Hope, whose mission is to rebuild the lives of people in its community by encouraging selfsufficiency through skills training and education in the construction industry.

"After a day or two on the roof with one of our volunteers who was there almost every day, these women came down and they were like, 'This is awesome. This is so awesome.' And one of them knew right away, 'This is what I want to do,'" Johnson said.

One of the women, Rebecca, graduated from the pre-apprenticeship program in August and the other, Brittany, will graduate in November.

Twende board member and CED Greentech Pacific Northwest outside salesperson Mike August said the most fulfilling part of the project for him was watching Brittany's young son watch his mom work on the roof, awestruck.

"Watching [Brittany's] kid look up and see his mom up on the roof from down on the playground, and he was just kind of stunned. Kind of like seeing Spider-Man on the roof or something," August said. "Seeing his mom up there doing this cool stuff, he was looking at her like she was a superhero, and that was a cool moment."

Her son also had the honor of flipping the ceremonial switch to turn the project on for the first time.

11 • 2018

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INSTALL ATION

I think the collective knowledge base of the industry just rose from working on this project together with everybody.

Future plans Twende doesn't have plans in the pipeline for another domestic project at this time, but Johnson said Twende is open to the possibility.

"We're always looking for suggestions or connections to organizations or communities who could greatly benefit from having cleaner, more abundant, more reliable, cheaper electricity through solar," Grieser said.

The unique pitch Twende has as a solar nonprofit is an intensive vetting process to make sure it's focusing its time, energy and donations on the worthiest organizations. Grieser used to work at SolarWorld and remembers being flooded with requests for donated modules. It became so overwhelming that it was easier for the company to just say no than to assess each option.

"With Twende, it's a singular unit that they could turn to and they could make their donations through us to these communities, which we have vetted and selected for long-term success," he said.

The Portland Rescue Mission is a prime example of a high-quality installation that will help the community in a big way. Arp expressed deep gratitude to all the volunteers who made this project possible.

"To have the solar industry contribute in this way to help address homelessness and addiction recovery in our community is just outstanding,” Arp said. "Here's a bunch of people who not only care a whole lot about their jobs, but they also care a great deal about their community and the people who live in their community." SPW

TOP: Another PRM resident and volunteer, Brittany BOTTOM: Brittany’s son flipping the ceremonial switch

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"It was probably one of the cutest moments I've seen in a long time, the little three- or four-year-old boy with a hardhat on, just all grin as he flipped the switch," Arp said.

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

11/13/18 2:16 PM

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DAN PICKEL

TRAINING

PROGRAM MANAGER AT NABCEP

Find a better job with NABCEP Board Certification To those solar professionals with NABCEP Board Certification, congratulations! Whether you just passed a NABCEP exam or have had certification for years, it’s important to know how to leverage it to get what you ultimately want: a better job. To help you through this, we’re going to give you a step-by-step guide to differentiating yourself from the competition as a NABCEP Board Certified Professional and landing a better career in the renewable energy industry.

A concept design of NABCEP's new digital badge

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After obtaining your NABCEP Board Certification, we first recommend building your personal brand as a professional. The easiest way to start this process is to add your NABCEP Board Certification digital badge to your email signature. NABCEP is in the final stages of launching digital badges for Board Certified Professionals, which will provide you with a custom logo that links to your digital badge profile.

The profile describes the knowledge and skills necessary to earn a NABCEP Board Certification and has other beneficial functions. If you have multiple email addresses, be sure to add your digital badge to each so your friends, colleagues and others see that you earned one of NABCEP’s rigorous Board Certifications.

The next step in the process is to manage your personal brand on social media sites. If you’re not already signed up on social media, open accounts now to build and manage your professional audience. Job recruiters nowadays will almost certainly look at applicants’ media footprints, so you’ll want to show you’re an active professional who takes your career and professional growth seriously.

We recommend using a professionallooking photo of yourself as the profile picture on these sites, adding your digital NABCEP badge, creating professional posts, joining relevant social media-based professional groups and contributing to conversations in a respectful and professional manner. It’s also critically important to go back through your social media accounts and remove any potential red flags. If there are pictures of you in less-than-professional settings, remove them or un-tag yourself.

Unprofessional posts could tarnish your personal brand and instantly remove you from consideration for top-level positions.

Once you’ve started to build your social media brand, it’s time to update your résumé. Add your NABCEP Board Certification logo and number to your résumé and list your skills and knowledge related to the certification. We also recommend creating an online portfolio of your projects with pictures and bulleted lists of your responsibilities and accomplishments. Add that portfolio link to your résumé and social media sites.

Anyone can claim to know what they’re

AC

se

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doing on renewable energy projects, so it’s helpful to show recruiters what you’ve done to stand out from the crowd.

Now you’ll want to start looking for job opportunities. One tempting strategy when applying to jobs is to click “Apply Now” for every job, and then research the company after getting a response.

While that can work, you run the risk of negatively impacting your reputation by over-applying and losing the respect of recruiters who see your name all the time. Instead, we recommend that you research companies to find the right fit before applying. You can find a lot of information about companies online, including company reviews on various job boards that can be enlightening. Here are some questions you’ll want to keep in mind while researching companies:

your job interview. We recommend going prepared and professional.

Dress professionally and bring at least six copies of your résumé to the interview with at least one copy of your professional references. We also recommend printing your renewable energy portfolio and placing your documents in an attractive binder. It’s also critical to arrive with questions about the company and how it supports its employees’ growth. Continuing education is critical in this field and to maintain your NABCEP Board Certification, so it’s good to know if the company supports your continued professional development.

Good luck on your job search.

Getting NABCEP certified already has you on the right track! SPW

• What does the company do?

• How long has the company been in business?

• Is there a history of downsizing?

• What is it like to work there? What’s the company culture?

• What kind of people does the company typically hire?

• Do I know anyone who currently works there?

The results of your research will help you narrow down the companies you think would be a good fit. If the company is specifically looking for NABCEP Board Certified Professionals, that’s usually a good sign it is committed to quality and follows best practices.

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Inverters are the electronic heartbeat of a solar system,

connecting solar arrays to the grid and increasingly, to battery storage. As utilities continue to shift rate structures in ways that often harm grid-tied residential solar customers, inverter manufacturers are working to make battery integration seamless.

Solutions described as "battery-based" or "hybrid" inverters are becoming more common across the manufacturing sector. But what do these terms actually mean?

Sol-Ark manufactures both inverters and batteries and calls its solution a "batterybased inverter."

Tom Brennan, engineering manager at Sol-Ark, said that most inverters in home installations are grid-tied string inverters. They don't work with batteries, but instead have to sell all the power they produce back to the grid.

"A battery-enabled inverter, or batterybased inverter, is something that can do a lot more than just sell back power to the grid," Brennan said. "It can store power, it can work off-grid, it can store power for time-of-use [rate structures]."

Battery-enabled inverters differ from traditional inverters because when there is

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a grid outage, standard inverters must shut down completely per Rule 21, while hybrid inverters connected to batteries can simply switch to an off-grid mode temporarily and continue to power the home.

"I think the real story here is that inverters are doing a lot more than they ever have," said Jeremy Niles, marketing manager at Pika Energy.

They're doing more for a number of reasons. Perhaps the biggest is as states and utilities shift away from net metering, solar customers are getting less credit for selling power back to the grid. Combining a hybrid inverter with even a small amount of battery backup can allow homeowners to self-supply power, avoid demand charges and peak time-of-use rates and still get high value for solar systems despite shifting state policies.

Time-of-use rate programs like in California charge customers higher rates for electricity used during what utilities determine are "peak" periods of the day (when power consumption is highest and solar production is low) and lower rates during off-peak times when consumption is lowest and solar is supplying plenty of power to the grid.

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

11/13/18 2:51 PM

KELSEY MISBRENER SENIOR EDITOR

Pika’s inverter+battery solution.

Credit: Pika

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Solar customers with hybrid inverters paired with batteries can choose to store power during the peak solar production times in the afternoon and consume that power in the evening, when electricity costs are highest.

"Battery-based systems are exploding because they can do time-ofuse shifting and get around these solar restrictions," Brennan said.

Other utilities incorporate demand charges when customers consume energy above a certain number of kilowatts.

"In a lot of scenarios, that demand charge can make up the majority of someone's bill," Niles said.

Hybrid inverters paired with batteries can help avoid demand charges by storing solar energy during high solar production times, then be programmed to self-supply power from the battery instead of buying power from the grid once the house consumes a certain amount of energy. That way, the home never crosses the high demand threshold and is not charged the extra, sometimes exorbitant, fees.

Tabuchi’s Eco Intelligent Battery System (EIBS).

Credit: Tabuchi

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Pika Energy's Islanding Inverter is one solution that can perform demand management for customers. "[Customers] will set the system up so that should they get close to getting that kind of demand on, the system will kick in and ease that demand, meet that demand using battery power or solar power, to prevent that demand charge from being applied to their bill," Niles said.

Tabuchi Electric's hybrid inverter can also be programmed to avoid both demand charges and peak times. The inverter software can be customized to satisfy different market requirements.

For example, in California, Tabuchi's inverter is customized with an "economy mode" to use stored power during peak time-of-use periods, and in Hawaii the inverter has a "customer self-supply mode" to help customers use all the solar power they produce, since they cannot sell it back to the grid.

"Each of those markets has its own advantages and disadvantages, and we try to come up with operation modes that can be unique for each market," said Tanvir Khan, research and product development engineer at Tabuchi.

"We try to make it flexible so that one solution has all these operation modes."

Tabuchi's hybrid inverter+storage solution is sold as one package called the EIBS (Eco Intelligent Battery System).

Since utility rate design and state solar policy is ever-changing, Tabuchi has the ability to upgrade its inverter software remotely at any time. Khan calls this making inverters "future-proof."

"The definition of future-proof is that whenever the utility changes their utility rate demand or anything they try to make more complicated with solar panels, the battery can come into play because that's the free variable," Khan said.

Including storage and batteryready inverters in new installations could soon become even more fruitful than simply avoiding peak time-of-

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TECHNOLOGY

LEFT: A Sol-Ark inverter+battery solution for grid backup only.

Credit: Sol-Ark

RIGHT: Sol-Ark’s inverter coupled with Partial Charge Carbon (PCC) batteries.

Credit: Sol-Ark

use rates and demand charges. With SEIA leading the way, solar+storage advocacy groups are pushing for nationwide incentives for adding batteries, like a federal investment tax credit for energy storage.

California leads the way with storage incentives at the state level with its Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) that gives customers rebates for qualifying distributed energy systems installed on the customer's side of the utility meter. The California Solar and Storage Association is pushing for the SGIP to be extended for another five years in the form of SB 700, which was passed by the California Assembly at the end of August.

Understanding the terms Although inverter manufacturers use verbiage like "islanding," "hybrid" or 32

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"battery-based" inverters, the inverters are still separate from batteries in most applications except the Tesla Powerwall 2, which integrates an inverter+battery in one case, and some others.

"The industry trend is not necessarily putting the battery and the inverter together like Tesla. Instead it's having the right-size battery bank and inverter so that you’re primarily using solar power and stored solar power throughout the day and night and the grid is basically a backup," Brennan said.

Many battery-based inverters don't require a battery pairing from the start.

If and when customers decide to add a battery to their solar installation, all the infrastructure is already in place to easily integrate storage.

That flexibility can be very helpful as new renewable energy requirements and policies take effect

in different states, like the mandate of solar on all new homes in California.

Homebuilders can install energy storage to reduce the amount of PV they must install or offset other efficiency requirements. If builders choose to just install solar and not storage on a new home, using a battery-ready inverter for the project can give homeowners the flexibility to add a battery at a later date.

Niles said that in the past, the type of solar modules was considered the most consequential choice for customers in a solar array. The biggest consideration now is the choice of inverter.

"Basically, the most important thing people can do nowadays is get an inverter that will accept a battery.

A battery-ready inverter," Niles said.

"Because there's a good chance you'll need one in the future." SPW

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

11/13/18 2:52 PM

KELLY PICKEREL EDITOR IN CHIEF

PANEL TECHNOLOGY

Two brand-new manufacturing names want a piece of the Made in USA solar panel market The solar panel manufacturing and assembly market in the United States is on the rise right now. Established names like LG, JinkoSolar and Hanwha Q CELLS all plan to have U.S. facilities pumping out new panels in 2019. And despite those big names with megawatt-capacities in the hundreds setting up in the United States, smaller companies still think there’s room for them in a Made-in-the-USA market.

SolSuntech is planning a 100MW facility in Virginia with a brandnew crystalline silicon process.

GreenBrillance will build a 125-MW facility in Maryland to manufacture premium panels at an average price.

Both companies’ unique business plans just might make a big enough impact to outshine the big-named competition.

SolSuntech’s new silicon solar cell design SolSuntech is a new American solar company with a Korean history. Chairman Jang Hi-Chul and a team of engineers

have spent over a decade and $7 million perfecting a new type of technology in South Korea that will disrupt the solar panel market. The company was officially incorporated in Delaware earlier this year, and the U.S. market will be the first launchpad for the SolSuntech threedimensional solar panel.

“Every panel manufacturer out there makes a flat-surface cell,” said Lou Kraft, CEO of SolSuntech. “The difference is that this one is a 3D-corrugated-like wave cell.”

SolSuntech’s design is a corrugated silicon cell that will reabsorb sunlight that is normally reflected off a traditional, smooth-surface “2D” cell. The company’s proprietary technology uses highprecision mechanical cutting tools to slice the silicon wafer into a 3D, curved shape.

SolSuntech expects its monocrystalline solar panels to reach 600 W and have a 33% efficiency—in the same 72-cell footprint as a normal panel reaching 370

W and 21% efficiency on the highest end.

The SolSuntech solar panel does not yet exist, but Kraft said the engineers’ prototypes have been third-party tested and the company is confident in its wattage and efficiency claims. SolSuntech expects panel availability by December 2019.

“It’s independently tested, and once a prototype exists, we’ll have it UL certified,” Kraft said. “We’ll have one of the best warranties with it, since we’re going to have to go up against the big competition out there. They’re not going to like us, as the little guy on the block touting a 33% [efficiency]. They’re going to attack us from all angles, so we’re ready for that.”

SolSuntech is currently in the funding phase and has an ICO and IPO set up through the end of the year.

“We feel it’s a good way for us to get in,” Kraft said. “It’ll also level the playing

GreenBrilliance’s equipment in India.

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field for the average investor out there.

The little guy can get in instead of just the institutional factors making all the money.”

Right now, SolSuntech has its sights set on a 300,000-sq. ft former furniture assembly warehouse in Virginia for its manufacturing headquarters. The state has offered significant incentives for the company to set up a plant there. SolSuntech plans to start with 100 MW of production the first year, but with the significance of the panel’s technology, Kraft said there has to be room to grow in capacity. The Virginia facility could maybe expand to 300 MW, so the company has been exploring other turnkey operations in the United States, including Suniva’s abandoned plants in Michigan and Georgia.

The SolSuntech product will be uniquely American—from cell to final panel. Because the company has a specific cell design that must be cut by its own equipment, wafers will be turned into cells in the United States.

“We will bring in actual ingot material into Virginia,” Kraft said. “We will bring in wafers and cut them ourselves. We’ve already invented four of the machines for cutting the cell. The rest of the assembly process [will be in the United States] too.”

SolSuntech will target the residential and small commercial markets since it’s looking for the best efficiency and most generation in a fixed space. The company plans to keep its manufacturing process close to heart, but with such a game-changing technology, SolSuntech could potentially be starting a new panel category, like PERC and half-cells, that could be expanded to more manufacturers.

“You’ve got typical panels out there, and then you’ve got Tier 1 which are about 21 to 22% efficient now. We’re looking to compete with Tier 1—33% efficiency at Tier 1 pricing,” Kraft said.

“Moving forward, if it creates its own Tier or this design becomes adopted since 34

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SolSuntech CEO Lou Kraft with the company’s 3D cell and proprietary equipment.

we’re able to cut this wafer, stabilize it from fractures and get a good product out of it…it’s very possible. [First] I want to get manufacturing it ourselves going.

I want to see what market we command with it, how many facilities we’ll need and what our output will be.”

GreenBrilliance wants to be an affordable and friendly option GreenBrilliance has been a residential and mid-sized commercial EPC in Virginia since 2007. President and CEO Sumit Bhatnagar also established panel www.solarpowerworldonline.com

manufacturing overseas in India around the same time, selling panels in India, Europe and the United States. When the Indian solar market really started to take off, GreenBrilliance couldn’t meet domestic demand and also supply other markets. The last containers of GreenBrilliance panels were brought to the United States around 2014, and then the company made panels in India exclusively for Indian installations.

Now Bhatnagar is ready to set up a domestic manufacturing facility in Baltimore, Maryland.

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TECHNOLOGY

“I started to figure out what it would take to manufacture here,” Bhatnagar said. “We have experience of making panels, we have the supply chain, we know what to buy, we know how to manage the whole set-up.”

Bhatnagar kept hearing again and again that solar manufacturing could not happen in America. He thinks that’s because U.S.-based panel manufacturers are charging too much for their product.

“I can buy the same panels in Dubai for 50 cents/watt. The moment we talk about bringing those panels to America, it’s $1/watt,” he said. “We’re paying $1 for the same product that someone in [Asia] can get for 50 cents. We’re not putting gold plating on the panel just for America.”

GreenBrilliance plans to make premium solar panels—monocrystalline, PERC, bifacial—at affordable prices in the United States.

“If you have to buy a bifacial panel in America, you have to pay a premium, and I don’t understand why. It cannot cost a manufacturer almost 100% more to make a bifacial panel,” he said. “They’re trying to extract as much premium out of bifacial because it’s being sold as a specialized product. I don’t want to have a specialized product—it’s just a monocrystalline panel.”

Bhatnagar believes that instead of panel buyers just trusting a Tier 1 label as the best product worthy of a higher price tag, they should consider visiting smaller manufacturers to see the quality of materials being used and see if they’re really “inferior.”

“People only want to buy Tier 1 panels just because it’s a big factory,” he said. “We want to build something that we say it is. It’s Made in America.

We don’t want to be a gigawatt factory today. We want to be a true factory.”

GreenBrilliance’s local experience as a solar installer has offered it the chance to use many panel brands.

Bhatnagar said he’s proud that GreenBrilliance has not installed one

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TECHNOLOGY

Chinese panel in the company’s 11 years of business—Tier 1 or not. He feels there is still a need for high-quality Americanmade solar panels, and GreenBrilliance can meet that demand.

“Tier 1 warranties still fail. If you really want a quality panel, come and see it.

Don’t trust the Tier 1. Everyone is welcome to come see our factory and our process,” he said. “As long as you use the right materials, if the panels are made with raw materials that are correct, your panels will be top quality and they will last.”

GreenBrilliance’s equipment in India.

People only want to buy Tier 1 panels just because it’s a big factory. We want to build something that we say it is. It’s Made in America. We don’t want to be a gigawatt factory today. We want to be a true factory.

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The plan is for GreenBrilliance panels to begin shipping out of its 125-MW Baltimore facility in Summer 2019. Although many of the larger Tier 1 brands entering the United States will have a head start with product available before GreenBrilliance, Bhatnagar said he will market his company as the cheaper, more accessible panel manufacturer. Not only will GreenBrilliance’s premium panels not be sold at a premium price, but the company will be available to answer any questions.

“We’re not just bringing the price aspect. We’re bringing quality and the warmth of business,” he said. “We will talk to you. We will work with you. We’d be happy to provide engineering help.

We are trying to address the American installers who are struggling. We’re not going after a SolarCity or Sunrun. Our customers are the 5,000 installers in the middle of nowhere trying to find supply and install panels. They need help, but no one is reaching out to them.”

Bhatnagar said if more companies focus on what they’re buying rather than who they’re buying, his small manufacturing business will do just fine.

“The focus on what you’re buying is gone. Now it’s who you’re buying,” he said. “Vet what you’re buying. Trust your eyes and then buy.” SPW

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

11/13/18 3:45 PM

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MOUNTING TECHNOLOGY

KELLY PICKEREL EDITOR IN CHIEF

Smart tracking technology ushers in new era of increased energy harvest on large-scale sites Tracking systems are already innovative.

They track the sun rather than keeping solar panels in a fixed position. Many single-axis trackers claim at least a 25% performance gain over fixed-tilt systems, and developers still think there is room

for improvement. A number of brands are exploring ways to improve backtracking (adjusting panel orientation to limit row-to-row shading at various times of the day) and accept more diffused light 38

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when cloud cover may prevent a direct sunlight path to the panels. These small tweaks would only increase energy gain by another few percentage points, but every bit is a bonus for traditional tracking companies and their customers.

“It’s nice to see innovation coming out of a company that [makes a sophisticated racking system],” said Dustin Shively, director of engineering at Clēnera, a U.S. solar developer that has installed many tracking systems. “It would be easy for them to say they want to make a modest margin and that’s enough. But it’s always, ‘How can we make things better and how can we optimize?’”

Shively is specifically referencing NEXTracker, a decentralized tracker manufacturer that holds the largest share of the global tracking market. The company released its TrueCapture self-adjusting tracker control system in July 2017 that claims www.solarpowerworldonline.com

another 2 to 6% energy gain through continuous optimization of individual rows of panels in response to site features and weather conditions.

Clēnera was one of the first large-scale solar developers to implement the new technology on its tracking installations.

“The single-axis tracker algorithm has been unchained since the 1990s.

You know where the sun rises and what tracking profile you should have,” Shively said. “NEXTracker thought it was better to manipulate each row instead of using one profile across the whole site.

Let’s move rows independently to avoid shading on rolling terrain. With diffused light scenarios, when it’s cloudy, you don’t want to point at the sun, you want to point flat. It’s not an obvious solution, but it turned out to be true. That’s another method [NEXTracker] employed to change the single-axis algorithm to make more energy.”

NEXTracker is not the first company to test out different backtracking algorithms to adapt to uneven terrains, but it was the first to make a big play Photos courtesy of Array Technologies

11/13/18 3:48 PM

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TECHNOLOGY

into capturing more diffused light.

Greg Beardsworth, director of product management at NEXTracker, said finding ways to squeeze out more energy during low-light conditions was an interesting task.

“You’ve got cloud cover or haze or even pollution—enough of your irradiance is scattered and there’s not a direct beam coming from the sun,” he said. “On a perfectly overcast day with no sun peeking through, your best energy production would be perfectly flat, so the panel sees as much of the sky as possible for diffused light.”

NEXTracker’s TrueCapture system’s ability to recognize low light conditions and adjust panels to a better angle will even prove beneficial to thin-film projects, which already perform better than c-Si in low light. A small “computer” is connected at each row and wirelessly links with the tracking site’s main

The advantages of NEXTracker’s TrueCapture technology can be seen on this rolling terrain installation.

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controller. Since each of NEXTracker’s rows are self-powered by one motor, they can act independently and adjust as needed. TrueCapture is currently being used on new projects and can be added to older projects too.

“It’s really exciting to come in with basically a software layer and a few extra instruments for detecting the

diffused light conditions and be able to get this additional energy value out of existing sites,” Beardsworth said.

Array Technologies is also trying to adjust its trackers for more diffusedlight capture. The company recently released SmarTrack, its own tracking technology that utilizes a machinelearning algorithm to monitor and optimize backtracking positions that will be available for retrofit and new installation in early 2019. Optical sensors will allow Array trackers to adjust for optimal diffused light angles.

Even though Array’s centralized tracking configuration (with multiple rows linked to one motor) will prevent individual rows from acting independently of each other, company reps said moving many rows in unison according to sunlight and weather conditions is an efficient method on large-scale projects.

“Array’s centralized design maximizes efficiency by monitoring and reacting to real-world conditions on the block level,” said Array Technologies reps in an email to Solar Power World.

“By monitoring the production of an entire motor block and moving it as a whole, we are able to determine the optimum settings without constant readjustment to individual rows.”

The larger focus of SmarTrack—and also NEXTracker’s TrueCapture and Spanish tracking manufacturer Soltec’s TeamTrack—is to improve traditional backtracking methods. Backtracking adjusts a row’s angle so adjacent row shading in early morning and late afternoon hours won’t significantly decrease energy harvest. This increase of power at the beginning and end of each day widens the “shoulders” of the power production curve.

“The logic that backtracking has followed since the beginning of time is it assumes all the rows are in the same slope and perfectly flat. There’s no undulation or slope difference between the rows,” Beardsworth said.

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

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TECHNOLOGY

“When you make that assumption, yeah, backtracking works as advertised.

“Now the real world, we’re building sites on more diverse locations and geography. It’s not just the flat desert Southwest anymore,” Beardsworth continued. “One of the fastest-growing geographic markets has been the Southeast and those sites tend to have more undulation in topography.

It’s not cost-effective, practical or environmentally sensitive to level the land to make it perfectly flat. So we’re seeing this row-to-row height variation as a much bigger factor now.”

These new technologies allow each row of a project to have its own unique backtracking algorithm based on the topography of neighboring rows.

Site-specific, row-by-row backtracking behavior broadens those power production shoulders even more.

Soltec also uses “asymmetric backtracking” to adjust to rolling terrains with sensors to control the response to cloud-cover, snow-cover, flood levels and wind speeds. Its TeamTrack control system takes advantage of its independent tracking tables to position each one according to predicted shadow projections.

A rendering of how bifacial modules will work on NEXTracker systems.

behaving according to the shadow projection calculations and NREL’s sun position algorithms.”

Tracking algorithm updates will also help with the increasing demand for bifacial modules on trackers. Soltec has been testing bifacial modules with its trackers in many configurations and scenarios to find the best backtracking algorithms for the new modules.

“The first tests reveal that the different backtracking variations are very dependent on the albedo, but for most of the cases, it’s more convenient

Now the real world, we’re building sites on more diverse locations and geography. It’s not just the flat desert Southwest anymore.

“This control considers all the slopes in the terrain to avoid all the shadows and maximize energy generation,” said José Alfonso Teruel, R&D manager for Soltec. “We achieve this by using a central solution that has information of the whole plant and calculates how each tracker’s angular position is affecting the rest.

This solution is adjustable and once it’s configured it doesn’t need more operations for the whole life of the plant,

to optimize the front capture,” Teruel said. “We will have more conclusive data during the following months.”

NEXTracker also believes its TrueCapture system complements bifacial modules on trackers.

“We have a forward view that has a lot of the bifacial market share growing, especially on trackers,” Beardsworth said. “You can take your gain from bifacial, which, depending on site conditions, could be anywhere from

Technology(Mounting) 11-18 Vs3kp.indd 41

5 to 10% added energy and take the TrueCapture gains of 4 to 6%—you can be getting close to 20% more annual production than a standard tracking power plant from a year ago.”

These various tracking algorithm updates haven’t made a significant impact on project development—yet.

Maybe one day rows will be positioned closer together since backtracking can be more precise, and more rows can fit on a site. Until then, NEXTracker said it’s happy that projects are getting financed with TrueCapture gains built-in to energy estimates. Developers like Clēnera are pleased to offer system owners these additional savings.

“We’re not making big design changes due to TrueCapture,” Shively said. “Everything [gained] is an upside— being able to see more energy.” SPW

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STORAGE TECHNOLOGY

KELLY PICKEREL EDITOR IN CHIEF

How to add storage to an existing solar array Adding storage to an existing solar array is not always an easy, plug-andplay process. It could be if the solar array was installed storage-ready, but with the rapid advancements of solar+storage in the last few years, it’s unlikely many legacy solar systems can easily adapt to battery connection. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible; there are just a few important questions one must ask before starting a retrofit solar+storage installation project.

Existing inverters The inverter used on an existing solar array will dictate the route one must take to add batteries to a solar project.

Solar+storage systems are either ACcoupled or DC-coupled. AC-coupled systems require an additional, separate inverter to charge the batteries. DCcoupled systems use a charge controller or other DC-DC converter to feed PV

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power to the batteries and then through one inverter for grid use.

The inverter already in use on the PV system determines a lot.

For example, existing systems with microinverters (which make the DC-AC conversion at the panel-level) will need an AC-coupled system for storage, since the battery cannot be incorporated into the DC lines before AC-conversion. If the existing inverter is in good, storageready working condition, AC-coupling storage to an array is as easy as installing a new battery-based inverter along with the batteries. If the existing inverter needs replaced, one can go the DC-coupled route with a new storagecompliant inverter, a DC-DC converter and the batteries.

What is the make, model and age of the existing inverter?

To accommodate energy storage, inverters must have frequency control

capability—no matter if the system is ACor DC-coupled. If older inverters cannot frequency shift, they should be replaced to add batteries, suggested Catherine Von Burg, CEO and president of lithium-ion storage manufacturer SimpliPhi Power.

“If they are not replaced, grid-tied inverters will shut down regularly as the frequency shifts out of range,” she said.

Adding new, advanced inverters that can regulate charges is the only way to include storage on an existing system.

The brand of inverter can also lend clues as to how to add storage. For example, if the system uses an SMA Sunny Boy inverter, it will require the addition of a Sunny Island battery-based inverter to AC-couple an array (see image below).

Likewise, SolarEdge systems require a new StorEdge storage solution to incorporate batteries (see image next page).

Inverters are usually only warrantied to 10 years. If the inverter is approaching its warrantied lifespan, it’s a good idea to upgrade.

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

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TECHNOLOGY

“It may be advantageous to replace the inverter with an inverter designed to accommodate storage, or DC-couple the system with charge controllers and design a more elegant solar+storage solution from the start, allowing options to integrate storage immediately or in the future,” Von Burg said.

Project location A solar array’s physical climate and political climate will guide how to add storage to an array. Extremely hot locations will require a certain battery chemistry, and not all storage devices can be installed outside in the elements.

Likewise, certain states and utilities allow the use of advanced grid functionality— like time-of-use (TOU) arbitrage or backup power. The chosen battery type is dependent on what each jurisdiction allows. The incentives offered in each area could also influence what type of storage is added to an existing solar array.

Where is the solar system installed?

Not all batteries can be used in hot climates or in freezing temperatures.

The battery used in Ohio may differ from what’s commonly used in Arizona.

“SimpliPhi’s batteries perform very well in temperatures up to 140ºF,” Von Burg said. “Our LFP (lithium-iron phosphate) battery chemistry does not pose the risk of thermal runaway, fire or require cooling or thermal monitoring that other lithiumcobalt based chemistries do, such as NMC (lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide) and NCA (nickel-cobalt-aluminum) used by Tesla, LG Chem and others.”

Because of optimal ambient temperature ranges, some battery chemistries are required to be installed indoors to control their temperatures.

Battery warranties could be quickly voided if the storage system exceeds the recommended temperature range. So if the solar system owner only had a spot available outside to install the battery, the owner may have to find a new location or choose an outdoor-approved battery.

Is storage a solution for emergency power?

Or is the motivation to store excess energy produced by solar during the day, so that it can be used in the evening when the sun goes down?

Certain pro-storage states have already implemented solar+storage installation regulations. To add storage in California, inverters have to be Rule 21-compliant. This usually just means an inverter has to be “smart” with additional grid functionality, so older inverter models will need an upgrade. Similarly, Hawaiian solar+storage projects must use Rule 14H-compliant inverters.

Why does the customer want to add storage?

The most important area of focus is the motivation behind why a customer is exploring storage, said Kyle Frazier, director of sales for solar+storage installer Freedom Solar.

“Is storage a solution for emergency power? Or is the motivation to store excess energy produced by solar during the day, so that it can be used in the evening when the sun goes down?” he said. “In places with a TOU tariff, the customer may be looking to charge their batteries with solar or grid power

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TECHNOLOGY

Leasing can be advantageous up front, but customers should be careful to read the small print in the contracts that may prevent them from making changes in the future. when rates are cheap and discharge the batteries when power is most expensive.”

Depending on the motivation, it’s important to have an inverter that allows for that specific storage-use and an appropriately sized battery bank to support the power needs.

Of course, all of these advanced grid functionalities are dependent on if the local utilities support them.

“Each utility company has a different set of interconnection requirements that may help or hinder the customer’s primary motivation in adding storage,” Frazier said.

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Who owns the solar system?

Not to be overlooked, the existing solar system’s ownership is important to know when incorporating storage.

If the customer has full ownership of the system, updates are easy. Leased systems, on the other hand, may have restrictions on adding certain equipment.

“Leases typically have a wide range of restrictions as to what changes can be made to the home or business and its electrical loads,” Von Burg said. “Adding energy storage may be prohibited by lease terms. Leasing can be advantageous up front, but customers should be careful to read the small print

in the contracts that may prevent them from making changes in the future.”

Adding storage to an existing solar array doesn’t have to be a difficult process, but attention to detail is important. Installers should understand the customer’s storage needs, the local storage climate and the current solar equipment in use to make a storage addition as easy as possible. SPW

www.solarpowerworldonline.com

11/13/18 3:51 PM

2018

TOP PRODUCTS

INNOVATIONS IN ALL AREAS of solar technology help the market grow despite—and in response to—solar restrictions by policymakers and utilities. This year’s assembly of Top Products aim to help contractors increase flexibility in system design and enter new markets.

Panel-level storage where inverters and optimizers work at each individual solar panel can help solar+storage expand in applications where big batteries won’t fit.

Back-contact panel technology opens the possibility of unobstructed power generation from the front of modules. Four-module residential microinverters can harvest more energy with fewer components—meaning fewer hours of installation labor too.

We hope you enjoy the Top Products the SPW editors chose this year after scouring tradeshow floors and posting hundreds of press releases. We do it for you! And be sure to browse an even more extensive database in this year’s Top Products section online at solarpowerworldonline.com.

Photo courtesy of istockphoto.com

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TOP 2018 PRODUCTS HIGH-VOLTAGE STRING INVERTERS INCREASE SYSTEM FLEXIBILITY

As seen in ABB’s PVS-175-TL string inverter

Inverters are getting both smarter and stronger. 600-V models are fading in favor of newer, high-voltage designs that come with a myriad of benefits.

ABB’s 1,500-V PVS-175-TL utility-scale string inverters are one example of going big in capacity to increase flexibility and lower system costs. This inverter can be decentralized and sited closer to the panels, making it a good fit for challenging system designs with weight limitations.

The modular, two-part commercial string inverter is similar to ABB’s residential inverter, and just as easy to install. It can be attached to the existing solar module’s mounting system.

Up to 24 strings can connect directly to the inverter’s wiring compartment with integrated DC disconnect and AC wiring section with optional AC disconnect. There’s no need for a separate DC combiner box. Installers can also eliminate the fuses needed to parallel strings, reducing mismatch losses.

High-voltage inverters reduce costs on projects. The modular design means fewer inverters and AC recombiners are required for solar projects. Balance-of-system equipment is integrated in the inverter, so there’s no need to purchase additional parts. The 1,500-V inverter also improves the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for utility-scale installations.

Installers looking for plug-and-play solutions compatible with the latest voltage trends will find an ideal solution with ABB’s utility-scale string inverter.

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www.solarpowerworldonline.com

11/13/18 3:59 PM

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TOP 2018 PRODUCTS CONCRETE-FREE BALLAST DESIGN OFFERS MORE INSTALLATION OPTIONS TO CONTRACTORS

As seen in APA Solar Racking’s Geoballast Foundation Just because something is tried-and-true doesn’t mean it’s the oneand-only option. Large concrete blocks have successfully been used for years as ballast on ground-mount solar arrays that cannot penetrate the ground. Blocks are shipped or poured in place. But on some of the most temperamental ground conditions (landfills, brownfields), heavy concrete trucks probably shouldn’t be driven around.

Mounting system manufacturer APA Solar Racking has years of knowledge installing ballasted solar projects and found that using wet concrete added too many extra steps and increased man-hours on every job. The company introduced its Geoballast Foundation this year, which uses a wire basket to hold quarry rock in place of concrete blocks to secure solar arrays down. The galvanized steel gabion baskets are shipped flat and only take a few minutes to be unfolded and stabilized with an anchor tube that connects to the rest of the racking hardware.

The baskets are easily moved with a skid steer or carried to each location before filling with quarry rock or other materials. By using locally sourced rock, the Geoballast Foundation costs a fraction of concrete pouring. And crews don’t have to wait for concrete mixer trucks to deliver, so project bottlenecks and scheduling headaches are reduced.

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11/13/18 4:00 PM

Single-source solution for your next solar racking project.

Contact Us: rbisolar.com (513) 242-2051 info@rbisolar.com

Canopy Roof Mount Grount Mount Ballast

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TOP 2018 PRODUCTS FOUR-MODULE RESIDENTIAL MICROINVERTERS HARVEST MORE ENERGY WITH FEWER COMPONENTS

As seen in APsystems’ QS1 microinverter

String inverters and microinverters each have pros and cons in residential installations, but a new microinverter aims to use each product’s best characteristics to make installers’ jobs easier. APsystems’ QS1 residential quad microinverter converts power at the panel level—but can do so for four modules per inverter.

The QS1 is the first microinverter to perform such a feat, and it can also accommodate high-output PV panels up to 375 W, offering 300-WAC output per channel. It comes with wider MPPT voltage range for greater energy harvest during low-light conditions.

The hardworking four-module microinverter is competitively priced because it requires less effort to manufacture and is therefore cheaper to produce. Installers will save money and time on installations since there are fewer products to install. The QS1 is fully compatible with APsystems’ other microinverters, so it can work in retrofit jobs as well as new solar projects.

Since this single microinverter can take the place of four, there are fewer points of failure. This solution cuts costs and eases installation burdens on installers.

More options in power electronics means installers may be able to solarize more roofs that may not have been feasible before the latest technological advancements.

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11/13/18 4:00 PM

LARGER PV+BATTERY SYSTEMS WITHOUT ADDING MORE PROGRAMMING With the New ME-ARTR Advanced Router The ME-ARTR Advanced Router from Sensata Technologies is designed to connect large, residential Magnum Energy solar + storage installations. The Advanced Router provides complete system-level connectivity and programming for up to 42kW harvest, as well as: SEE THE ADVANCED ROUTER AT SOLAR POWER INTERNATIONAL, SEPTEMBER 24-27, ANAHEIM, CA | BOOTH 3474

Program up to seven PT-100 solar charge controllers at once

Firmware upgrades in the field with the microSD drive

Accommodate up to four MS-PAE or MS-PE inverter chargers

“Bulk Always” setting, ideal for charging li-on batteries

Check www.SensataPower.com/me-artr-advanced-remote to learn more.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube for regular updates.

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2018-Sept-Sensata_SolarPowerWorld_Fullpg.indd 1 Sensata 9-18.indd 81

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8/9/18 5:08 PM 11/13/18 1:42 PM

TOP 2018 PRODUCTS ROOFTOP TRACKERS BRING GREATER ENERGY YIELD TO HIGH, OPEN SPACES

As seen in JinkoSolar and Edisun Microgrids’ Eagle PowerTrack

The Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey estimated there were 5.6 million commercial buildings in the United States in 2012, comprising 87 billion sq. ft. That's a lot of underutilized roof space prime for solar generation, as long as the buildings can structurally support solar arrays. Commercial rooftops are often free from shade and obstructions (besides some vents and HVAC systems), and there's no grass to mow. Trackers could squeeze more power out of each panel, but they're not the obvious choice for flat roofs—until now.

Defying the impossible, Edisun Microgrids' PV Booster is a single-axis tracker for individual panels on the roof. Company reps found that if you modularized the tracker, individual point loads could be reduced, and a tracker could successfully work on a roof. The panel pivots from the front edge in a carousel design to keep the whole system closer to the roofline.

Panel manufacturer JinkoSolar took notice. The two companies have partnered on a new performance bundle of Jinko's high-efficiency, 72-cell, 400-W Eagle G2 modules and Edisun's PV Booster, called the Eagle PowerTrack. The individual trackers are spaced out in a row, allowing the panels to move freely in a circle at a permanent tilt angle. The high-efficiency, high-power modules combined with the tracker yields 30% more energy than traditional, stationary panels on a flat roof. The Eagle PowerTrack is a system that could significantly increase the return on investment for C&I customers.

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TOP 2018 PRODUCTS LIGHTWEIGHT, EASY-TO-INSTALL SYSTEMS ENCOURAGE MORE SOLAR ON COMMERCIAL ROOFTOPS

As seen in Esdec's FlatFix system

The main issue with solar on flat commercial rooftops is weight—how to distribute it and manage its long-term care. Systems can't be too heavy because the building may not be able to support that extra weight. And when concrete ballast is used, installers have to be mindful of where it’s positioned, so the mounts and ballast don't damage the roofing membrane during normal array movement with thermal expansion.

The Esdec FlatFix system solves both these issues and more. The commercial system is not new—Esdec has 1.8 GW installed in Europe—but it is new to the U.S. market. FlatFix is made primarily out of lightweight, fiberglass-reinforced plastics. The racks attach to self-leveling baseplates that have "thermal-effect compensation" built in. The baseplates stay secure, but the racks can rotate in their connections as the roof constricts and contracts. Ballast trays are elevated above the roof, running under the long-side of the panels. The ballast and the mounts never have the chance to grind into the roofing membrane.

Esdec was started by two Dutch solar installers, and the company continues to make products with direct installer input. Not only is the FlatFix system easy on a roof, it's easy on the installers. Rails audibly snap together, and the only real hands-on, tooled assembly is tightening clamps. Wire management is integrated into the core mounts, and accessories like optimizer clips also snap on. With fewer weight and labor concerns, the FlatFix system will increase commercial solar rooftop installations in the United States.

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Solar Power Systems Quality in each component.

Whether you’re working in solar OEM, or as a contractor, the quality of essential electrical components is key to an optimum solar power system. Our solar capabilities and products cover wire management, grounding, shut-down devices, inverters, surge protection, circuit breakers and switches, and more.

For more information contact your T&B distributor or T&B representative, or visit tnb.com/TBSolar

tnb.com Š 2018 Thomas & Betts Corporation. All rights reserved.

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TOP 2018 PRODUCTS 3D AERIAL MAPPING HELPS INSTALLERS FIND MORE QUALIFIED PROSPECTS As seen in Nearmap’s MapBrowser

Door-to-door solar sales without thorough roof knowledge will soon be a thing of the past with the use of high-resolution 3D mapping software.

Nearmap’s new MapBrowser is a complete measurement toolset that allows installers to measure roof-pitch, height, width and area from high-resolution oblique aerial images—before they ever set foot on a prospect’s property.

Nearmap’s technology offers a photorealistic perspective of rooftops from all angles using 3D textured mesh. To collect such detailed data, the company uses cameras mounted on fixed-wing aircraft to take multiple angles and record elevation data of rooftops. Users can view the images from three perspectives: vertical, panorama or oblique. The sharp images allow contractors to confirm details they would’ve previously had to do in person.

This tool reduces onsite visits during the quoting and planning stages of projects and complements installers’ remote roof and site inspection workflows. It also allows installers to remotely calculate coverage, material and other costs. The imagery can be annotated with notes, drawings and measurements that provide details of a solar project plan.

MapBrowser can help installers prospect more efficiently by using precise aerial maps. Once they qualify a lead from their desks, they can send potential clients a detailed design proposal with up-to-date, high-resolution aerial imagery. Starting the conversation at this well-informed place is sure to result in more solar customers.

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TOP 2018 PRODUCTS BACK-CONTACT TECHNOLOGY ALLOWS UNOBSTRUCTED POWER GENERATION FROM FRONT OF MODULE

As seen in Silfab Solar's SLA-MWT 320-340 modules

A crystalline silicon solar panel is not just an average, boring solar panel anymore. It could have PERC technology and perform better in low-light conditions. It could be bifacial and produce power from both sides of its cells.

It could have half-cut cells and lower resistive losses. If the solar panel does not have at least one unique feature, what's the point?

Once a feature only promoted by SunPower, back-contact technology just might be the next big trend, precisely because of SunPower's usage.

SunPower's interdigitated back contact (IBC) modules were excluded from the 30% solar panel tariffs this year because of their unique manufacturing process. LG also produces back-contact modules, and now Silfab Solar is joining the game, and more are sure to follow suit.

By connecting all the electrical contacts on the back of the cell, the front of the module is free of busbars and can convert more light into energy. Silfab is using DSM's conductive black backsheet on its SLA-MWT line of back-contact modules to connect neighboring cells to transport even more power. With unobstructed front-side generation and a conductive backsheet, Silfab claims its back-contact modules produce 30% more power than conventional modules.

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TOP 2018 PRODUCTS PANEL-LEVEL STORAGE COULD OPEN UP SOLAR+STORAGE MARKET WHEN BIG BATTERIES JUST DON'T FIT

As seen in Yotta Solar’s SolarLEAF

If inverters and optimizers can work at each individual solar panel, one could argue that panel-level storage shouldn't be too difficult. But it is. Batteries degrade faster under extreme heat or cold, and it gets really hot underneath solar panels and sometimes they're installed in subzero conditions. With solar+storage still in its beginning stages, it's a little audacious for storage manufacturers to skip the push for increased market adoption to focus on panel-level issues.

Yotta Solar likes to think boldly. It will release in 2019 the SolarLEAF, a panel-level energy storage device that is on the right track to solving issues with modularized storage.

It's not the first "microstorage" device (bankrupt JLM Energy has its Phazr system) but SolarLEAF is the first with 100% passive thermal regulation, so no extra energy is used to shield the small battery from hot and freezing temperatures—batteries are kept between 50°F and 95°F. The battery packs attach behind standard 60- to 96-cell panels at the time of installation or as a retrofit. Their plug-and-play design allows for easy energy storage integration without heavy equipment or bulky enclosures.

With the industry warming up to DC-coupled solar+storage systems, panel-level storage falls in line. The SolarLEAF doesn't require a separate inverter since it's looped in to the DC side already, and this improves overall solar+storage system costs and simplifies the interconnection process. At 35 lbs, the SolarLEAF battery packs are bulkier than the average MLPE, so this setup is not the best option for residential installs on pitched roofs.

But for commercial projects with increased room behind panels, the SolarLEAF is a great solar+storage alternative when large-scale lithium-ion batteries are just not possible.

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KELLY PICKEREL

[CONTRACTORS CORNER]

EDITOR IN CHIEF

After four decades on the solarcoaster, Sun Light & Power is still down for the ride Sun Light & Power Berkeley, California The infamous solarcoaster—the ups and downs of the solar market—has taken out a few riders over the years. The last three years alone have been extremely bumpy. The will-it-won’t-it-be-renewed federal ITC headache of 2015 led to an explosive installation year in 2016. Then the uncertainty around potential solar panel tariffs in 2017 led to stockpiling modules and canceled contracts for 2018.

Even the most seasoned solar professional is wrapping up this year with a little motion sickness. Now imagine staying on the solarcoaster for 42 years and still being excited to ride every day. That’s Gary Gerber, founder of Sun Light & Power, a Berkeley, California, installation company that opened its doors in 1976.

“It keeps me getting up in the morning and enjoying going to work,” Gerber said.

“What I do is being part of the solution to some very serious problems we have. People would rather be part of the solution than part of the problem.”

Gerber was a student at UC Berkeley, finishing up a master’s program and working as a teaching assistant for the one and only solar class offered on campus. A friend who was working at an architectural firm designing solar projects had complained to Gerber that no one was willing to build the solar projects. An idea was sparked.

“I don’t know what came over me, but on the last day of that class, I said, ‘Anybody here want to start a solar company? Raise your hand,’” Gerber said. “Two people actually did raise their hands, and they became two of my three partners.”

Podcast Alert!

Listen to this and other Contractors Corner podcasts on solarpowerworldonline.com

It keeps me getting up in the morning and enjoying going to work.

What I do is being part of the solution to some very serious problems we have. People would rather be part of the solution than part of the problem.

Sun Light & Power started off working strictly on solar thermal projects with the architectural firm Interactive Resources because that was the only major solar technology around at the time. Gerber and his associates were so early to the industry that they were making their own solar collectors.

“We went out and sourced copper pipe and we built the frames out of redwood and put glass in over the plates,” he said. “It was exciting times and really very fulfilling. There was nobody in the business at the time, so we felt very much like we were blazing trails.”

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[CONTRACTORS CORNER]

The 1973 oil crisis made people aware of energy usage, but they had little solar knowledge. Gerber said educating customers on a brand new industry was a challenge.

“A solar collector was a total mystery to people,” he said. “One of the graphics we had was a black hose out in the lawn, explaining the sun makes the hose hot. You run the hose and the hot water comes out of the hose. This is what we do. We really had to explain to people this could actually work, that we could boil water [with the sun].”

Sun Light & Power still works with solar thermal systems.

Gerber estimates about 30% of the business is servicing and installing thermal systems. The other 70% is largely commercial PV, primarily in multi-family affordable housing.

“We want to make sure that as many people of lower-income are able to take advantage of solar [as possible],” Gerber said.

“That’s very much in line with our Benefit Corp. mission.”

The company is both a Benefit Corp. and certified B Corp. and just recently transitioned to 100% employee ownership. Sun Light & Power’s 80 employees all seem to enjoy their work in the renewable energy industry as much as Gerber.

“We’re very selective about the people that work here. They’re very dedicated to solar, and there’s a sense of common purpose and camaraderie here,” he said.

Sun Light & Power in the 1970s (above, if you can’t tell) and today (below).

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[CONTRACTORS CORNER]

“This is the only business environment I’ve ever actually worked in. The job I had before this was a teaching assistant— that’s my professional career. What I hear from people who come to work for us is that things are really different here. Just the fact that the type of work we do is so self-satisfying lends itself to people who really love working here.”

We want to make sure that as many people of lower-income are able to take advantage of solar [as possible]. That’s very much in line with our Benefit Corp. mission.

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A new hire liable to love working at Sun Light & Power is Troy Tyler, who recently joined as chief operating officer so Gerber can focus more on ensuring the company’s success for another 40+ years.

He plans to explore how to incorporate storage into Sun Light & Power’s offerings.

The first solar PV systems the company installed in the early 2000s had to have storage because the only inverters available then required a battery system.

But the company has stayed out of the more recent storage cycle.

“We’re quite familiar with storage, and yet the new storage systems now with a whole different set of controls and with utilities standing in the way of storage… we’ve decided to stand back and let those things settle out before we subject our customers to the morass of rules and regulations that are being thrown at interconnection,” Gerber said.

“I think that’s going to be settled out soon, so we’re just starting to install systems that are basically storage-ready, but we’re really not promoting storage to our customers yet.”

When the solarcoaster morphs into the solar+storage coaster, Gerber will have ensured Sun Light & Power is ready for another four decades of successful ups and downs. SPW

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LEADERSHIP IN SOLAR ENERGY

CONGRATULATIONS! Solar Power World is excited to release the winners of our seventh annual Leadership in Solar program. Since we announced the nominees in our January issue and online, our user community has voted on what companies they feel best exemplify solar leadership in 10 categories. We are happy to celebrate the winners here.

B AT T E R I E S / S T O R A G E

Pika Energy

COMPONENTS

Aurora Bearing Company

C O N S U LT I N G

ProSight Specialty Insurance

DISTRIBUTORS

Backwoods Solar Electric Systems

Backwoods Solar www.backwoodssolar.com

I N S TA L L AT I O N

Baja Construction Co.

INVERTERS

SolarEdge

MEASUREMENT

Flex-Core

MODULES

Panasonic

R A C K I N G & M O U N T I N G RBI Solar SOFT WARE

Aurora Solar

Thank you for your innovation.

Your accomplishments are what drive gigawatts and create jobs.

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About LONGi Solar A world leading mono-crystalline solar module manufacturer for achieving best LCOE (levelized cost of electricity) solutions.

LONGi Solar is a world leading manufacturer of high-efficiency mono-crystalline solar cells and modules. The Company, wholly owned by the LONGi Group (SH601012), has focused on p-mono for 18 years and is today the largest supplier of mono-crystalline wafers in the world, with total assets above $5.2 billion (2017). It has plans to reach 45 GW mono-crystalline wafer production capacity by 2020.

Enabled and powered by advanced technology and long-standing experience in mono-crystalline silicon, LONGi Solar shipped approximately 4.6GW of products in 2017, which is a 100% growth rate in three consecutive years. The Company has its headquarters in Xi' an, China and branches in Japan, Europe, North America, India, Malaysia, Australia and Africa.

With a strong focus on the R&D, production and sales & marketing of mono-crystalline silicon products, LONGi Solar is committed to providing better LCOE solutions and promoting the worldwide adoption of mono-crystalline technology.

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Megger... the Pioneer of Insulation Testing.

For over 100 years, Megger has been the leader in insulation testing.

The MIT400/2 series has been proven to perform in the “renewable energy” industry. The MIT400/2 series has been used successfully in both wind and solar applications, from generators and cables to combiner boxes. Find pinched wires and leakage problems before they become dangerous with the Megger line of MIT400/2 series Insulation testers.

Weatherproof IP54 rated High resistance range

Patented analog/digital display with real-time pointer movement Dual digital display (shows test voltage AND measurement result)

DAR, PI and timed test diagnostic testing capability TRMS voltage measurement

Selectable buzzer thresholds/limit alarms

Selectable 200 or 20 mA continuity test CATIV 600 V rated in all test modes

Test result range storage

For your FREE copy of Megger’s A Stitch in Time, Visit www.megger.com/getbook Reference Code: MIT4002_SPW_NOV

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3 year warranty

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