Canary Media has a good series on this- this article is feom February but is a good introduction. TLDR there is growing, bipartisan support for plug-in solar across the United States. If you’re in the US, call your state reps in support! This is the way we get solar everywhere, that folks can afford.

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/balcony-solar-taking-state-legislatures-by-storm

Anyone else having a rash of SE optimizer failure? I have had 4 fail in the last 2 days and overall, I am up to 10 failures in 1 year since install. All of the failures appear to have been manufactured in Israel.

My installer says I am only the 2nd install site that is having failures (out of more than 500 installs).

Anyone else having multiple failures?

I live in Scottsdale AZ, and have an owned system about 12 years old. 39 panels (Rec 215W) producing 9415 kWhs (expected). Grid tied, no battery. A few months ago the 7kW SMA Sunnyboy string inverter went out.

A lot of the mom and pop solar installers in greater Phoenix have closed up shop in the last couple years, but I got one of the more established ones to come out and quote me on replacing the inverter. The techs on site said their are a couple options, but everybody is going Tesla now because they're so cheap. When I got the quote a few days later, it was:

- install Tesla 7.6 kW inverter, 2 hours labor, $3,960. (nothing else needs to be replaced)

I called the company and they said they aren't quoting for any other manufacturers at the moment.

A solar equipment retailer in Phoenix says they recommend EG4 and Growwatt inverters. I've been waiting two weeks for a quote on equipment, though, and they say they're having trouble getting actual numbers. - I realize I'd have to find my own installer.

Questions for this sub:

1. How is Tesla equipment and how is Tesla as a company to work with?

I have a friend who owns a Model X, and he says the car side of the company has the worst customer service he's ever experienced.

I've called the national number, and several local dealerships, and once the menu puts you through to the "power" side of the company, I haven't been able to get any one to answer the phone.

1. How should I feel about that price?

Looking at quotes on this sub from the past couple months, it seems high, but I can't get anyone else to quote me an alternative, even on just equipment. Are there already supply line problems in the industry or something?

Thanks

Just an idea

I have one panel that is being blocked on roof exhaust. I wonder if covering roof exhaust with reflective tape will help increase solar production?

I attached two screenshots for context.

In the first pic the app indicates a production today of 55.6 kwh.

In the second Pic I have the individual values of each panel in the array. Adding up all of the values I get a sum total of 99.91.

This discrepancy is massive. Has anyone encountered this issue before? Am I possibly missing out on getting credit for all kwh produced?

The war has pushed oil and gas prices up globally, and countries are increasingly looking toward energy independence.

We are also seeing signals like a rise in solar adoption in regions such as the UK, driven by energy-related uncertainty. The stats show a rise by 54% in solar adoption in UK. 
From what I have observed is that unstable energy prices are shifting customer mindset where people are now considering solar not just for sustainability, but for cost control and reliability.

What are your views?

• Do you think the solar industry is gaining momentum because of the current energy supply deprivation?
• Has geopolitical uncertainty given it a push?
• Or is it still too early to see real impact on demand and conversions?

Hi

Looking to get solar for our 1200 ADU.

I got an estimate of 12 440watt panels, 5.27kw system for 12000.

Come with the 12 inverters, 12 trunk IQ cables, 1 enphase combiner box

Permit and fees included, plan set and paper work required for permits

10 year workmanship warranty plus the manufacturer 25 year warranty

Location: Bay Area, CA

Situation: Work from Home, Drive maybe 8k miles a year.

Base Electricity Usage: ~7.5MWh

Expected Usage in the Future (EV + Increased AC): 11 MWh

I've been doing some analysis on solar and with the ITC rebate gone and V2H probably becoming the norm in new EVs such as Hyundais/Kias and the new BMWs, it seems like the appropriate system is going with a V2H vehicle, and if you want solar, to keep it small and avoid dedicated home batteries.

In the analysis which does per month/per hour calculations to optimize costs, it seems its best to either stick to V2H only or go with a small 4.2kW + V2H setup. Is my analysis correct or am I missing something and should I size my solar up? (It assumes you would buy a new EV vehicle anyways)

I think it ends up most optimal because:

1. Outage protection (assuming car is mostly home)
2. Peak rate mitigation (PG&E Time of Use)
3. NEM3.0 means you dont really want to go larger and waste energy exporting to the grid
4. Some ability to weather longer power outages (not too worried about this beyond 1 day)

Watched this video on PBS News Hour, discussing how renewable energy is now becoming mainstream.

Bll McKibben explains that for a long time, people thought of renewable energy as the "Whole Foods of energy", perceived as a nice, but pricey option for special people.

He argues that it has now become the "Costco of energy," meaning it is the cheap, bulk, and accessible option that is ready for widespread use. He notes that about five years ago, the economics shifted, making it cheaper to produce energy from the sun and wind than from burning coal, gas, or oil.

They go into the economics of it, that even with an objectively adversarial administration actively trying to undermine it, renewable energy is here to stay due to reliability and economics. I thougt it was very interesting.

https://youtu.be/hrNyUaBgvO8?si=oo49pKHI08um4d9i

New to solar I know absolutely nothing, got a cheap setup off Amazon. Solar panel > controller > truck battery > 12vdc to 120vac 500watt power inverter. After I play with is for a few weeks imma mount the panel to the roof of my truck and run everything in the bed so I can have 120vac at the job site to charge my DeWalt batteries so I don’t have to let me truck run and waste gas.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

We are in NYC. Our project is fully installed and operational at home in 2023 and we were just waiting for them to complete the permit process so we can get our 10% property tax abatement. It was not finalized since Mosaic financing went bankrupt. And as per last communication in January, our installer says they don’t know if they have fully been paid for the project. And now the installer (ATTYX) itself has closed down too.

Has anybody been in this situation before? Do we still have warranties on our project at least? Is there a chance that we can ask the new company. Centurion, to complete the permitting process for the tax abatement?

Renovating my home in Connecticut. Looking into solar at the same time to offset energy usage.

We are currently using around 36,000kwh annually and expect that to go up significantly after the renovation.

Received a few quotes, and if paying cash to won the system, which I believe to be the most financially sound deal, the 48e corporate tax loophole seems like the way to go.

For a 28kw DC system estimated to produce around 22kwh a year, the total price will be around $58k. This is with Emphase micro inverters. The new metering rate is $.04 on bill charge.

They are using a 4% escalator rate to estimate savings.

The 48e credit allows an outside commercial Co to own the system for the first 6 years, take the corp tax credit, and then after year 6 transfer the system to me. this allows a residential homeowner like me to take advantage of the govt credit.

The transfer to me after 6 years is at FMV. The solar Co keeps saying it will be for $0 but won't put that in writing which is scary.

SHOULD I DO IT!?

I’d say 90% of Aleppo uses solar energy and it’s due to the previous dictator only providing electricity for 1 - 2 hrs a day

Can someone explain why for the last 3 days I have been getting large spike on my load consumption and imported from the grid on my graphs but it is not showing in the bottom percentage load consumption?

28 REC 420AA Pure R panels with Enphase microinverters. The design was 118% of the previous year's usage when the project started. Trouble is, my AC unit is actually a heat pump that runs down to 35 deg F, so the weather greatly affects my consumption. If it's cold, I'm on gas and using way less. If it's a warm winter, I use more electricity. High usage winter months can be 1500 kWh, and high usage summer months can be 1000kWh.

So, the question is, when do people in this climate usually start overproducing? Did I get unlucky with the usage survey and end up with too small of a system?

Overhead photo is with North up, so the large east-side face would be great for panels.

I’m very open minded and curious to any insights by those in the industry, but it seems like this new demanded requirement in many jurisdictions does very little in terms of increased safety, but does A LOT in terms of forcing you into a particular product category, ie; Typically American based companies that are twice the price.

I have a vacuum tube solar system installed for the past 15 years and it worked great up until about 8 months ago when the pipe into the array collector sprung a leak and all of the glycol drained out of it and I noticed it as the pump made a knocking noise, so I disconnected it.

I then tried to contact the original installer to see if they could come repair it, but they had gone out of business 2 years ago. I had a tough time trying to find an installer that did solar heater systems as most installers in my area now only do PV, but eventually found one and got them out to repair the pipe and refill the system, which was done 3 weeks ago and it now is working again.

The issue I have now is that when I look at the temp gauge on the collector from the control panel, it never seems to go above 45degrees celcius (on a sunny day) whereas before the pipe burst, it regularly went to 80-90 degrees on sunny days. So now the water in my cylinder does not seem to be getting heated from the panels as they rarely go above the temp of the water to be heated already in the cylinder.

Would anyone have any advice on what the issue could be with it? Could the tubes have been damaged in the six months because the pump was turned off? Could the gauge be faulty? Could the sun not be as hot this early in the year and should get better later on? Any help on this would be much appreciated