Commercial Solar 2/3

May 8, 20162 min read

Cost Trends in the Solar Industry

Lower costs trends in the solar industry are creating a boom. At the end of 2015 there were over 200,000 people employed in the industry,...

Apr 25, 20161 min read

Solar Power in the Sunshine State

When I first got into solar, Florida seemed to be a natural market. After all, it’s the sunshine state. In spite of the sun, there is one...

Apr 11, 20161 min read

Loans for Financing your Solar Installations

The economics for rooftop solar are terrific — typical paybacks in the 4-10 year range. From a Return on Investment (ROI) standpoint,...

Mar 31, 20162 min read

How to Tell if your Solar Panels Are Working - The Importance of Solar Monitoring

The sun is shining brightly on your rooftop solar system (or the system you hope to have). But how can you tell if those photons falling...

Mar 29, 20161 min read

How Do Solar Companies Find Their Customers

According to a recent GTM/SEIA study, residential solar installation costs in the U.S. were basically unchanged from Q4 2014 to Q4 2015....

Mar 24, 20161 min read

Affordable Solar Panels Made In The U.S.A

Most of my rooftop solar customers express a preference for buying U.S. made solar panels. And they were willing to pay a premium for...

Mar 21, 20161 min read

Electronics Beats Mechanics for Energy Generation and Storage

Our society’s energy generation transition from wood to coal to oil to gas has been steady and obvious. Now we are benefiting from the...

Mar 17, 20161 min read

How Many Solar Panels Do I Need

For a homeowner, determining how many solar panels you need is a simple question. But in order to answer the question accurately, solar...

Mar 14, 20161 min read

Future of the Residential Solar Industry with Paula Mints

The “solar coaster” is not the newest daytime ride at six flags, but a term for the cyclical ups and downs of the solar industry. Like...

Mar 10, 20161 min read

Finding an Experienced and Certified Solar Contractor

Every residential solar contractor’s website talks about their experience, knowledge of rooftop solar products, and happy customers (full...

Feb 22, 20161 min read

Financing Your Commercial Solar Installation

Commercial solar has lagged behind utility scale and residential solar for two reasons. The first is that paybacks for commercial solar...

Feb 16, 20162 min read

Understanding Proposals for Home Solar

Ahhh….it’s almost springtime. The weather is getting warmer, the trees are starting to bud, and people are starting to think about their...

Jan 17, 20161 min read

Solar Incentives in 2016

Over the past few months you may have seen or heard a continuous stream of ads warning about the imminent demise of solar incentives,...

Jan 12, 20162 min read

New Year's Energy Resolutions

If only all our New Year’s Resolution were this easy. Luckily, saving energy is easier than losing weight after gorging over the...

Jan 4, 20161 min read

Equipment for Your Commercial Solar Installation

Whenever I land in a city I can’t help noticing how few — if any — commercial rooftops have solar panels. Historically, there have been...

Nov 16, 20152 min read

PACE Financing for Homes and Businesses with Cisco Devries

A rooftop solar system is an expensive up-front investment. The typical 5 kw system costs about $20,000 – or $14,000 after the 30%...

Nov 11, 20151 min read

Tips for Lower Cost Rooftop Solar Installations

Headline: “Low Cost Rooftop Solar.” What’s not to like? If you’re a homeowner you can save thousands of dollars shopping around for the...

Oct 20, 20152 min read

The Fight for Fair Solar Electric Rates

$0.25/kwh – what a typical California homeowner pays for electricity (based on current PG&E rates at the U.S. average of 12,000 kwh/yr)...

Oct 12, 20151 min read

Solar Installer Business Code

I typed the words “free solar” into Google and got 747,000,000 hits in half a second. We all know that solar systems are not free. But...

Sep 28, 20151 min read

Solar Marketing With Tor Valenza

Solar panels are commodities — not very different than the bottled water you find on a supermarket shelf. Granted some panels are more...