ONTILITY is changing the face of solar energy product distribution in Houston and may be setting a trend for the industry nationwide – not the first time this 18 month old company has made game changing moves. On April 1st (no, this isn’t one of those jokes) ONITLITY opened one of the largest solar products distribution centers in the U.S. by expanding its current warehouse on the north side of Houston. This expansion brings ONTILITY’s warehouse capacity to over 80,000 square feet. OK, nothing revolutionary there right? What’s new is that the new distribution center includes a full retail store. Customers can get counter and will-call service. They can get personalized product or project support. They can look at the latest inverter or racking components before they buy. What comes to mind are the very best electrical supply houses and auto parts stores. The kind of place where the pros go, where you can talk face to face with a well-informed expert who is going to make sure you walk out with what you need. So, not a new business model, but certainly a first for the solar industry. And this is in addition to ONTILITY’s stock of more than 2000 pallets of solar modules – part of its 20M inventory of solar modules, inverters, racking, balance of system components, solar attic fans, solar thermal systems, GE EV charging stations and other green supplies.

Keep an eye on these guys in Houston. They are agile, smart and know how to bring superior service to the solar industry.

As we all know, “Solar” is becoming a household word. And while most people barely understand the inner workings of a Solar PV system, they fully understand the idea of “free” electricity from the sun. So as the world economy continues to fluctuate and the “safe” investments of the past falter, people are looking for other ways to save money. They’re drawn to the idea of sending less money to the utilities, while doing something that’s good for the planet. And it has become obvious to most people that renewable energy is a good investment that pays long term dividends both financially and ecologically. Yet, solar PV systems are not inexpensive. While prices have continued to drop significantly in recent years, the cost of a properly sized and installed system can quickly rival the cost of some small automobiles. That has been a significant barrier to the growth of solar.

Stepping in to fill a perceived void of “affordable solar” have been any number of sometimes well-meaning people offering information on how you can “Build your own solar modules.” I see advertisements daily in my inbox and on the sidebars of many mainstream media websites and social networking forums. With statements like, “It is much easier than you think…” or “Let me show you how…”, the untrained reader might think that these represent good options.

So this blog is for all the homeowners and Do-It-Yourself types who have seen those advertisements and have been tempted to pursue a homebuilt solar system. My message to you… Don’t Do It! Let me explain why.

Solar PV systems are not that terribly complicated, but they are built around pieces of equipment that go through rigorous testing prior to being put into widespread use. Why? Because electricity is one of those things that is quite safe when handled properly, but can unleash all kinds of harm if allowed to run amuck. As a result, most of our country is wired according to the National Electric Code, or NEC. One of the earliest rules in the book is that we only use equipment that is listed. “Listed” essentially means that a recognized electrical testing agency has tried to break it and failed. So the equipment is safe if properly installed (something else which is covered in great detail in NEC).

Why should we care about listing? Mostly because the NEC was put together by the NFPA – National Fire Protection Association. And they’re primary goal is to make sure that your house does not burn down! We should listen to them. Because if we start putting a bunch of home-made solar modules of roofs of buildings, the likelihood of something going terribly wrong increases to unacceptable levels. What little money might be saved is just not worth the increased risks.

So how do you know when something is too good to be true? If you’re a home owner who wants to know more about solar PV systems, come down to the Renewable Energy Roundup in Fredericksburg, TX on September 24th thru 26th. There will be many qualified companies (including ONTILITY) who can help you with your questions. Better yet, join us for either our 5-day Entry Level Solar PV class or our 1-day Solar PV Technician class. You may not walk away with the skills to do your own install using listed equipment, but you’ll definitely be a better educated consumer with a deeper understanding of what makes Solar tick. And that’s good for all of us.

Cheers!

After much confusion and many ambiguous answers surrounding the “Buy American Provision” the Department of Energy (DOE) made an announcement that should help clear up many of the misconceptions regarding which PV modules can be used for projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). On August 6, 2010, the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) of the Department of Energy, issued a nationwide limited public interest waiver under Section 1605 (Buy American Provisions) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for EERE-funded projects for incidental and/or ancillary solar Photovoltaic equipment when such equipment is used in solar installations containing either domestically manufactured PV cells or panels.

The reasoning behind this announcement stems from research performed by the EERE over the past few months on the US PV manufacturing industry where they realized that grantees’ have very few options when looking to procure solar equipment that is "Buy American" compliant. The DOE also recognized that determining exactly where final manufacturing occurs in the complex solar production chain is very complicated given the reality that it is quite common today for a PV manufacturer to ship components to several different nations before a complete and ready to function module is produced. The DOE looked to 3 different strategies to solve this problem and found that they could: (1) follow the current interpretation of the "Buy American" provisions and require that only the modules be produced in the United States, irrespective of the origin of the cells contained in the modules; (2) apply the interpretation that the modules and cells are distinct manufactured goods and thus both must be produced in the United States; or (3) choose a more inclusive approach that allows a solar installation to comply if either the cells or the module are manufactured in the United States. What they found was that if they acted upon option 1 there would only be 4 manufactures that grantees could use and still satisfy the "Buy American" Provision. If they went with option 2 they realized that they would be limited even more by allowing for only 2 Buy American compliant manufacturers. Therefore the DOE chose to combine both option 1 and 2 resulting in a total number of 9 manufactures for grantees to choose from.

Basically, what the DOE is saying is that since the Buy American Provision does not contain any requirement with regard to where components of a manufactured good actually come from but instead focuses primarily on where the end product is assembled. The EERE has issued a public interest waiver to the Buy American Provisions for six months (ending February 6, 2011) for the purchase of the following solar PV equipment: (1) domestically-manufactured panels containing foreign-manufactured PV cells; (2) foreign-manufactured panels comprised of 100 percent domestically-manufactured PV cells; and (3) any ancillary items and equipment (including without limitation charge controllers, combiners and disconnect boxes, breakers and fuses, racks, trackers, lugs, wires, cables, and all other incidental equipment - with the exception of inverters and batteries - utilized in either #1 or #2, regardless of country of origin.

So what are the drawbacks? Well, first of all this waiver expires February 6th, 2011 and secondly it doesn’t apply to Thin-film. But probably the most problematic issue regarding this announcement is that the waiver does not specify if equipment will still be considered compliant if it’s bought prior to the expiration date and installed after February 6th, 2011. Hopefully the DOE will come through soon with some clarification on this subject or even extend or eliminate the expiration date altogether.

The DOE was smart to move on this when they did. Without an interpretation of this clause some detrimental effects to the emerging domestic PV industry may have been waiting for us around the corner. The United States produced 6% of the world's cells and module components and assembled 9% of modules in 2009. Although this is a pretty embarrassing statistic it shows that we are capturing similar proportions of different sides of the industry. Since module assembly is a relatively simple process with the least amount of value and the least amount of jobs when compared to manufacturing module components such as the cell, which undeniably has the most value in terms of both intellectual property and jobs, it’s easy to see the DOE’s reasoning behind this interpretation. The whole idea of the ARRA was to create jobs and get the economy moving again. The American PV industry probably stands to benefit from this act more than any other industry in the U.S. By allowing both cell manufacturing and module assembly to take place in other countries of origin but still qualify, essentially, emerging American businesses in the PV space need not focus on one side of the industry rather than the other. Thus, the new interpretation props up both the cell manufacturing and module assembly which in the long run should yield a larger American presence in the PV industry and help steer manufactures toward a more domestic vertically integrated supply chain, create jobs and at the same time allow us to chip away at our ever increasing export deficit.

Read the full announcement:

In the last few months, there has been a lot of attention by the main stream media to the Renewable Energy revival. It seems that I can find an article on Solar Photovoltaics, LEED construction or just “Going Green” in almost every issue of my local paper here in Dallas. Multiple articles in one issue are not unheard of. The encouraging part is that most of the articles are very positive – not something I’m used to from our media.

Now I don’t know how much of this we can attribute to the current administration in Washington, D.C., but I’m sure it doesn’t hurt. What I do know is that Earth Days and other renewable energy events I’ve been to recently have been better attended than similar events just a few years ago. And the increased attendance is not just people already committed to “going green.” I’m seeing people from all factions of life – Retirees, Boomers and even the younger Gen-Y crowd. That’s important. Without a genuine interest by the average citizen, even if it is purely financial, it doesn’t really matter what kind of legislation is passed to support thinking green. People have to fight for it if we are to achieve a new mindset in our energy consumption habits.

A recent example of just such a battle warmed my heart as I’ve been dealing with similar issues. Homeowners in a North Texas community decided that they wanted to put a Solar PV system on their home. The system would not be visible from the street as the south side of the house faced their back yard. Not only did the homeowners association turn them down when they sought permission for the system, a lawsuit was soon filed by the HOA against the homeowners. Only through the support of neighbors who rallied for renewable energy cause did the HOA finally decide to back down. The system was installed and more are planned for other homes in the neighborhood.

A happy ending no doubt, but only after a legal exchange that should have never occurred. HOA’s should be embracing the green movement, rather than falling back on the “We’ve always done it this way” mentality. Research has proven that the application of green building techniques and renewable energy upgrades always increase the value of a home. Always… I thought that was the whole point of HOA’s – to protect the value of the neighborhood. Yet the ignorance persists on the boards of far too many HOA’s. With luck, the Texas legislature will reign in the over-zealous HOA’s that continue to use poor judgment when it comes going green. I look forward to that day so that I can install my own Solar PV system and do my part for our planet.

In my last blog post titled “Early Solar Dealers are Positioning for Boom”, I discussed how dealer/installers were positioning themselves for the “solar boom” that is beginning to take place around the country. Just over one month later I continue to see this same boom, expanding quickly… even in the Ontility office.

Ontility moved to our current Houston Headquarters facility in mid-2009. Our warehouse was not full and had plenty of room for pallets of solar panels. Even some of our offices lacked tenants. The industry has quickly grown; so has Ontility. As more and more Installers began to realize the phenomenal services and excellent product that we provide, we were suddenly over the intended capacity of our office building.

The last month has been hectic at the office to say the least. The construction workers became a familiar faces, phone calls were being interrupted by the now-familiar pounding of a hammer next door. You can call it “growing pains” if you wish, but the end-result speaks for itself.

New offices line the building and are full with hard working Ontility employees. Our warehouse space has doubled, allowing for even more of your most desired supplies to be stocked and ready to ship on a moment’s notice. We even have a new training facility where we are able to hold advanced dealer and additional training classes. How many companies do you know that have a 200 square foot demonstration roof set up indoors for classroom use?

Come check out the new office this week during our free D101 – New Dealer Orientation class on Thursday April 15th. If you enjoy the orientation, you can stay for D102 – Quote & Estimate Process – a class co-taught by me!

Remember that you can always sign up for classes here: http://ontility.com/training/class-schedule-and-registration

And call me, Hollis Miles, directly at 281-854-1409 if you would like to hear more about the best pricing in the industry. I hope to see you around the office soon.

I hear lot's of discussion around Suntech as compared to Canadian Solar and Yigli. Here is the simple version of the discussion in black and white. Keep in mind, these manufactures are all priced pretty similarly.

Efficiency/Watts per Square Foot:

Suntech's 195S-24/Ad+ panel has an efficiency of 15.3% and a watts per square foot of 14.2 vs. Canadian Solar's best of 13.8 watts per square foot on their CS5A-190 and Yingli Green's 12.3 watts per square foot on their YL175Wp. Higher watts per square foot/efficiency will mean less labor in installing less square footage of panels to achieve the desired total wattage. Edge - Suntech

Power Tolerance:

Suntech's 195S-24/Ad+ panel has a power tolerance of -0W to +5W, which Canadian solar has a power tolerance of -5W to +5W and Yingli Green's power tolerance is -3% to +3%. This means that every Suntech panel will have flash test data which shows it produces at least it's nameplate wattage of 195W if not more. Whereas with Canadian Solar if the panel is rated at 190W, then the panel could flash test as low as 184.3W and Yingli Green's 175W panel could flash test as low as 169.75w. So with Canadian Solar and Yingli Green there is good likelihood that some of the panels you purchase will not produce energy relative to their nameplate wattage. Edge - Suntech

Warranty:

Suntech's performance warranty has an industry best and unique 4 step process guaranteeing 95% of day one rated energy production at year 5, 90% at year 12, 85% at year 18 and 80% at year 25, whereas with both Canadian Solar and Yingli Green, consumers will need to wait till year 10 (90%) to potentially submit panels for warranty purposes if they are not producing at least 90% of their day one energy production in year 10 and then wait another 15 years till year 25 to see if their panels are producing 80% of their day one rated energy production. Additionally, when Suntech panels are evaluated, Suntech wants you to use the nameplate wattage of the panel as the reference point for the day one energy production, vs. Canadian Solar and Yingli Green wanting consumers to use Pmin. Pmin for Canadian would be their name plate wattage minus 5w's and Pmin for Yingli would be their name plate wattage minus 3%. Edge - Suntech

Volume and consistency:

Suntech's tight tolerances on it's production lines and it's ability to produce more crystalline solar panels than any other manufacturer, enables Suntech to commit significant volumes of the same name plate wattage vs. other companies which do not have these tight tolerances and production capacity. Edge - Suntech

The solar industry is moving at light speed, things may and probably will change over time, but this is how we see it right now. Big Edge - Suntech