By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Today is the day when we say thank you to the veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces for their service and sacrifice to a grateful nation. Some of us know that we could never serve them the way they have served us. But what we can do as the solar industry is try to pay them back by giving them jobs when they come home – something The Solar Foundation has worked diligently since the Department of Energy chose to fund a Solar for Vets program back in 2016. According to The Solar Foundation’s 2017 … Read More →

The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon We have all seen those big power plants outside cities that provide power — historically from coal, oil and nuclear and now more recently, natural gas. These utility power plants have served us well for over a century. But technology is passing them by. These old central generation power plants are obsolete. They are more expensive than power generated by wind, solar and energy storage. Even some of the newest gas peaker plants under construction are destined to be obsolete within a decade. New power generating technologies – solar, wind, battery storage, distributed energy … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent As community solar continues to grow – and it is one of the fastest-growing segments of the solar industry – it’s becoming increasingly necessary to figure out how to manage subscriber accounts. But the question is this: Where can community solar array owners find the software necessary to do just that? Well, one developer out of Denver is looking to answer the question. Pivot Energy today announced it has launched SunCentral, a white-labeled community solar customer management cloud platform. The service was designed to improve the customer experience for community solar subscribers, and optimize the … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Managing Editor Yann Brandt has done a masterful job since the midterm elections of highlighting the victories clean energy advocates won around the country, and he has rightly suggested that the momentum for clean energy is becoming more overwhelming every day (except in places like Arizona, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever). But an article from the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, suggest the news might be even better than even Yann and I think it was. In the article, writer Christy Goldfuss highlights six new governors who campaigned strongly on dealing … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent For those of us who love the solar industry, storage is the next frontier. If we can figure out how to marry solar + storage, then the rest of the market opens up and mass adoption arrives in a big green wave. But much like the solar module manufacturing segment of the industry, there are too many battery manufacturers out there in the market. To allow companies to make money and thrive – meaning keeping innovation and breakthrough ideas alive – consolidation is a critical part of that equation. So when a company like NantEnergy, … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent In the hoopla surrounding Tesla Home Energy and Sunrun as they battle it out for the top spot in the residential solar installation business, it’s easy to forget about who is in second place – and who is installing solar at an ever-increasing pace as its steady growth continues to show. Vivint Solar announced it has installed 1 gigawatt (GW) of solar energy systems since its launch. The company installed 1 GW in just seven years, making it one of the fastest residential solar providers to reach this significant milestone. Vivint Solar first announced the … Read More →

The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon We take it for granted that you can install solar on your home or business anytime, just as you can make any other energy saving improvement. Unfortunately, the reality is there are a host of restrictions on solar and battery storage. Many of these restrictions are due to arbitrary regulations (solar panels cannot be visible from the street), as well as rules promulgated by utilities to maximize their profits. Riddle me this, Solarman: why does your local utility encourage you to install an 8 kw EV charger, but makes it extremely complicated (sometimes impossible) … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Tom Steyer is waking up this morning to the realization that when you get involved in politics – particularly clean energy politics – sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. In Arizona and Nevada, Steyer had worked tirelessly to support two constitutional amendments, one in each state, that would have cemented the goal of a 50% renewable portfolio standard by 2030 into law. And just like the rest of the country, the results from those initiatives turned out to be a mixed bag. In Nevada, voters decided to pass the amendment with 60% of the … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent By the time you read this, polls will have already opened on the East Coast. It’s your opportunity to shape the country in which you live, so get out today and vote like your life depends on it. In several states – Arizona and Nevada leap immediately to mind – clean energy is on the ballot. In both states, constitutional amendments are on the ballot that would raise the renewable portfolio standards (RPS) to 50% by 2030. Both amendments have been hard fought contests, with progressive billionaire Tom Steyer fighting hard against entrenched utility interests … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Steve Hanely over at CleanTechnica reports that a new Consumer Reports’ survey reinforces what most of you have known since you joined the solar industry – renewable energy is popular among Americans. In words someone like me can appreciate (because I wish I’d written them first), Hanley writes: The Trump maladministration wants to choke us all with more emissions from coal-fired generating plants, but a survey of 1200 Americans conducted by GfK for Consumer Reports finds the vast majority of Americans want more renewable energy and less power plant pollution. The survey also reveals that … Read More →