Once a solar panel system is installed, you’ll generally only see the shiny new panels on your property. However, the solar racking beneath them is an integral part of any solar installation.
Continue readingDoes solar-plus-storage still work during an outage?
Battery storage paired with solar panels is a great way to save money on electricity bills in the long term, especially with new rate plans like time-of-use becoming more prevalent. But does adding a battery mean you’ll be able to produce, store, and use electricity with solar when the grid is down? Do you even need a battery? In this article, we’ll dissect how solar and storage can make for an effective grid resiliency technique.
Continue readingAn overview of Lumin’s energy management system
When thinking about installing a solar or a solar-plus-storage system at your home or business, there’s one piece of information that is of the utmost importance: how much electricity do you use, and which of your home appliances use that electricity. That’s exactly where Lumin can help: the three-year-old, Charlottesville, Virginia-based company is joining the relatively nascent field of creating smart circuits, allowing you to dynamically choose or automate what to power with your solar and storage, which is especially useful in the event of an outage.
Continue readingSolar news: November 15th, 2019
In this week’s Solar News Roundup, new projections for solar energy see the technology becoming the world’s largest energy source by 2035, and SunPower splits into two companies: a manufacturer and an installer.
Continue readingBenefits of solar-powered air source heat pumps
If you’re already considering installing a solar panel installation, you’re probably familiar with the positive impact it will have on your monthly electricity bill: but what if you could also substantially decrease your monthly heating and cooling bills with your new system? You can maximize your energy bill savings and decrease your carbon footprint by pairing your solar panels with energy-efficient air source heat pumps.
Continue readingHighlights from the Tracking the Sun report
One of the best resources for tracking trends in the solar industry was just released. The recently published annual Tracking the Sun report from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) describes price and technology trends for distributed solar projects nationally, collecting project-level data from approximately 1.6 million systems through the end of 2018. The latest edition of the report, which is now in its twelfth year, finds that prices for distributed solar power systems continued to fall in 2018, that industry practices continue to evolve, and that systems are getting bigger and more efficient.
Continue readingShould I sign a solar contract before a site visit?
Solar is a first-time investment for most property owners in the U.S. today. As such, at some point during the process of researching solar, you may want to sit down with an installer, ask questions and get a finalized proposal for the job. With this request (often referred to as a ‘Site Visit’) a number of installers may ask you to sign an agreement before coming out to the house.
Continue readingSolar news: November 1st, 2019
In this week’s Solar News Roundup, Tesla announces its newest version of the famed Solar Roof, and corporate renewable procurements reach a new record in 2019.
Continue readingTesla Q3 2019 earnings call: what you need to know
As a publicly-traded company, Tesla presents quarterly reports to shareholders, analysts, and the media about the state of the company. While most coverage of these quarterly earnings calls focuses on the company’s electric vehicle business or their financial standing, we want to provide an analysis of what their reports reveal about Tesla’s solar and storage business. With that in mind, here’s what you need to know from Tesla’s Q3 2019 earnings call:
Continue readingCritter guards/bird netting for solar panels: protect your system from squirrels & birds
A surprising threat to your solar panels may be the animals that live in the area surrounding your home. Birds and squirrels can damage your solar setup in several ways, leading to unwanted repair costs and headache. One solution to solar’s animal problem is to install “critter guards,” a physical barrier between your panels and the local fauna.
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