Thoughts on Solar by Run on Sun's Founder & CEO, Jim Jenal

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, solar powerhouse SunPower sued SolarCity and five of its employees in federal court on Februrary 13.  Alleging violations of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act as well as various state law claims including theft of trade secrets, the Complaint is less of a Valentine and more of an existential threat to SolarCity’s commercial solar division.

The suit alleges that the five employees - all of whom previously worked for SunPower before being employed by SolarCity - illegally accessed SunPower computers and stole tens of thousands of computer files.  Indeed, it appears from the documents filed with the court, that SunPower has some fairly extensive forensic evidence of the theft, noting the specific types of USB drives that were used to acquire the stolen files and where and when the downloading occurred.  Assuming that evidence holds up to review by computer experts, it could be pretty damning against the five former employees.

Far less clear, however, is whether there is actually any case to be made against SolarCity.  Having lititgated a number of corporate espionage cases (in one of my earlier lifetimes), I know that it can be difficult to connect the dots between the illicit conduct of the former employees and their new employer.  It is the classic question of “What did SolarCity know, and when did it know it?“  Interestingly, SolarCity put out a statement regarding the suit, but did not expressly deny any of the allegations. Instead, it simply noted that:

SolarCity upholds high standards in operational integrity for itself and its employees. SolarCity takes trade secret issues very seriously and we will ensure that we act in accordance with the law.

(Curiously, that statement does not appear on the SolarCity website’s list of press releases, but you can find the entirety of the statement here.)

It is unfortunate to see two well-known solar companies involved in such a dispute, but it was probably inevitable.  Indeed, the history of Silicon Valley is replete with similar lawsuits and as the financial stakes in the solar industry increase, the potential for such actions will also increase.

Of course, the public is unlikely to ever learn the whole truth behind this story - as common as such lawsuits are, public trials are a rarity.  Factor in SolarCity’s rumored desire to go forward with an IPO this year and the likelihood of a settlement increases dramatically.

We will keep you posted as new developments unfold.

We wrote recently about an unhappy experience for a homeowner when the solar power system installed by the previous owner destroyed itself in Pasadena’s big December windstorm.  Solar is just not a Do-It-Yourself project, and so, after conferring with the current homeowner we set out to Make it Right (with an obligatory shout-out to Mike Holmes).  We thought the contrast between what we found when we came out after the storm and what we have now left in its place, would be instructional.

First, a reminder of what we saw when we came out after the storm:

That’s angle iron attached to the now destroyed solar panels, with pieces of PVC pipe used as standoffs and a varied assortment of wood screws used to attach the entire mess, er, array to the roof.  Given that the screws weren’t even in the rafters, it is a surprise that the system stayed in place as long as it did.

We took a different approach in making this right.  We started by using real lag bolts - 5/16 x 3″ - to attach our 6″ standoffs to the roof and included proper flashings.

Each of those standoff is firmly attached to one of the roof rafters with two lag bolts, meaning that they are not going to pull out regardless of the wind that we receive.

The previous system used an old Xantrex GT3.0 inverter (although the particular model there was just older than those in the Xantrex inverter recall notice) so we decided to upgrade to Enphase micro-inverters.  (As we noted in the previous post, there are a fair number of trees around this site so micro-inverters will definitely improve the system’s yield.)  Here’s how the racking (Unirac Solarmount-I, aka, Clicksys), the micro-inverters and the continuous ground wire looked, just before we added the panels:

The prior array connected to the inverter by attaching a junction box directly onto the roof with a hole drilled through the roof to accept flex conduit that snaked back to the inverter.  There was no flashing, and the j-box ripped away from the roof in the storm.  We took a different approach, attaching our j-box to the rails and using EMT through a properly flashed roof opening.  The result looks good and will function properly in any weather.

(I particularly like how the conduit bends down toward the roof (to avoid the panels) and curves cleanly into the j-box.  Velvet just does lovely conduit work!)

So here it is, the final product:

The replacement system consists of 10 Sanyo 225 Watt solar panels driving 10 Enphase M210 micro-inverters.  More importantly for the present homeowner, this is a system that he can rely upon for many years to come - and isn’t that why you hire the pros?  So please, don’t Do-it-Yourself, hire a pro who will Do-it-Right!

Today a friend of mine, and a friend of the solar industry, died.

Heather Andrews was a fierce advocate for solar power - so much so that her Twitter handle was PVAddict.  That is how I met her - on Twitter and via subsequent TweetUps at solar conferences.  She was a frequent commenter on this blog and on our Facebook page, but more than anything else, she simply loved the idea of installing solar and doing it the right way.

Indeed, Heather was a stickler for doing it the right way - she was a proud member of IBEW and she taught classes on how to properly install solar power systems.  Whenever anyone had a question about how something should be done, Heather was happy to chime in with her insights - always in a positive and supportive way.  Unlike some who want to lord their knowledge over those still struggling to figure things out, Heather was happiest helping others.  She exemplified the very best in our industry - smart, dedicated, and a joy to be around.

She fought her illness these past few months with the same courage and tenacity that she brought to the solar industry.  Sadly, this was one obstacle that she could not ultimately overcome with her love and optimism.  Still, she remained positive through all of her pain and difficulties as demonstrated by one of her last tweets:

Promise that when things settle a bit I’ll get back into the full swing of the Twitterverse and openly show my adoration for #solar…

It is now up to the rest of us to carry forward her “adoration for solar” and to help fulfill the destiny in which she believed: a world powered by clean, renewable energy - installed the right way!

I love you Heather and I will try my best to be true to your vision.  Rest in peace.

The Web is littered with sites proclaiming the benefits of solar as a Do-It-Yourself project and we have previously written about the perils of trying to do solar yourself.  But the recent windstorm in Pasadena provided dramatic proof that some things in life should be left to the pros - and solar is one of them.

Take this installation for example - in a lovely part of Pasadena, the previous homeowner designed and installed this system which had a number of significant problems from the get-go.  Here is the view of the site from the north looking south:

The panels that are mounted on the garage go all the way to the ridge, exposing them to higher wind forces.  There are enormous trees to the west and south-east that will provide significant amounts of shade.  The panels on the main roof (that mostly shaded shiny spot in front of the palm tree) are even worse as they are directly facing the tree to the south.  Indeed, from this view from the south, the panels on the main roof are completely invisible:

The array on the garage is pitched at 18° whereas the array on the main roof is completely flat.  Both arrays feed the same inverter which had only one MPPT channel - meaning that this system was never able to function at maximum efficiency.  Not a good design.

Now factor in the force of once-in-a-decade winds and life takes a definite turn for the worse.  The new homeowner called us to come out and assess the damage. Here’s how the array on the garage appeared when we arrived:

It doesn’t look any better in the other direction:

What happened here?

This array was attached to the roof using angle-iron from the local hardware store and simple wood screws, not lag bolts, to keep that hardware in place.  Here’s a close-up showing this homebrew attachment “system":

Those simple wood screws are a poor substitute for proper lag bolts but the previous homeowner didn’t even give his system a fighting chance as he ignored the rafters altogether (even though they were clearly visible) and simple screwed his gear into the plywood under the shingles. The result was as predictable as it was unfortunate:

Moral of the story?  The cost of adding solar professionally continues to drop, whereas the cost of doing it wrong is as steep as it ever was.

It was only good luck that prevented these panels from flying into the neighbor’s back yard.  If the wind had come during the day when the panels were generating power (instead of the middle of the night) the possibility of arcing and fire could have made things much worse.

So please, if you are thinking of adding solar as a DIY project this year, think again and call a pro.

Back in October, we wrote about some early trends from LADWP’s restart of their Solar Incentive Program and we thought it would be worthwhile to see how things have fared in the months since. LADWP had some flaws in the dataset issued in December so we decided to wait until the next revision which came out last week. (You can access the dataset here.)  As before, when reporting on project costs/Watt, we used the reported cost and the CSI AC Watts as we believe that is a more reasonable reflection of the value of the projects being proposed.

Prediction Update

In our previous post, we predicted that the Residential rebate program would drop from Step 5 (paid at $2.20/Watt) down to Step 6 (paid at $1.62/Watt) on or about November 26, 2011.  The last confirmed rebate reservation to be paid under Step 5 was #1120 and it was submitted on December 12 and confirmed on December 30.  So our November 26 prediction was not too far off, and a complete application that was submitted by then should have received a Step 5 rebate.

We also previously predicted that the residential sector would run out of rebate funds around April 3 of this year.  How has that prediction held up?  The chart below summarizes requested rebate amounts by week starting with the program restart on September 1, 2011 up through last week.  Also shown is the cumulative amount requested and a linear trendline.

As of the last day in the data, the total rebate amounts requested was $11.2 million out of the available $20 million.  It is also apparent from the graph that there has been a significant decline in the requested amounts following week 15 (starting December 8, 2011).  Our revised prediction is that the residential sector will run out of money around May 7, 2012.

Who’s Hot?

A program of this size provides some interesting insights into which manufacturers have the “go-to products” in terms of number of projects and total Watts.  Here is the data from the Residential sector:

Yingli leads the way thanks to their heavy use by SolarCity which accounted for 144 of the 188 projects using the Chinese panel.  Kyocera was a strong second, again benefiting from their use by SolarCity in 137 of their 155 projects.  Verengo Solar drove the demand for Suntech panels, accounting for 75 of their 99 projects.  Canadian Solar is the true democratic player in this field, its 80 projects were distributed amongst 31 different installers!

Not surprisingly, different panels demand different prices, but the results are not as clear as they might be due in part to how SolarCity includes its accounting/financing costs into its reported costs.  As a result, both Yingli and Kyocera are substantially higher on average in the data than one would otherwise expect.  For example, Yingli comes in at $8.91/Watt on average whereas Suntech is a mere $6.17/Watt - with both of these being top-tier Chinese panels.  The two manufacturers renowned for their high-efficiency, high-cost products - SunPower and Sanyo - came in at $7.60/Watt and $8.07/Watt respectively.  No one in the industry believes that Yingli panels outperform those produced by SunPower and Sanyo.

Similarly, it is interesting to see what the distribution looks like in the realm of inverters.

No surprise that SMA leads the way; after all, SMA is the largest manufacturer of solar inverters in the world.  Their popularity is driven not only by major players like SolarCity (65 projects with SMA) and Verengo (89), but collectively by 55 different installers.  Contrast that with Fronius, which achieved its #2 ranking almost entirely thanks to SolarCity which accounted for 206 of the 231 projects (89.2%).

Coming in at a respectable third place was Enphase Energy with its 74 projects being distributed amongst 31 different installers - clearly the most broadly distributed installer base in the list.  None of the Enphase installs were performed by SolarCity or Verengo.  Given the sheer volume of installs done by those two companies, surely some of those sites would have benefited from micro-inverters but the leasing giants were not making that technology available to their customers.

Finally, potential clients often ask about the difference in cost between a string inverter system, such as one using SMA inverters, and a micro-inverter system, such as one using Enphase.  The average installed cost for the 334 SMA projects was $7.15/W.  The average installed cost for the 74 Enphase projects was $7.32/W.  That is a negligible difference and given that the two largest players in the data - SolarCity and Verengo - had none of the Enphase projects, we would expect the SMA projects to have a volume pricing advantage from those two companies alone.  Bottom line: in the real world, there is very little cost difference between these two technologies.

Outlier Update - A.S.E.S. Electrical - Still Out There!

One of the more disturbing things that we uncovered in our previous analysis was the degree to which some companies were apparently overcharging their customers.  In particular, we singled out A.S.E.S Electrical Group (aka American Solar Energy Solutions) for being particularly egregious in this regard.  So, after an additional three months of data, how have things changed?

Once again, we restricted the data to only residential projects where the system owner is also listed as residential - a total of 846 projects.  Our previous size filter was 20kW; for this expanded data set we increased the size filter to 45kW, meaning that only companies with at least 45kW of projects in the data would be included. As a result, the chart below accounts for 560 out of the 846 projects described in the data.

Sadly, our results are as disappointing as last time - check it out:

What is going on here?  While the average system price declined from $8.91/Watt back in September to $8.24 over the entire dataset, the disparity between the most cost-effective performers and the least is as great as it ever was!  Indeed, our repeat failure as the biggest gouger of solar consumers in Los Angeles is once again, A.S.E.S. but now their cost is more than three times the cost of the lowest price company, Ronco Solar.

Indeed, while A.S.E.S. did lower their cost somewhat, they apparently did it by replacing the Schuco brand solar panels that they were using before with third-tier Chinese panels from Sopray Energy.  (In contrast, Ronco consistently uses Canadian Solar panels, a top-tier Chinese solar panel.)

Certainly caveat emptor applies when purchasing a solar power system, but at some point it seems like the utility should step in and warn its customers about predatory practices.  So how about it, LADWP, isn’t it time to give your customers a heads-up about what is going on?

Put another way, if you are considering going solar and your installer proposes a system that is more than $8.24/Watt - and indeed, that is a very high number for installations today - we have one word of advice: RUN!