Hey Marc -- Solar Current Events?

[tjwilhelm]

Hey, Marc. I'm guessing you are watching current events in the world of solar; and, I'm wondering what you're thinking? I thought this might be useful for a few other folks here, so I put this query into a post as opposed to a PM.

* - I'm sure you saw that the Oklahoma legislature has passed legislation that penalizes private citizens for putting solar on their homes as utility-interactive systems ("grid-tied").

* - Here in Illinois I recently heard (not confirmed, yet) that Commonwealth Edison successfully lobbied our State legislature to do away with the net-metering requirement.

* - In the aftermath of Hurrican Sandy, solar owners in New Jersey (one of the hottest solar markets in the U.S. at that time) were shocked and angry that their PV systems wouldn't work when the utility was shut down. Now, it seems, battery sales in New Jersey are showing an up-tick.

* - A few weeks ago, I logged into my SunWize Connect account to place an order. I couldn't check inventory. I called my sales rep and he told me that SunWize had just sold their entire dealer netowrk for distributed generation systems (grid-tied) to Soligent (a merger of DC Power and Solar Depot). By acquiring the SunWize dealers and their distributed generation inventory, Soligent instantly became the largest renewable energy distributor in the country; BUT, SunWize is still active -- they kept their off-grid business.

It sure looks like the utility companies are fighting against solar. It also seem like the prepper-movement is pushing solar sales toward stand-alone and bi-modal systems.

What are you seeing? Are your battery sales on the rise, holding steady, or falling off? If I'm correctly interpretting the signs of the times, I'd guess your battery sales are moving to the upside.

Am I seeing the situation correctly? If yes, what are your thoughts on designing and marketing PV systems these days? Small, portable solar? Large home/retreat systems? A little bit of everything?

SunWize seems to just be selling their pre-fab, turn-key, "industrial," stand-alone systems as opposed to components. Do you have any recommendations for other solar hardware distributors (including balance-of-system hardware) other than Soligent or SunWize?

Thanks!

[thywar]

bump this post and I'm trying to find the post that Marc started and I think it was mentioning TJ in the heading..

[tjwilhelm]

This one didn't get very far...HA! I think Marc's been out of town at an important wedding (CONGRATS to the bride and groom!).

[marc]

TJ,

Wow - Sorry - I missed this one entirely! Life has been getting in the way lately.........

Yes, I think that the utility companies will always buck micro producers connecting to "their" grid. I saw the same thing when I was designing 60KW - 120KW natural gas driven Co-Generation systems in the 80's in California. Pressure from the Public Utilities Commission was the ONLY reason they allowed it.

I do think that it's a trend that may continue to gain traction. Why would privately owned utilities want to help you buy less of their product and compete with them - using their infrastructure? Publicly owned power companies don't like dealing with thousands of little power producers either.

Yes, I knew immediately about the Soligent-SunWize marriage because Concorde is heavily entrenched with both. I’ve picked up some new customers who just weren’t happy with a perceived lack of support from the big boys.

It is difficult to use my sales volume as an industry indicator, because I’ve been reining in some of the higher volume, lower margin business – in favor of the opposite. But, the “prepper” portion of our sales is steadily increasing.

More later - just wanted to say something when I saw this thread!

Marc