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LA: Where Good News Goes to Die

Our friends over at Enphase Energy had a significant announcement a week or so ago, touting how their tried-and-true M215 microinverter had just been improved by redesigning it to feature integrated grounding, just like its bigger sibling, the new M250's.

We wrote about the value of integrated grounding last year when the M250's were introduced, and it is a really great development, cutting install time, reducing hazards on the roof, and making the installed system safer for everyone. Enphase has even created a dedicated web page to explain the benefits of integrated grounding.

What's not to love?

Unless, that is, you are the City of Los Angeles.

You see, the Building and Safety department of Los Angeles is a universe unto itself, a universe where good news goes to die. To LA, it doesn't matter that the M250 and the new M215 have been independently tested and found compliant with all of the relevant standards for inverters. No, LA doesn't care—they insist that these products be submitted to LA for its own testing.

Now just who does this help? Well, presumably the folks who work in LA's lab get to stay employed but somehow the permitting process shouldn't be a jobs program. No, all this does is add cost (directly to Enphase who has to jump through these hoops, indirectly to everyone else) and delay into the process. We have sold projects that are delayed in LA while we wait for this nonsense to get resolved. Indeed, it is just this sort of abuse of the process that causes us to have a 7.5 kW threshold for projects in LA—anything smaller is just not worth the agitation.

To be clear, it doesn't have to be this way. We have already installed projects in Pasadena and surrounding cities without difficulty using integrated grounding. No one else has had a problem—the units are appropriately listed so you are good to go. But not so in LA.

Everyone talks about how reducing "soft costs" is the key to making solar viable in a post-subsidy world. If so, here's a prime example of a soft cost that offers zero value to the process and needs to be eliminated—but it is far from an isolated example.

We suspect that Mayor Garcetti could make this go away tomorrow, so why doesn't he? Given the Mayor's claim to green cred, why not call a meeting with appropriate stakeholders: installers (including small installers), manufacturers, and department heads and lets cut through this unnecessary nonsense and make it easier to install rooftop solar in the biggest city in the biggest solar market in the country. It's about time.

Solar Rebate Update

Solar rebates are fleeting in many locations—now you see them, now you don't. Case in point, Burbank Water and Power (as is the case with its cousin in Glendale) is notorious for offering, and then taking away solar rebates. We monitor BWP's website for new developments, and we have now learned that they will be holding a lottery for possible rebate funds next July. No additional details were made available; presumably they will be posted sometime in June.

Given that development, we decided to update our overall rebate status. Here is how things stand generally in the Run on Sun service area as of this date:

Here are a couple of very important qualifications to what appears in that table:

• LADWP still has $5.9M for non-residential solar rebates. Once those funds are gone, the Feed-in Tariff will be the only game in town for commercial solar in LA.
• SCE appears to be down to the final $3M in residential rebate funds, with roughly another $78M in non-residential funds still available.

This is a moving target; watch this space.

Run on Sun Profiled at Solar Power World

The folks at Solar Power World have a regular feature called "Contractors Corner" where they profile a solar power company and this month they chose Run on Sun!

We have been on a bit of a roll with Solar Power World of late. We were honored to have our small but mighty band featured as one of their top 250 solar companies around the country, and we were quoted at length in their piece on "How to Make Sure Your Business Survives the Solar Frontier."

Today's honor takes things to a whole new level. The piece started with a phone interview (which is now a podcast for your listening pleasure) and from that, editor Steven Bushong created the article that is featured on both the Solar Power World website as well as their print magazine.

A point we particularly like is that they picked up on the importance of social media. Here's the quote:

To stay current on the solar industry and help with marketing efforts, Run on Sun is plugged into social media much more than most other contractors.

"People who aren't initiated often think it's little more than photos of cats and dinners, but we have a well-developed Twitter and LinkedIn presence," Jenal says. "The NABCEP LinkedIn group has some really smart people who are good at raising issues and answering questions."

As an outbound marketing source, Run on Sun has amassed more than 20,000 followers on Twitter (@RunOnSun). Jenal says when the company releases blog posts or announcements on social media, the impact is immediate on the company website or blog.

"It's a way to get our information out there so people can see it," he says. "That indirectly contributes to leads coming through the door or website."

Indeed it does—and it contributes to becoming more broadly known in the industry, as Solar Power World has demonstrated. We greatly appreciate the honor.