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Intersolar North America 2015 - Recap

At the end of July the Run on Sun team took San Francisco by storm for the annual Intersolar events and exhibition. In the solar industry products are changing incredibly fast. Intersolar and Solar Power International (September 14-17th) are the two most important events for industry experts to come together and be able to put our hands on the latest and greatest products while establishing relationships with potential partners around the world.

Show us what you've got!!

As we mentioned in our Intersolar 2015 Preview blog, we were really on the prowl in the exhibition hall. Number one on our list was to find viable storage options as our client-base is quickly shifting to time-of-use rates and smart storage will be a huge asset to enable more local consumption of energy at the right time, as well as to reduce those high demand spikes for commercial clients.

Enphase Energy, of microinverter fame, actually had their own booth at IS this year, a first for them, and their emphasis was on their modular storage solution - which they call the AC Battery - made possible by their next generation, S-Series microinverter - which is bi-directional. Since the system sits on the AC side of a solar installation, it is compatible with any solar system whether it uses Enphase microinverters or not.

Enphase readily acknowledges that the economic proposition for local consumption is not really present in the U.S. yet, which is why they are first rolling the product out in Australia. However, as the present discussions before the CPUC demonstrate, net metering is changing and soon. When it does, the economic case for systems like the AC Battery will become compelling.

Second task on our list was to find out what panels LG would be offering and when we could start getting them on rooftops. Since LG didn't have a booth at IS, hints toward panels with higher efficiency and higher output were verified by a meeting with our distributor, BayWa r.e. (formerly known as Focused Energy).We are now looking at 310 and 315 Watt panels available in September. This is up from the 305's currently available and 260's which were available this time just one year ago!

Our last mission as we weaved through the multitude of flashy products on display was to find better options for racking. While we have no intention of finding an alternative for our pitched roof racking company, Everest, our ballasted flat roof racking experience has left something to be desired by our installers. And the growing interest in solar carport systems means we need a good partner we can rely on to develop beautiful high-quality structures. We looked at several new products and talked to some great people on this front. We will be vetting these companies and discussing the applicability of their options with our clients over the next few months.

Solar "Networking"... aka PARTIES!

Any good industry gathering has GREAT parties, and the solar community definitely delivers in this department. The Run on Sun team enjoyed rubbing elbows with solar celebrities, new and old friends at various social events throughout the week. Laurel ate breakfast and discussed gender-specific solar challenges with WISE (Women in Solar Energy).

The lunch hour Tweetup hosted by @SolarFred and put on by our friends at @Enphase, @RECSolar and @Grid was a blast. Of course the Solar Summerfest put on by CALSEIA and the Solar Battle of the Bands were not to be missed either. Who knew solar companies had such amazing musical talent?! The battle of the bands was more packed than we've ever seen, the only painful side to an ever expanding industry. Laurel's favorite, the awesome funk band from Sungevity rocked the house and took home the winning title. If you attended either event you probably spotted Run on Sun's Jim, Laurel and Josh making full use of the dance floor! No one on the RoS team will deny...we DO like to have fun.

The Run on Sun team cutting a rug at Solar Summerfest! Thanks to Kendra Hubbard for the pic!

What's Next??

Its hard to believe that in just a couple of weeks we will be boarding a local train to Anaheim for Solar Power International, "North America's largest solar trade show". Beyond what we saw at Intersolar, our distributor BayWa r.e will have a presence as well as our favorite solar panel manufacturer: Life's Good Electronics. We're looking forward to more exciting product announcements and connecting with friends once again! Hope to see you there!

Only YOU Can Save Rooftop Solar!

Smokey the Bear knew a thing or two about urgency, and appropriating his call to action seems particularly apt right now. Today, rooftop solar is under concerted attack before the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). If we are to maintain the growth of solar, with its tens of thousands of jobs here in California, as well as its huge benefits in reducing air pollution - particularly greenhouse gas emissions - we need YOU to act now. Our friends over at Vote Solar, along with the California Solar Energy Industries Association (CalSEIA) are working to beat back the insidious proposals coming from the Investor Owned Utilities - including SCE - to gut net metering and impose taxes on those who invest in rooftop solar. If those proposals were to be adopted, much of the economic value of solar could be destroyed. But it doesn't have to be that way. The CPUC is a political entity and like any political entity, it responds to pressure from the public. We cannot match the economic clout of the IOUs, but we can beat them the old fashioned way - by standing up for solar!

When you do, you will go the Vote Solar website where you can add your name to the list of concerned Californians who want to preserve the many benefits of rooftop solar. Please pass this word on to your friends and colleagues and urge them to get involved too!

We can win this fight - but we need YOU now!

Google: You're Being Evil!

Readers of this blog may recall the serious windstorm that we suffered here in Pasadena back in 2011, and Run on Sun's efforts to help out one victim of that disaster. We received some very kind words from the son of the disaster victim, and he even took the time to write reviews on some of the major review sites. So far so good, but then Google decided to get involved, and things took a nasty turn. Here's the scoop...

It was brought to our attention that if you did a local search on Google for "Pasadena Solar Installers", the first company name that shows up in the organic (i.e., not paid for) search rankings is Run on Sun - excellent!

As you can see from the screen grab on the left, in addition to showing where we are on the map, it lets you know our hours, provides a link to our website, and reports that it has four reviews. When you click on the reviews reference, it pops up our Google+ page and presents the reviews, first by providing a summary that Google generates from three of the reviews, and below that it offers the first paragraph from the first two reviews, allowing the viewer to read more of the excerpted review and/or to click through to the remaining reviews. It is the Google generated summary that is the problem.

Here is the full (Five-Star!) review as authored by Tom McDade:

Earlier this year my mother's house was hit with the terrible wind storm in Pasadena and her old solar system was destroyed. She contacted Jim Jenal at Run on Sun and he was very responsive to her call; he quickly came out to assess the damage and he removed the old panels from the roof before they could fly off and possibly do more damage to other property or persons. He then proposed a new system that was not only better then what she had but his price was considerably less expensive than another solar company who tried to take advantage of my 85 year old mother. I live in Ohio and Jim still worked with me closely in order to satisfy my mother and get her new system installed properly. I would not hesitate to recommend him. [Emphasis added.]

Needless to say, as a small business, we live for reviews like that. It was kind of Tom to take the time to write, and more than one subsequent client has mentioned Tom's review.

But this is how Google "summarized" Tom's praise:

"...another solar company who tried to take advantage of my 85 year old mother."

Holy smoke! Google has transformed us from the hero of the piece to the villian! How many people have seen that "summary" and fled?

So we contacted Google, followed their procedure for noting problems with reviews, and got nowhere. The Google rep claimed that because the summary was selected by an algorithm, there is nothing they can do about it! Hmmm... who wrote that algorithm anyway? What a lame, even evil, excuse that is!

Our best hope? New reviews might push the old review's summary off the page and leave us with a more accurate portrayal. Any kind words that you could share with Google would be most appreciated!