Thoughts on Solar

On February 23^rd the news broke that LG Electronics was abandoning the solar module business worldwide.  This announcement came without warning, and reverberated throughout the industry like the bolt from the blue that it was.  Here’s our take…

Long time readers of this blog are well aware of our long-standing relationship with LG.  We first installed LG modules all the way back in 2011 and have been installing them exclusively ever since.  Our biggest projects all feature LG modules.  We installed the first LG Neon modules anywhere in the world!

Over the years, we met many of the LG folks - both from here in the States as well as from South Korea.  We learned that they read this blog, and appreciated our enthusiastic support for their product.  After all, we believe that part of our job is to simplify the process of going solar for our clients.  That means identifying the best-in-class products - both technically as well as value for the buck - and bring those to our clients.  For a decade we felt confident representing LG in just that fashion.  After all, we would say, LG is huge, they aren’t going anywhere!

Until they did.

Without warning.

Leaving it to their installer base to have the awkward conversations while they simply went away.

That is no way to reward loyalty.  How LG behaved, in a word, is disgraceful.

What could they have done?  They could have put the industry on notice that if things did not improve via whatever metrics mattered, they would need to quit.  That would have sent shockwaves to be sure, but it also would have given the industry the option of rallying to LG - which some surely would have done - or make an informed decision to go in another direction.  After a decade of promotion, that was the least they should have done.

But in the end, they chose to do far less.

Disgraceful.

Life on the Solar Coaster Continues

It’s not for nothing that this industry is referred to by many as the Solar Coaster, with more ups and downs than anything one can find at Magic Mountain.  It seems that the only thing I have been writing about lately are the efforts on the policy front to shut down rooftop solar - and now this!

The only good news is that LG has said that they will continue to honor their warranty.  Hopefully they will live up to that promise.

Meanwhile… we have been doing our homework over the past month plus and have identified our new solar module partner going forward.  But that is a story for another day.

Today is a day to look back on a decade of loyalty that ended in betrayal.

DISGRACEFUL!