Thoughts on Solar

In light of the unanticipated departure from the solar market of our prior module manufacturer, we needed to go do some research and identify a new module to recommend to our clients.  After a month of research, and some time getting certified, we are now ready to rollout our new go-to product: REC Alpha Pure modules!  Here’s why…

Run on Sun’s module of choice: the REC Alpha Pure

First of all, this black-on-black module will look great on our clients’s homes and businesses!

That is a 400 Watt module, slightly taller than our prior 380 Watt modules, but an inch narrower. Frankly, the added power/efficiency and the sharp esthetics were definitely points in REC’s favor.

We also were attracted to their avoidance of lead-based solder in their modules, meaning that when the time comes for them to be retired - decades from now! - they are less toxic than other modules on the market.

Wow that Warranty!

But what really wowed us the most was their warranty, covering Performance, Product and Labor.  Let’s take those one at a time.

• Performance - of course, every solar module comes with some sort of performance warranty.  After so many years, the product will produce some percentage of its nameplate value.  For some panels, that prediction is 85-90% of nameplate after 25 years.  On our prior product, it was 90.8%.
  REC beats them all with a whopping 92% performance after 25 years!
• Product -  REC offers a 20 year product warranty that gets extended to 25 years when you choose a Certified REC Installer (more on that in a minute).  Clearly, REC believes in the quality of their product, particularly when supported by Installers who know what they are doing!
• Labor - REC offers a labor warranty (again, when you choose a Certified REC Installer) that pays the installer to make the swap if ever needed - something most manufacturers do not offer at all!

Taken together, that is one of the best warranties in the industry!

Performance

Warranties are great, but hopefully you will never need to rely on one.  Rather, you want a product that outperforms the competition, day in and day out!  After all, that is what drives your return on investment, and in the performance space REC really shines.

One real world measure of performance is the PTC to STC ratio.  All solar modules have a nameplate rating: a module might be nameplate rated at 380 Watts (our prior module) or 400 Watts - the REC Alpha Pure.  That rating is measured under Standard Test Conditions - or STC - which are conditions seen only in a lab and certainly not on a roof.  So years ago, the CEC came up with something called the “PV Test Conditions” - PTC for short - that are meant to better capture what is happening on your rooftop, particularly at the higher temperatures found in the real world.  Taking the ratio of PTC rating to STC (or nameplate) rating gives you an idea of how well the module will actually perform.

On our old 380 Watt modules, the PTC rating was 352.1 Watts for a ratio of 92.6% - certainly a respectable number.  But REC has it beat handily!  The PTC rating for the 400 Watt Alpha Pure module is 381 Watts, producing a ratio of 95.25% - a 2.6% advantage for REC!  That translates into better performance at temperature, all day, everyday.  And that means greater savings for you!

Of course, REC is happy to highlight all of the great features in this truly innovative product, so take it away:

Certified Better

We mentioned that the REC Product warranty extends from 20 to 25 years, and the Labor warranty comes into play if you go with an REC Certified Installer.  Readers of this blog will not be surprised to discover that given how much we love certifications - think NABCEP for 12 years, and Enphase for Ensemble and IQ8 - we immediately signed up to get ourselves certified.

By gaining certification, we open up to our clients REC’s extended warranties - providing you with additional value at no cost to you.  In addition, you have the assurance that we have taken the time to learn about this wonderful product and how to install it in such a manner that you will enjoy many years of uninterrupted performance.  You can check out our certification here!

Managing the Solar Coaster…

So the Solar Coaster continues with its ups and downs, but we feel like we have arrived in a great place with REC, and look forward to providing their wonderful products to our clients for many years to come.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know in the comments!

Today’s CPUC public comment period attracted more than 400 people looking to speak - each for no more than one minute.  Below are the prepared remarks of Run on Sun Founder and CEO, Jim Jenal.

My name is Jim Jenal, and I am the Founder and CEO of Run on Sun, a solar and storage installation company in Pasadena.

I saw the flier that SCE distributed in my service area proclaiming that the present NEM rules are “Making Billionaires & Big Businesses Rich” – and I just had to shake my head, as I really don’t know who they are talking about.

Run on Sun is a gross revenue, half-a-million a year company, not exactly a big business; and no, I’m not a millionaire, let alone a billionaire.  Nor is anyone I know in this industry.  Most of us are small, and scrapy, and are doing this because we believe in the mission: to make the world a better place – one roof at a time.

And after all, isn’t that what we all strive to achieve?  To make the world a better place for our kids?

The Proposed Decision does the opposite, and it needs to be scrapped.

(Editor’s note: this was all that could be presented in one minute.  The remainder of the prepared remarks continue below.)

SCE’s lying flyer distributed to rate payers.

The statements on SCE’s flier prove just one thing: the IOUs and their allies LIE.  They are lying to the public and to this Commission about what is at stake with this rule change.

My company, Run on Sun, has been in business since 2006 – we have weathered two massive recessions and survived a once in a century, global pandemic.  We went a full quarter in 2020 and didn’t book a nickel in revenue – but we are back, stronger than ever.

And why is that?  Because our clients want what we offer – independence.  Independence from the misrepresentations and mismanagement of SCE and its IOU counterparts.

We are a local company, roughly 60% of our business is in SCE territory.  After thousands of “kitchen table” conversations with prospective clients I can tell you that if the Proposed Decision is adopted, 80% of our SCE clients will NOT go forward.  A twenty-year payback period just doesn’t make sense for most folks.  Rather, the only ones who will go forward will be those for whom payback periods just don’t matter. 

Surely that won’t make going solar more equitable.

The Proposed Decision is a disaster for the rooftop solar industry, for our clients, and for California’s stated goal to be a leader in solving the Climate Crisis.

The Proposed Decision does the opposite.  It will decimate the rooftop solar industry in California, and send a terrible message to the rest of the country.

It needs to be scrapped, and replaced by a rule change that spurs the necessary expanding growth of the most successful solar and storage market in the country.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

On Thursday, January 13, 2022, the Run on Sun crew - and a few thousand of our friends and colleagues - got together at simultaneous rallies in Los Angeles and San Francisco.  Our message was simple: the Proposed Decision from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) would imperil thousands of solar jobs, drive up the cost for solar for everyone (truly meaning that only the most affluent could afford it), and frustrate California’s efforts to address Climate Change.  It is time for Governor Newsom to do more than suggest that the proposal, “needs some work."  In fact, the Proposed Decision needs to be scrapped in favor of a policy that will make solar more affordable for everyone.

Nearly two thousand people gathered in LA’s Grand Park to listen to CALSSA’s Policy Director,  Brad Heavner, and other speakers exhort the crowd to stand strong in solidarity against the CPUC’s disastrous proposal.  We then marched from the park the four blocks to the CPUC’s offices in DTLA.  Along the way we were greeted by cars honking in support of solar - including the driver of a Metro bus!

Here are some images from the rally:

Project Coordinator Amanda Watson puts the finishing touches on our signs!

Crowd at Grand Park listens to Brad and the other speakers.

Amanda’s colorful sign tells the story!

Making our voices heard outside the CPUC offices.

Amanda and Adrian flank Scanifly’s Chance Venable at the march’s end.

By any measure, the rallies were a success - but there’s still one metric to be determined: the final outcome! Of course, we will write about that as soon as we know more. Watch this space.

Readers of this blog know quite well that the long-awaited Enphase IQ8 microinverters are almost here.  (Enphase reports that shipments have started, and our distributor is promising to have them in numbers by next month.)  But there’s one slight catch: in order to commission a PV system with IQ8’s, you have to be certified by going through an online training at Enphase University!

So guess who just got certified?

Jim Jenal - newly certified IQ8 Installer!

The training takes you through all of the four use cases for installing IQ8: solar only (no backup or storage components), Sunlight Backup which allows partial backup even without adding any storage components, Partial Home Backup and Full Home Backup. Each of these use cases has different components, and those components need to be properly configured to guarantee that the solar system owner has the best possible experience.

We are excited to be at the forefront of this exciting next step in our partnership with Enphase, and with you, our cherished clients.

Let’s make 2022 one for the record books!

New solar clients in Southern California Edison territory (along with their counterparts in PG&E or SDG&E territories) will soon find themselves operating under the not yet known, but certainly less advantageous NEM 3.0 rules that has the potential to significantly affect their return on investment.  While NEM 3.0 won’t go into effect for some time, we already have an idea of what clients need to do to secure the benefits of the present NEM rules.  Here’s what we know so far…

NEM 2.0 - the Present State of Play

SCE customer presently operate under NEM 2.0 rules established a number of years ago.  (Municipal utility customers, such as those in PWP or LADWP, are unaffected by any of this, fortunately.)  We wrote extensively about the impact of the NEM 2.0 transition at the time, as this article from 2017 explained: NEM 2.0 is Here - Now What? 

Essentially the NEM 2.0 rules made several changes: they introduced a one-time application fee of $75, they forced solar customers onto a Time-of-Use rate structure (instead of the more solar-friendly tiered rates), and they introduced the concept of non-bypassable charges - components of the rate structure that have to be paid on every kWh imported from the grid, even if it would otherwise be “netted out” thanks to energy exported.

Those changes, while concerning as they marked the first successful effort to chip away at the benefits of net metering, turned out to be relatively mild and the industry surged forward despite them.

NEM 3.0 - Dark Days Ahead?

Now we are in the middle of the process of bringing about NEM 3.0, and it looks far scarier than what we faced in 2017.  For example, one proposal calls for monthly fees on the order of $75 for every residential solar customer (commercial customers would pay far more).  The value of exported energy might drop by as much as 80%!  Payback periods could balloon to as much as 20 years!

(Take a moment to sign the petition to make the new NEM 3.0 rules more favorable to solar system owners!)

However that process turns out, if it is possible to get in under the current rules you will save a lot of money!  Here’s what we know about how the transition period will be handled:

• If you sign a contract and submit your complete interconnection application to SCE by mid-January you are guaranteed of 20 years under the more favorable NEM 2.0 rules!
  
  
• If you submit between mid-January and April, you will start under NEM 2.0, but the 20-year term is not guaranteed.
  
  
• If you submit after April but before NEM 3.0 is fully up and running, you will start on NEM 2.0 for a set term of years, but you may be forced onto a rate that includes a monthly fee.
  
  
• Applications submitted after August, will likely be completely under NEM 3.0

The uncertainty around all of this is distressing but is out of our hands.

What we can do is to urge folks on the fence about going solar to act before mid-January.  Bear in mind that the project does not need to be completed by mid-January, you simply have to have your completed application submitted by then.  We anticipate quite the rush to get applications in by then, and there is always the concern that a reviewer at SCE might kick back an application and deem it incomplete.  The best way to be safe is to get the application in as soon as possible, thereby avoiding the crunch.

So right now really is the best time for anyone in SCE’s service area to go solar!  Give us a call and let’s get the process started!