Thoughts on Solar

Last week I spent four intense days in San Diego for the annual NABCEP Continuing Education conference.  This is a great event, with lots of super smart, experienced installers from around the country gathering to sharpen their skills and share information.  Lots of vendors are there providing workshops, and there are heavyweight course sessions like two hours on Worker Safety, and an entire day on the National Electrical Code.  (Ok, so those two are a bit like eating your vegetables as a kid - but super important information, nonetheless.)  But there was one thing that stood out for having the highest cool factor - and that was courtesy of the folks at Scanifly.  Here’s our take…

Site Evaluations Re-imagined

One of the most crucial aspects of the solar installation business is performing proper site evaluations.  Some companies brag about being able to provide you with a proposal for adding solar to your home or business without ever bothering to go there.  We categorically reject that approach - online imagery is fine, but it won’t tell you whether the grounding is complete or the service panel has so many doubles in it already that it is a fire waiting to happen.  Nor can you look a prospective client in the eye, answer their questions, and build the confidence that is so important to doing this right.

But every time you have someone go up on a roof, there is a chance for injury.  And while roof work is a necessary part of this business, going up on a dangerous roof before you have even won the job, means most of the time you are exposing your employee to risk for potentially no gain.  Moreover, it is time-consuming and error prone to be making measurements while on the roof.  Things get overlooked - like just how far is that vent from the ridge? - and often you bring the evaluation results back to the office, only to realize that you missed a key detail!  Frustrating (and expensive) if you have to go back to the site a second time.

What if you could be assured that you would gather all the detail you could possibly need the first time?  And what if you could turn that - automagically - into a 3-D model complete with all the shading on the site from both trees and other obstructions?  Now that would be cool, and that is what the folks at Scanifly have achieved.

Here’s how it works.  You take a drone (typical price range: $700-1,500) and fly it on an automatic setting that flies a complete circle around the site at a set height, and radius from the center of the building in question - typically less than 100′ AGL and maybe 75′ radius (the site obstructions will dictate most of this).  The drone will fly that course automatically, and will take pictures with a roughly 85% or so overlap.  (No drone? No problem, they can hook you up with a drone pilot to do the image gathering.)

Once you have the photos, you upload them to the Scanifly site, and after some amount of data crunching, you now have a 3-D model onto which you can add your modules.  The software understands the shading at the site and can produce production modelling data that can then be imported into a savings modeling tool like that provided by our friends at Energy Toolbase.

Even cooler, you can give your prospective client a link to the model so that they can see what their house will look like with the system installed (including the boxes on the wall!) in full 3-D!  

Now that is really cool, and no one had to go up a ladder onto a roof to do it!

We are super excited about this system and we cannot wait to try it out for ourselves.

Editor’s Note: This is the second installment in our three-part series:
My Electric Bill is So High! Will Solar Help? 
You can read part one, How High is High, here.

Unless you have been living completely offline and in a cave, you are aware that there are lots of solar companies out there looking for your business.  You’ve seen them on the Web, perhaps they have called you or even knocked on your door.  You probably realize that you should do your homework and get several quotes before going forward, but how do you even know where to look?  Fear not, we’ve got you covered!

Why Trust Matters

For most homeowners, purchasing a solar power system will be one of the most expensive purchases they ever make, after their home, their education, and a new car.  Moreover, a solar power system is supposed to co-exist with your home happily for the next twenty years or more.  For all of that to work out, you need to find someone you trust.  Your gut is a good gauge here – if someone makes you uncomfortable now, chances are you will be even less comfortable down the road.

Qualifications Count…

In the search for qualified contractors there are some basic qualifications, and there are more sophisticated ones.  Let’s start with the basics: is this contractor licensed?  In California it is easy to check that out, simply by going to the Contractors’ State License Board and search on their license number (it should be on the contractor’s website) or their name.  If they don’t have a valid license, run, don’t walk, away from them! 

Beyond just checking to see if they have a license, you can also check for the type of license (only A, B, C-10, and C-46 license holders are authorized to install solar), whether there are any public complaints against them, and the status of their bonding and workers compensation insurance.

That covers the basics, but how about something more substantive?  After all, you could hold any of the necessary licenses and never have worked on a solar power system in your life! Toward that end, there is no greater indication of qualifications than to be a Certified PV Installation Professional by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP), a distinction I’ve been honored to hold since 2010.

How select are NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professionals?  According to CALSSA, there are some 86,000 solar workers in California, of which just 294 hold that NABCEP Certification, according to the NABCEP website. 

As NABCEP puts it:

When you hire a contractor with NABCEP Certified Installers leading the crew, you can be confident that you are getting the job done by solar professionals who have the “know-how” that you need.
They are part of a select group of professionals who have distinguished themselves by being awarded NABCEP Certified Installer credentials.

You can search for a Certified PV Installation Professional on the NABCEP website here.

So does Reputation

If checking qualifications matters when it comes to finding a contractor that you can trust, then so to does assessing their reputation, which these days is easier than ever to do.  Search sites, like Google, display reviews for local businesses (keep in mind the top few listings are paid ads), and major review sites will let you see lots of reviews of solar contractors “near” you.  (Near in scare quotes because often those companies are saying they will serve your area even if they are located far away.) 

More localized resources, like Nextdoor and Neighbor-2-Neighbor, provide a more cultivated collection of contractors from which you can choose.

Of course, nothing beats getting a recommendation from someone you trust who has gone solar, had a great experience, and their system has lived up to expectations.  If you don’t know anyone like that, you should ask your prospective contractors for a list of clients that you can contact.  Naturally, the contractor is going to list people who will tell you great things, but ask to come by and see the installation for yourself. 

Other factors to consider…

Years in Business

Companies that have been in business a long time may or may not do better work than a relative newcomer, but at least they have shown that they know how to remain in business.  (In the solar industry, that is not a small accomplishment.)   Older companies usually have more experience – although a newer company could compensate by hiring well-experienced people – and experience is important since every project presents its own, unique challenges.

Local vs National

National companies are sometimes perceived as having an advantage because they have the whole “economy of scale” thing going for them.  Yet often those “savings” aren’t going to the consumer, they are going to shareholders or venture capitalists who have funded the operation. 

Local companies, on the other hand, live or die on their reputation.  They can’t simply write-off a territory and expand somewhere else – if they fail locally, they are doomed.  So local companies often provide much better service to their clients.  On top of that, the money you spend on a local company helps support your own, local economy.  And hey, if you have a problem, you may well bump into your installer in the grocery store and you can tell her all about it!

Next Steps…

Ok - by now you know that your home is a good solar candidate, and you have found several trustworthy contractors.  Now all you need to do is look over their bids, choose the best one, and off you go!  But wait, how do choose the best bid?  Fear not, dear reader, that is coming in Part 3: Evaluating Competing Solar Proposals. 

Before you can ever get a bid for your commercial solar project, you have to contact a solar installation contractor to come out to your location and perform a site evaluation.  Actually, you should contact at least three contractors so that you have a set of bids to compare (more on that process below) - but how do you find them in the first place?  Well, you could choose based on who has the most ads on TV or the Internet, or you could rely on Cousin Billy’s recommendation - but somehow that just doesn’t seem sufficiently scientific for a project like this.  There has to be a better way - and there is.

If you remember that you need to find someone who will work NICELY with you, success is all but assured.  And no, we don’t mean nicely, we mean NICELY - as in:

N - NABCEP Certification
I - Incentive provider (CSI or local utility) connected
C - City building department experienced
E - Electrician on staff
L - Local or national?
Y - Years in business.

Focus on those attributes and you will have found a contractor who will inspire confidence and guarantee a successful project.  Let’s expand on why these particular attributes are so important.

NABCEP Certification

The North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners - NABCEP for short - provides the most rigorous certification process of solar installation professionals in the industry.  Not to be confused with their Entry Level Letter that merely demonstrates that the person has taken an introductory course in solar,  the NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™ credential is the Gold Standard for installers and consumers alike.  Earning NABCEP Certification requires the successful candidate to have an educational background in electrical engineering or related technical areas (such as an IBEW union apprenticeship program), at least two solar installations as the lead installer, and the successful passing of a 4-hour written examination on all aspects of solar power system design and installation.

As NABCEP notes:

When you hire a contractor with NABCEP Certified Installers leading the crew, you can be confident that you are getting the job done by solar professionals who have the “know-how” that you need. They are part of a select group of people who have distinguished themselves by being awarded NABCEP Certified Installer credentials.

NABCEP’s website offers a database of all Certified Solar PV Installers - just enter your zip code to find the installers located near you.  It is with great pride that we point out that at Run on Sun, all three of our owners have earned the designation, NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™ - and we know of no other solar power company in Southern California that can make that claim.

Incentive Provider - CSI or Local Utility

A second source of solar installers is the Incentive provider such as the California Solar Initiatives’ Go Solar California website.  Every installer who has done a solar power installation for a CSI utility (i.e., SCE, PG&E or SDG&E) will be included on this list.  Unfortunately, there are no other criteria associated with getting listed - and there is limited verification done to guarantee that the listed installer is reliable.  If your job is in California, your contractor must be on this list - but this is a double-check only - not an ideal starting point for your search.

Another source for information about solar installers is your local utility’s point person for solar rebates.  This person deals with installers on a daily basis, and while s/he won’t give you a specific recommendation, they may be able to warn you off of an installer whom they have learned is less than reliable.

City Building Department

Similarly, the folks in your local building department deal with installers regularly as part of the permitting/inspection process.  Once again, they won’t be in a position to provide referrals, but they may be able to give you a warning if there are red flags associated with a contractor that you are considering.

Local or National?

Solar installation companies come in all sizes - from national organizations that have crews installing systems all across the country, to local operations that only work in a limited geographic region.  To be sure, there are pluses and minuses on both ends — maybe lower prices for the national chain due to economy of scale in their purchasing versus greater attention to detail from a local company that lives or dies based on how well it satisfies its local customer base.  And, of course, money spent on a local company tends to stay in the local economy - another consideration in tough economic times.

Years in Business

The last of the NICELY elements is to look at the number of years the company has been in business.  Again, this is not a perfect indicator – some recent ventures really have their act together and some long-standing enterprises have long since ceased to really care about what they are doing – but at a minimum you want some assurance that the folks you are doing business with know how to run a business. Otherwise you run the risk of having a largely useless warranty and no one to call if things go wrong.

We would recommend a minimum of three-to-five years in the business of doing solar, with preferably a longer track record of running a business.  Expertise in areas beyond just installing solar is also useful such as engineering, management and law.

The preceding is an excerpt from Jim Jenal’s upcoming book, “Commercial Solar Step-by-Step,” due out in July.

Editor’s Note: This is the third in our three-part series on what you need to know about Commercial Solar Power.  Check out the first two parts here:

• Part 1: Understanding Your Bill
• Part 2:  Understanding Rebates and Tax Incentives

Along the path to installing a commercial solar power system, a business or building owner must first understand the hidden details in their current electric bill and the solar power rebates and tax incentives that are available to them - as we previously discussed in the first two installments of this three-part series.  The next step is to actually contact a number of solar power installation companies and assess their bids, choosing the one that will be the best match for you.  That process - finding the right installer by understanding the bids provided to you is the subject of this post.

Finding an Installer

Before you can ever get a bid, you have to contact a solar installation contractor to come out to your site and give you a proposal.  Actually, you should contact at least three contractors so that you have a set of bids to compare (more on that process below) - but how do you find them?  Well, you could choose based on who has the most ads on TV or the Internet, or you could rely on Cousin Billy’s recommendation - but somehow that just doesn’t seem sufficiently, scientific for a project like this.  There has to be a better way - and there is.  Here are our thoughts on how to identify properly qualified contractors for your job.

NABCEP Certification

The North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners - NABCEP for short - provides the most rigorous certification process of solar installation professionals in the industry.  Not to be confused with their entry level Letter that merely proves that the person has taken an introductory course in solar,  the NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™ credential is the Gold Standard for installers and consumers alike.  Earning NABCEP Certification requires the successful candidate to have an educational background in electrical engineering or related technical areas (including an IBEW union apprenticeship program), at least two solar installations as the lead installer, and the successful passing of a 4-hour written examination on all aspects of solar power system design and installation.

As NABCEP notes:

When you hire a contractor with NABCEP Certified Installers leading the crew, you can be confident that you are getting the job done by solar professionals who have the “know-how” that you need. They are part of a select group of people who have distinguished themselves by being awarded NABCEP Certified Installer credentials.

NABCEP’s website offers a database of all Certified Solar PV Installers - just enter your zip code to find the installers located near you.  It is with great pride that we point out that at Run on Sun, all three of our owners are NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installers™ - and we know of no other solar power company in Southern California that can make that claim.  (Try it - click on the link above and enter our zip code: 91105.  There you will find the entries for Brad Banta, Velvet Dallesandro and yours truly!)

CSI - Go Solar California

A second source of solar installers is the California Solar Initiatives’ Go Solar California website.  Every installer who has done a solar power installation for a CSI utility (i.e., SCE, PG&E or SDG&E) will be included on this list.  Unfortunately, there are no other criteria associated with getting listed - and there is limited verification done to guarantee that the listed installer is reliable.  If your job is in California, your contractor should also be on this list - but this is a double-check only - not a starting point for your search.

Your Utility and/or Building Department

Another source for information about solar installers is your local utility’s point person for solar rebates.  This person deals with installers on a daily basis, and while s/he won’t give you a specific recommendation, they may be able to warn you off of an installer whom they have learned is less than reliable.

Similarly, the folks in your local building department deal with installers regularly as part of the permitting/inspection process.  Once again, they won’t be in a position to provide referrals, but they may be able to give you a warning if there are red flags associated with a contractor that you are considering.

Local or National?

Solar installation companies come in all sizes - from national organizations that have crews installing systems all across the country, to local operations that only work in a limited geographic region.  To be sure, there are pluses and minuses on both ends — maybe lower prices for the national chain due to economy of scale in their purchasing versus greater attention to detail from a local company that lives or dies based on how well it satisfies its local customer base.  And, of course, money spent on a local company tends to stay in the local economy - another consideration in tough economic times.

What to Expect During the Site Evaluation

Congratulations - you have identified three companies to bid on your commercial solar project - what should you expect from the process?  Here are three necessary steps that an installer must do to provide you with a proper proposal.  If any of these steps are missing, be very skeptical of their resulting bid.

1. They will review a year’s worth of your electrical bills - Every proposal begins with an assessment of your needs and that is determined by reviewing your electrical bills.  While some utilities allow you to download your usage and costs from their websites, that is rarely as detailed as the full bill itself.  You will recall from Part 1 of this series - there really can be some nasty surprises hiding in your electric bills.  So plan on having copies ready - or better yet, scan them, have them in a PDF file, and be prepared to email them to your installer when you first contact them.


2. They will go on your roof - Nothing takes the place of actually walking your roof, taking proper measurements, and identifying any shading issues that you might have.  While many commercial roofs appear to be “unshaded", a solar professional knows that appearances can be deceiving and will not rely on a client’s claims but will instead do a proper shading analysis.  (If you have any questions about this, demand that the installer provide you with the output from their shading analysis - if they didn’t perform a shading analysis, that is another red flag.)  Remember - your utility requires a shading analysis as part of the rebate process so if your potential installer didn’t do one, how can they know what your rebate will be?


3. They will check out your electrical system - One of the major variables in commercial solar is the nature of the interconnection between your solar power system and your existing electrical infrastructure.  While in a residential setting this is usually nothing more than adding a circuit breaker to your existing service panel, in a commercial setting this may involve transformers, 3-phase systems and/or line-side taps - all of which increase the cost of the installed system.  A professional installer will review the interconnection issues when they visit your site and adjust their bid accordingly.

Comparing Apples to Apples

You did it!  You found three installers with great credentials who came out to your site and each one did a careful evaluation.  Now you are holding in your hand a thick stack of paper from the three installers and they don’t look anything at all alike!  How to make sense of all of this?

One good way is to have the installer come in and present their proposal to you (and any other decision makers on your team).  A professional installer should be happy to spend some quality time with you and your team to explain the proposal that was given to you - but keep in mind that they are very busy people.  Do your homework first - compile your questions and those of your team (if they will not be participating in the meeting) so that your time together can be as productive as possible.  As part of that due diligence, here are some things to look for as you compare these bids.

Solar Panels

All solar panels are not alike and although they may seem like a commodity to you, there are a number of ways in which one “200 Watt Solar Panel” will differ from another.  Here are the key considerations:

1. Efficiency - The efficiency of a solar panel tells you how much nameplate power per square foot the panel will deliver.  This is a very important attribute if your available space for solar is limited.  However, efficiency is expensive - if you have lots of roof space for solar, the value of this factor drops dramatically.


2. Temperature performance - Somewhat perversely, all solar panels degrade in their performance as they get hotter.  Some panels do much better in the heat than others.  (Sanyo panels have the best temperature performance of any panel that we have seen.)  You will find this on the solar panel data sheet as Power Coefficient/°C.  You would like this number to be zero.  It won’t be, but the smaller the magnitude of this negative number, the better.  But again, better temperature performance comes with a price.


3. Manufacturer reliability - Pretty much all solar panels comes with a 5-year warranty on workmanship and 25 years on performance, but the value of that warranty is entirely dependent on the reliability of the manufacturer.  Lots of cheap solar panels are now on the market from start-up operations in Asia.  If you have a problem five years from now and you want a warranty replacement, how likely is it that the manufacturer will still be in business?  A 25-year warranty issued in 2011 is of no value at all in five years if the company disappears in 2015.  Ask your potential installer about the history of the company that is standing behind that warranty and then do your own homework on this vital reliability factor.  Be prepared to pay more for solar panels coming from the most reputable manufacturers.

Inverters

Commercial inverters range from large, central inverters to a collection of string inverters to even micro-inverters (one inverter per solar panel) in some settings.  You should check for: a) the efficiency of the inverter (should be in the 95-97% range with the higher the number the better); b) whether monitoring is built into the inverter or must be added; c) the warranty period applicable to the inverter; and d) the manufacturer’s reliability.  Inverter recalls in the solar industry are rare, but they have been known to happen.

There are trade-offs associated with the different approaches - a central inverter consolidates your equipment in one place and makes for a clean, cost-effective and efficient system, often with sophisticated monitoring capabilities built-in.  Yet a central inverter represents a single point of failure for your entire system - if the central inverter fails, your system will produce nothing until it can be repaired.  In contrast, using a series of smaller string inverters may look more cluttered, and interconnecting them for monitoring purposes may be more complicated and costly.  However, by distributing the inverter function over a number of devices, you have diversified your risk - if one inverter fails, the others are unaffected and you will continue to produce some energy while the faulty device is repaired or replaced.  Most commonly, small commercial systems - those below 50 kW - may well benefit from using multiple, smaller inverters.  As system sizes increase, however, the cost-savings and ease of installation of the central inverter probably makes it the preferred approach.

Inverter configuration is ultimately a design choice and your installer should be able to explain to you why they have made the choice that they are recommending.

Warranties

We already touched on the value of warranties from equipment manufacturers, but what about the warranty from your installer?  In California, an installer is required to offer a 10-year warranty on their workmanship.  However, a company that has only been in the solar business for a couple of years (or less!) cannot offer proper assurances that they will be there to back-up that warranty.  Here’s one hint - if your potential solar installer was in the business before the recession hit, they are probably in this for the long haul (and they have demonstrated enough business savvy to survive the worst economic climate in more than fifty years - not a bad credential).

Rebate Calculations

Your installer should have done a calculation based on your utility’s rebate structure to estimate what your rebate will be.  These estimates should be comparable from one bid to another but if they are not, demand that your potential installers provide you with the output from the rebate calculator that they used to produce the estimate.  If they refuse, or if the rebate calculation shown doesn’t square with the rest of their bid, you can scratch them off your list of potential candidates.

Are You Comfortable?

You cannot be completely comfortable making such an important decision until you have had all of your questions answered.  Your potential installer should be happy to spend whatever time you reasonably need to be assured that you have all of the information in hand.  (But please remember, these are very busy folks so use their time wisely.)

The following are the analyses that you should insist on receiving, and having explained to you before you make your decision:

Utility Savings Analysis

You want to know what your savings will be from your new solar power system and this analysis should answer that question.  Specifically, it should consist of an estimate of the solar energy (in kWh) per month that the system will produce (usually tied to the output of the utility’s rebate calculator or some comparable method) and the value of that energy based on the utility’s rate schedule applicable to your site.  A simple-minded analysis that assumes that all kWh’s of energy are worth the same fails to meet this standard, as we explained back in Part 1.

Return on Investment
Internal Rate of Return

Given the energy saving starting in Year 1, the cost of the system, any O&M costs, the anticipated rebate from the utility, and the tax benefits anticipated for the system, your installer should map out for you the cash flows associated with your system.  That analysis should indicate when the system will break even and what the internal rate of return over the lifetime of the project will be.  There are several variables in this analysis - the amount of annual energy cost increases from the utility, the degradation of the system’s output over time, and the marginal tax rate (federal and state) for the system owner, to name a few.  A competent analysis will identify the assumptions used in each of these areas.

Cost per kWh

While it is common in the solar industry to express the cost of the system in dollars/Watt, that is a misleading statistic at best since it masks variables affecting real world performance.  A far better metric - and one that your installer should be able to provide you - is the cost per kWh for the energy that will be produced by the system over its anticipated lifetime (again, usually assumed to be 25 years).  The calculation is actually quite simple - determine the total out-of-pocket costs for the system owner over the system’s lifetime (including purchase price less rebate and tax credits/grant, plus all O&M costs) and divide it by the total amount of energy to be produced (allowing for the system’s performance degradation over time).

We prefer this number because it reflects the real world performance and it allows for direct comparisons against the client’s previous costs for energy.  Indeed, we typically find costs per kWh in the 10-11¢ range compared to utility costs of 15-19¢ starting in Year 1.  But because the energy cost for the solar power system is fixed over its entire lifetime versus the cost of energy from the utility which is constantly rising, the graphical comparison is quite compelling.

Just Do It!

Now it is up to you - you have all the information you could possibly want from one or more highly qualified solar installers.  Now is the time to pull the trigger and Go Solar Now!  There will never be a better time and every day that you wait is costing you money.  Give us a call and we will get you started!