Page 141 | Solar.com

Please enter a valid zip code.

(888)-438-6910

Please enter a valid zip code.

Please enter a valid zip code.

Jul 02 2018
Love0
Solar Borrowing 101: Loan Maturities

How to Get Fast Quotes on Solar for Your Home

By Solar Panel Installation Cost No Comments

The process of transitioning to a solar-powered home can be overwhelming for some. From identifying the right solar panel hardware to ensuring that you are taking the proper steps to make use of the available federal and local incentives, there are many areas within this process that require a lot of attention.

Without preparing yourself, doing the background research, and working with the right businesses, the simple project that you imagined may soon become more cumbersome.

Fortunately, there are several businesses that take on many of these responsibilities to help minimize the amount of energy and time put in on your end. Still, you are left with the initial decision of figuring out who to work with on your solar project in the first place, and in many cases, this is the most important question to figure out.

The importance of identifying the right solar provider does not mean this process has to be slow and tedious. In this post, we will go over how you can get fast and high-quality quotes on solar for your home.

Maximizing Your Solar Quotes

The most effective way to get a quality quote on your residential solar project is by expanding your base of potential solar providers and seeing what each business can offer you.

The traditional way of going about this is to search out some of the available solar providers and input information on each website to get your custom quote generated. When there are tens of dozens of solar providers that you can choose from, it is clear why this can become an arduous task.

To address this issue, some businesses decided to create a centralized platform where vetted solar providers can sign up to gain access to the platform’s users. This model is much more efficient for customers because the solar providers are going to them instead of the opposite. Software platforms that follow this model can be referred to as “Competitive Bidding Platforms.”

Competitive Bidding Platform for Solar

A competitive bidding platform for solar is one where a solar customer’s project is bid on by competing solar providers so that the consumer has the option to select the best offer. This model naturally optimizes your solar quotes because each company customizes its offer with the goal of winning the consumer over their competitors. Sometimes this means offering the cheapest price or the best warranty. The value that each solar provider brings may differ greatly.

As long as there is a large enough pool of solar providers on the platform, the end result will always be better than if you went to each provider individually. Competition is very good for the consumer and with this structure, the consumer will always win.

A competitive bidding platform also will get you solar quotes fast. The centralized nature and automated functionality of many available platforms make are much quicker than the traditional route of going to each website separately to input information, or through a phone call with each business.

Solar.com – Empowering You to Go Solar with Transparency and Choice

Solar.com is an example of a competitive bidding platform for solar. The process with our platform is simple, intuitive, and can be done entirely online. The first step is to sign up for your free consultation with one of our experienced Energy Advisors.

In less than an hour, your personal Energy Advisor learns about each detail of your home that may influence the type of solar panel system you can install. After building a profile for this individual’s project, our network of over 100 solar providers will look through the project and create a custom offer if they see fit.

Our data at Solar.com shows that each solar customer that uses our platform sees on average 8-12 bids on their solar project, 20% savings on their upfront costs, and lifetime electricity bill savings of $82,500.

Fast, Vetted Solar Quotes

It is possible to get a very fast quote on solar for your home by simply going with the first company you see. This, however, will not result in the best possible offer. When trying to find the balance between speed and quality, the best way to do this is through a competitive bidding platform like Solar.com.

Jun 29 2018
Love0

How are solar panels manufactured?

By How Does Solar Power Work on a House? Your Questions Answered No Comments


You know solar panels as the futuristic-looking black or blue rectangles that soak up sunlight and bring down your energy bills. You might even get the technology behind how they work. But how are solar panels actually made? What are the stages to produce these modern marvels in clean energy?

We’ll look at the manufacturing process for most common panels, photovoltaic or PV. Photovoltaic cells make electricity from sunlight. Basically, they do this by enabling light particles from the sun to knock electrons from atoms in the PV cells. Here’s how a solar panel is put together to do just that on your rooftop day after day.

Solar Panels 101: Start with Silicon

The most common material to create PV cells with is silicon crystals. Some of the development processes depend on individual manufacturers and specifically what kind of panels they make. There are a single layer or multiple layer panels, for example. But here are the basics.

The first step in making a solar panel is to mine and purify silicon. Purification is usually done with an electric furnace. Thankfully, silicon is a highly abundant resource. In fact, it’s the second most abundant element (right behind oxygen) on the planet. It’s mined around the world, but in the U.S., it’s found primarily in the Midwest and the South.

Pure silicon cylinders, known as “ingots” are then sliced into paper-thin disks or wafers. These are then further trimmed into rectangles or hexagons. This is so they can fit together perfectly within the frame of a solar module and maximize the area.

How silicon cells become little semiconductors

By treating the polysilicon with boron and phosphorus, a positive and negative charge is created. This P/N junction is where the electricity happens. Wires connect the tiny electricity semiconductors with metal to creates paths for the electricity.

The cells are coated with an anti-reflective substance so they don’t simply reflect sunlight back but capture it. Then they’re sealed into an acetate, often made of rubber or vinyl. The panel is placed into an aluminum frame and sealed beneath a sheet of glass or plastic to create the much-anticipated solar panel.

1000x-1

Who Manufactures Solar Panels?

Much of the work for solar panels is done by precision-level robotics. These robot workers are part of the reason solar prices are becoming more competitive. Some aspects are fully automated, but some are still run by technicians.

As a whole, the solar industry (from manufacturing all the way through sales and installation) employed more than 250,271 Americans in 2017.

If you’re interested in getting the most climate-friendly solar panels, check out this post on the greenest solar panels. If you’d like to learn more about the differences between the two main types of solar panels, read this post on monocrystalline vs. polycrystalline panels.

Also, check out this video to find out the difference between mono and polycrystalline solar panels.