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May 04 2016
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My Installer vs. The Perfect Installer

By Solar Providers Near Me No Comments

Every solar installer has an opinion about how to choose a solar installer. Those with the most service time under their belts and those who’ve completed the most projects focus on the experience. Those who sell products at a premium emphasize quality. Those who go out of their way to get certified by an industry association draw attention to credentials.

In other words, installers offering advice on how to choose an installer are usually operating in sales mode.

Solar.com is able to provide unbiased information about the selection process because our business is designed to connect customers with a variety of high-quality installers in each of the markets we serve. Companies that bid through our platform are competing on a level playing field. As a result, our customers get more transparency than from any other shopping experience.

So how can you tell if one installer is better than another? It’s easier than it seems. Start with installers who have earned a reputation for product selection, workmanship, and customer service. Then see which one offers the best price.

How to Find a Good Installer

Shoppers often equate price with quality, casting a dubious light on the lowest-priced option. When spending a lot of money, it can be comforting to believe you get what you pay for. But in residential solar, pricing often indicates how efficiently an installer runs the business. Sometimes high prices only reward low productivity.

Think about how much time and money a solar company spends searching for new customers. Now, once the company has customers, think about the time it takes to assemble equipment in the warehouse, load and unload a work vehicle, and attach solar panels to the roof.

Many companies use innovative software and all kinds of industry insights to shave time here and there from the installation process. They understand that time is the limiting factor. Companies that learn to install solar panels 10 percent faster can install 10 percent more panels. They also understand it makes no sense to cut corners on quality. All it takes is one bad experience to ruin a company’s reputation.

If you’ve got a price quote that seems too good to be true, check out some customer reviews. See what people say about the solar panels and other equipment the company installs, and how the company treats homeowners and their homes. In addition, always make sure the company has liability insurance and the solar energy system has a warranty in case it doesn’t perform as expected.

If you’re a Solar.com customer, you can always contact one of our independent solar advocates for more information about the installers bidding to put solar on your home.

What About a Perfect Installer?

Search around for solar consumer guides, and you’ll notice that some of them encourage you to hire an installer who’s been certified by NABCEP, the North American Board of Certified Electrical Practitioners. Less than 2 percent of all solar installers hold NABCEP’s solar installer certification, only those who’ve paid an application fee, have gone through a formal training program or have demonstrated experience as a junior installer, and have passed a written exam. Many excellent installers do not hold NABCEP certification.

Some consumer guides also suggest spending extra to receive high-quality equipment. It’s always a good idea to find out about your solar panel brand, and to be wary of manufacturers with a limited track record. But you should know that solar panel manufacturing is a commodity business. It makes little difference whether your solar panels are black or blue, whether they go by the name monocrystalline or multi-crystalline. Better to find a good installer than to spend time comparing hundreds of solar panels, many of which would perform perfectly well on your home.

Experience is important in any line of work. In general, installers learn how to do their jobs better and faster in time. By the same token, new companies enter the solar industry with new ideas all the time. Sometimes people with the most experience are most resistant to change. If you have a better price quote from a young, less experienced company, don’t automatically rule them out. Just ask a Solar.com advocate for more information.

May 02 2016
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Four Shots at a Solar Revival in Nevada

By Solar Incentives by State No Comments

There’s no sugarcoating what happened in Nevada late last year. State regulators slashed rates for supplying solar energy to the grid, rates that homeowners expect to receive for 20 years when figuring the return on investment from rooftop solar.

Other states have imposed fees on new projects, scaring off new investors, but none had gone back and changed the rules for existing solar owners this way. Several top installers, including SolarCity, Vivint Solar, and Sunrun, responded by pulling out of the market.

It looked like solar in Nevada had gone bankrupt, turning out the lights on the tenth-largest residential market in the country.

Nevada’s fate matters not only to the 17,000 people who’ve seen investments abruptly lose value. Hundreds of thousands of US homeowners who’ve reduced their electric bills by going solar, and millions more who could save money by joining them, need some assurance that the same thing won’t happen to them.

In recent months, solar industry proponents have given themselves four chances to reverse the Nevada government and the state’s biggest electric company, NV Energy. The chips are down. The deck may be stacked against them. But when betting against the house, four chances are better than none.

Industry Lawsuit

On Feb. 17, The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC), an industry-backed advocacy group, petitioned the Nevada state court to overturn the new rooftop solar policy. TASC says state law protects its members against prejudice, and by terminating a program that valued solar energy at the retail rate of electricity, Nevada broke its own law.

Several groups are supporting TASC in the lawsuit, including the Sierra Club, the Solar Energy Industries Association, and the state attorney general’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

One week before filing suit, TASC blasted Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval and the state commission that approved the solar rate reduction, noting that commissioners ignored all outside recommendations by applying the reduced rates to all solar customers, new and old.

“Sandoval’s legacy will be letting his hand-picked commissioners eliminate a booming industry while he complicitly stays silent,“ said Bryan Miller, TASC president, and a senior vice president at Sunrun.

Class Action Lawsuit

Two Las Vegas lawyers have initiated a separate lawsuit accusing NV Energy of fraudulently misleading consumers and gaming the electricity market by first encouraging residential solar and then scheming to destroy it.

Two customers named in the suit claim they would not have installed solar if they had known the utility planned to increase solar costs “in an anti-competitive manner to restrain trade … and maintain [a] monopoly.”

The class action requires court approval to represent all NV Energy solar customers, about 17,000 people in total. NV Energy has filed papers asking the Clark County Court to dismiss the suit, but lawyers in the case have yet to make substantive arguments in front of a judge.

Voter Referendum

An industry-backed political action committee called No Solar Tax PAC has petitioned the Nevada Supreme Court to let voters in the next election determine whether the rate for solar energy should be reduced or not. A state court judge in March ruled that the ballot measure could go to in front of voters, but the state legislature would get the final say on any decision made at the polls.

No Solar Tax PAC has appealed, asking the state Supreme Court to leave the matter entirely to the people.

The political action committee has been allowed to continue a signature-gathering campaign as it awaits a Supreme Court ruling, but it may already have enough support to qualify for the ballot.

About 55,200 signatures from registered voters are required. In March, the campaign announced that it has signed up over 100,000 supporters.

Ballot Initiative

A separate ballot measure called the Energy Choice Initiative seeks a state constitutional amendment to open a competitive market for retail electric service so companies other than NV Energy can supply energy to Nevada homes and businesses.

The proposal is reportedly linked to three Las Vegas casinos seeking to cut ties with NV Energy—MGM Resorts International, Las Vegas Sands, and Wynn Resorts—and has garnered support from Sen. Harry Reid and Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO and SolarCity board chairman. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owns NV Energy.