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The Florida Solar Energy Industries Association (FlaSEIA) is voicing the solar industry’s dissatisfaction with the FPL Solar Rebate program. While touted as successful by Florida’s largest utility and a spectacular windfall for a few lucky rebate recipients, the solar rebate program has been disastrous for Florida utility ratepayers, solar energy contractors, and solar suppliers. Solar Southwest Florida is in receipt of a series of letters between FlaSEIA’s former President, Bill Gallagher, and Florida Power & Light’s Manager of New Product Development, Oscar Gans. The letters detail results from the latest distribution of 2012 rebate funds, FlaSEIA’s position on the rebate program, and FPL’s response. ThereRead More →

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Most people are surprised to learn that a typical solar photovoltaic (electric) system does not provide power when the utility company electricity goes down. Most solar photovoltaic systems are grid-interconnected, and in a way, grid-dependent. Due to the variable nature of solar panel output, having power during utility outages requires a battery. Let me say up front that batteries are relatively expensive, dirty, dangerous, short-lived, inefficient, heavy, and big. That’s why I typically don’t recommend battery based solar energy systems. However, I was reminded recently that I should listen to our customers and understand a little better what their goals are. There may be aRead More →

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I was at a home last week on a sales call for a solar photovoltaic (electric) system. Whenever I am at someone’s home, I look around at the appliances, lighting, and construction of the home. I ask myself, “is this home efficient?” If not, I’m obligated to point out that making a home more efficient can often be more cost effective than installing solar panels. Homeowners look at me quizzically, because after all, I am there to sell solar panels, right?! This particular homeowner had a 2 HP single speed swimming pool pump. The pool and pump were under one year old. I had toRead More →

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With the fantastic monitoring tools available today, we can see exactly how much energy production drops on cloudy days and when storms pass by. Tropical Storm Isaac just passed by Southwest Florida, and I’ve been reviewing energy output from many of  the systems we have out there. Saturday and Sunday were completely cloud covered days. Sunday August 26, 2012 was not only cloudy, but it was dark and rainy virtually all day long. Despite the cloud cover, photovoltaic systems continued to put out significant amounts of energy. In general, most systems across Southwest Florida had production cut in half on Saturday and lost almost 3/4thsRead More →

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Tropical Storm Isaac has passed Southwest Florida, and it appears that there was little to no impact on the area’s solar panels. The phones have been silent this morning. I would expect nothing less! Solar panels installations are engineered to withstand design wind speeds of 150-172 mph in Southwest Florida under the Florida Building Code 2010. Even systems installed 10-15 years ago used similar attachment methods, and would meet or nearly meet current building codes. There is more concern about windborne debris than the wind’s effect on the panels themselves. We had a few postponed installations last week due to the incoming storm, and thatRead More →