Posts by John Fitzgerald Weaver

Last year (2019) saw a record volume of residential solar installed in the USA: 2.8 GW, and the mostly pre-COVID first quarter of 2020 at ~800 MW was the best Q1 by a long shot. With homeowners wanting greater residential resilience, and residential pricing down a bit, the long-term pace of growth is expected to…

The Brattle Group has released a report, Decarbonized Resilience: Assessing Alternatives to Diesel Backup Power, focused on microgrid solutions that could provide 100% reliability to all loads served by a 10 MW distribution substation in Northern California for two to four consecutive days. This specific focus was chosen because of the Public Safety Power Shutoffs…

First, the news: there’s a new AC solar module on the market. Enphase and Hanwha Q-Cells have released a 340 and 345 watt solar panel with an integrated at the factory microinverter. The module product names are Q.PEAK DUO BLK-G6+/AC 340 and Q.PEAK DUO BLK-G6+/AC 345. The all-black solar panels are specified for the residential…

Did you know that in Australia a solar power installation contract can be signed on Monday, and the install team can show up on Tuesday to start the work? In Germany, the whole country has a one page document for solar permitting – and ‘small scale’ solar doesn’t need permits in many jurisdictions. In the…

The primary purpose of this post is to create a list of high quality solar panel manufacturers for consumers to further research. There are other just as high quality manufacturers that aren’t on this list (LG for instance), but if this is all you had – you’d do all right. The secondary purpose of this…

When you choose to buy a house versus renting, it’s often because you want to save over a long term while having a bit more stability. Yes, there are costs associated with home ownership, but for many people their homes often turn into their largest savings account. We’re also used to paying a monthly rent…

The 500 watt commercial solar panel arrived recently. Greater efficiency means cheaper modules, lower installation costs, and of course lower electricity pricing. Joining the 500 watt party, Trina has introduced their Vertex solar panel family via a whitepaper. The product is split into two groups: bifacial double-glass modules DEG18MC.20(II), and the backsheeted modules DE18M(II)). Both…