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Non-Tech : Alternative energy
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To: brokenst0nes who wrote (10251)3/10/2011 2:46:08 PM
From: Eric   of 16955
 
brokensOnes

I'll try to answer.

Do you know how a solar site typically gets specified, who determines which companies inverter is selected, and I guess that differs if it's a residential site compared to an industrial one?

I assume an energy company for example doing a large scale site manage the project themselves and go through a formal quoting/approval process, but do solar panel manufactures like First Solar for example, typically only work with certain inverter companies like Power-One, or is it more a free for all?

On a smaller site I guess there are specialist integrators who manage the project, or do some solar panel manufacturers have their own internal teams who put together the whole site and manage it to completion?

If you look at large scale generation it typically comes from requests from utilities. A number of states have RPS laws on the books now so there is a lot of pressure on utilities to roll out more renewables and integrate them into their grids.

The PV industry has gone through a lot of change in the last ten years. Utility scale generation of this stuff didn't exist before and most installations were done for off grid applications. Mom and pop businesses pretty much handled all of these installations but now that the industry has grown much larger and economies of scale have appeared utilities want to get into the game along with homeowners and businesses. So the landscape of how this all comes together has radically changed over the last decade.

First Solar, SunPower and a few other large PV manufactures are now doing turnkey work from beginning to end for the utility companies and other large businesses. To sell an increasing number of panels they had to get into that game. Securing land, permitting systems and installing them and then turning them over to the utilities.

The retail end of the market is still handled by the mom and pops for the most part at the installation end.

Small scale installations are handled by a number of smaller companies that have sprouted up the last few years (such as putting PV's on roofs of warehouses and big box stores for example. This is a fast changing and evolving environment. The equipment has multiplied and there are a lot of choices now. It's getting hard to keep up with the changes we are experiencing today.

To get specific at utility scale you would have to ask the companies directly what inverters, et al they use.

Here are a couple links at FSLR and SPWR:

firstsolar.com

us.sunpowercorp.com
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