Solar Power World

While solar component costs are decreasing, balance of system and soft costs remain a huge obstacle to completing many commercial solar projects. But concept3D, a Colorado-based software studio and media services company, has partnered with NREL to help lower the soft costs of solar energy. concept3D received $1.3 million in funding from the DOE’s Sunshot Initiative to develop simuwatt Solar a tool that uses 3D modeling to streamline the entire process from sales to engineering, to permitting in a single application. We spoke with the company’s CEO Oliver Davis to find out more.

In the second part of Solar Power World‘s conversation with Arno Harris, CEO of Recurrent Energy and chairman of SEIA, the industry leader discusses what must happen for the solar industry to be considered a mature member of the U.S. energy mix.

In light of the Senate’s proposal to reduce the investment tax credit for solar, we spoke with Jamie Hahn, co-founder and managing director of Northeastern solar developer Solis Partners (also a Solar Power World Top 250 Contractor). Jamie helped clarify what this reduction would mean for the solar industry and if it’s likely to pass in 2014.

We talked to Arno Harris, Recurrent’s CEO, to get his perspective on what drove the industry in 2013 (including the loosening of financing), and how it feels to have the United States finally competing with with Germany as a world solar leader.

For every megawatt of residential solar power that SolarCity installs in 2014, the company will bring light to a community by donating a solar power system and battery combination to a school without access to electricity, through its new charitable arm, the Give Power Foundation.

In this episode, we hear from James Dumas, a founding principal at Solect, a Hopkinton, Mass.-based solar installer and member of the Solar Power World Top 250 Solar Contractors list.

In this episode, we talked to Rob Threlkeld, renewable energy manager for General Motors. GM joined SEIA in February 2013, and in October 2013 they announced that they will be installing a 1.8 MW on their Toled, Ohio, Transmission Plant.

We spoke with Youness Scally of Everybody Solar, a San Francisco non-profit that works to protect the environment and strengthen communities through solar energy projects. Youness is here to tell us more about the work his organization does, particularly how Everybody Solar is working with a fellow non-profit, Homeboy Industries, to stop gang-violence.

Today, we’re talking to Gilad Almogy, CEO of Cogenra Solar, which announced last week that it had introduced a ground-mount solar system that installs for 50 cents a watt.

Today, we’re talking to Brad Mattson, CEO of Siva Power.

In this episode, we are speaking with Aaron Hall, president of Borrego Solar.

Today we are talking to Ram Akella, managing director for Centrosolar America. The news surrounding the Centrosolar Group in other parts of the world has presented challenges to the company’s American subsidiary. Akella is here to address the questions he’s received from installers and other industry insiders alike.

We spoke with Alan Lee, CEO of ecoSolargy. In light of the International Trade Commission’s vote to allow 24 to 36% tariffs imposed by the U.S. Department of Commerce last month to move forward, Alan offers the perspective of how a small business will be affected by the decision.

We sat down with Bob Gibson, vice president of education & outreach for the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA). He offered his thoughts on how utilities view solar and how they are planning to integrate it into their future strategies.

We spoke with Shaw Lynds, a research and development systems engineer at Maxwell Technologies. Shaw told us about how ultracapacitor storage technology can help solve issues with solar energy’s variability.

In this edition, we talk to Nicholas Fiduccia, vice president of solar at HB White Canada Corp., which has taken a key interest in solar north of the United States, building a a slew of multi-megawatt projects, particularly in Ontario.

We talked to Sara Greenstein, president of Underwriters Laboratories Environment and Information & Insights. They released the 2013 The Product Mindset Report, which examines consumer and manufacturer attitudes and perceptions across a broad range of product-related considerations.

In this episode, we spoke to John Perlin, an Author, Lecturer, Consultant on the subject of solar energy. His new book is called Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy, which in bookstores now.

In this episode, we are talking with Rick Hsu, founder of Irwindale, Calif.-based SunGreen Systems (No. 145 on the Solar Power World Top 250 Contractors list).

In a wide-ranging conversation, Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, discussed a recent White House/DOE study urging the country to stabilize its electrical grid and solar’s potential place in helping that happen.