This Week in Solar

Exact Solar
  • 4.5 (14)
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  • Updated Weekly

A weekly look at what's new in solar, brought to you by Exact Solar. Clean energy news, policy updates, and stories that matter. exactsolar.substack.com

  1. Here's How You Can Help Legalize Plug-In (Balcony) Solar In Your State

    4d ago

    Here's How You Can Help Legalize Plug-In (Balcony) Solar In Your State

    Plug-in solar is one of the best defenses average Americans have against skyrocketing electricity bills. Sadly, not every state legislature agrees. Some state representatives are stuck battling utility monopolies in committee, just so that their constituents can legally use the sunlight that hits their homes. If you’re excited about potentially lowering your electric bill without a permit and live in one of the states below, here’s what you can do to help move this battle forward. Listen to this episode on: * YouTube * Apple Podcasts * Spotify This Week In Solar is always brought to you by Exact Solar, your locally owned, 20-year-old solar installer. Energy costs are skyrocketing, and no one seems to have a good plan to fix it. Between natural disasters, capacity auctions, utility rate hikes, and data centers gobbling up power, energy just keeps costing more. You have no control over how much someone charges for power for your home or business, but you can choose to opt out of the cycle by going solar. If you live in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, Exact Solar would love to work with you to see if solar is a good fit for your property. Whether you have cash to pay for solar up front or you want solar for zero dollars down, we have an option that will fit your needs. Just click “Show Me How Much I Can Save With Solar” below, submit your info, and we’ll show you the numbers! Here’s What to Say if You Live in These States (Legislation Died or Failed to Advance) If you live in: Rhode Island, Washington, Illinois, Minnesota, Wyoming, Oregon, Missouri, Indiana, Arizona, New Mexico, Georgia, and Idaho. Contact: Your state representatives and senators, as well as local environmental and renter advocacy groups. Tell them: Say that you expect plug-in solar to be reintroduced in the next legislative session as a standalone bill, and that you are building a coalition to support it. Remind your reps that UL 3700 certification requires automatic anti-islanding, and that because of that safety regulation, plug-in solar is already being safely deployed across several states. Then point out that traditional rooftop solar is inaccessible to Americans who don’t own their homes, and that plug-in solar solves that. To summarize, tell them that these systems are safe, and that killing these bills directly harms renters and low-income households who need immediate utility bill relief (and gives them a solution that doesn’t require government subsidies). (If you’re wondering what that bit about UL 3700 and anti-islanding means, it’s just a guarantee that if the grid goes down, the system shuts off in milliseconds. So it means that plug-in solar poses zero risk to utility workers when people buy and install proper kits. Germany has over 4 million of these installations with zero lineworker incidents). Here’s What to Say if You Live in These States (Legislation is Pending) If you live in: * Awaiting Signature: New York (the SUNNY Act) and Vermont. * Active in Chambers: California (SB 868), Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Delaware, North Carolina, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. Contact: * For New York and Vermont: Contact the Governor’s office and ask for a signature. * For the others: Contact your state representatives and senators, as well as local environmental and renter advocacy groups. Tell them: Remind them that while traditional rooftop solar can cost upwards of $20,000 for cash or a loan, plug-in kits cost between $400 and $2,000 and plug directly into a standard 120V or 240V outlet with no need for expensive electrical panel upgrades and contractor soft costs. Make it explicitly clear that these bills do not ask for state funding or tax credits. They simply remove outdated bureaucratic red tape so consumers can spend their own money to lower their electric bills directly. Urge them to publicly support the specific plug-in solar consumer access bill currently moving through their chamber. Here’s What to Say if You Live In These States (Where It’s Already Legal) Disclaimer This Week in Solar is an informational and educational publication. The legislative tracking and advocacy strategies shared above do not constitute formal legal advice. Legislative language, utility rules, and local regulations vary widely by state and can change rapidly. Before purchasing or installing any plug-in solar hardware, always review your specific local state statutes, municipal electrical codes, and utility tariff documents to verify current compliance requirements. If you live in: Utah, Maine, Virginia, Colorado, Maryland, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. These states have officially signed laws legalizing plug-in systems up to 1,200W (and a nation-leading 1,920W in Colorado). But these states have now shifted from passing the law to enforcing it, and there’s still a chance that an HOA or township will try to stop you from installing plug-in solar. Contact: Your state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) and the state legislators who sponsored the bill. What to tell them: First, read the law in your state and understand what your rights are. In states with renter and HOA protections (like Colorado), the law preempts homeowners’ associations and landlords from banning balcony solar. Once you know your rights and you’re ready to install, if your local utility demands a formal interconnection agreement, a pre-install inspection, or proprietary equipment for a UL 3700-certified kit, report them to the PUC (if you’re legally allowed those things under new laws in your state). Sources https://pluginsolarguide.com/ https://www.brightsaver.org/legislation-tracker/ https://pluginsolarusa.com/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pluginsolarusa/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exactsolar.substack.com

    7 min
  2. Here's How We Connect Way More Solar to The Grid: Mike McGuire

    6d ago

    Here's How We Connect Way More Solar to The Grid: Mike McGuire

    This Week In Solar is always brought to you by Exact Solar, your locally owned, twenty-year-old solar installer for Southeast PA and New Jersey. We’d love to pay you $500 if you refer a friend to us and they go solar (We only install in New Jersey and Pennsylvania; please do not refer anyone outside those states). All you have to do is: * Click the “Refer a Friend and Earn $500” button below. * Fill in your information (we need your address to mail you a check if your friend goes solar). * Select Aaron Nichols as the sales representative. * Add your friend’s name and address. * Get a $500 check mailed to you if your friend goes solar with us! Aaron talks with Mike McGuire, a Professional Engineer and the founder of H2DC. Mike is a 30-year engineering veteran whose firm is licensed in all 50 states. He specializes in the technical side of distribution engineering (figuring out how to integrate massive solar loads into aging utility grids that were never designed to handle two-way power flow). Listen to this episode here, or on: * YouTube * Apple Podcasts * Spotify Connect with Mike on LinkedIn here. Expect to learn: * How savvy engineers use modeling to downsize projects just enough to avoid multi-million dollar utility grid upgrade fees. * About new sophisticated off-grid systems that use automatic transfer switches (ATS) and batteries to run heavy industrial loads independently. * Why anhydrous ammonia, created from solar, air, and salt water, might be the carbon-free fuel that replaces fossil fuels in the next 80 years. Quotes from the episode: “The cost of solar has dropped dramatically, making it easier for people to develop solar. The cost of regular utility provided power has gone up and keeps going up at a pretty steep rate. You really don’t need the incentives anymore.” — Mike McGuire Transcript Aaron Nichols: Mike, when I was connecting with you and your team before the show, you mentioned that the shift from small municipal utilities to large corporate structures has driven up electricity costs and then noted that solar is becoming more viable even without incentives as utility costs rise. So how has this changed the way that solar projects are being integrated into the grid? Mike McGuire PE - H2DC: Well, that’s slightly two different things, but they’re related. The price of solar has come down dramatically. 20 years ago it was $8 a watt to buy a solar module. Now, you can buy entire ground mount solar for 75 cents a watt for extremely large facilities. You really don’t need the incentives anymore. As far as integration, the whole grid thing has evolved. In Massachusetts and New Jersey, high incentives led to a tipping point around 2010. It filled up the electric company’s circuits. Once power starts flowing in the other direction from all these little distributed generation sites, it eventually comes back to a substation where they have limits on the equipment. Massachusetts has been to hell and back on this. The utilities got crushed by the number of applications. It wasn’t fair to put the cost of repairing the grid on regular ratepayers, so they put those costs on the solar developers. In congested areas, the utility might tell you it costs $5 billion to upgrade the circuit for a 300 kW project, or you can “sneak in under the wire” if you reduce it to 125 kW. That’s the trade-off we see now. Aaron Nichols: I’m very excited to talk to you today and learn more. I am a sales and marketing storytelling minded person, but I have a lot to learn on the technical side. Welcome back to This Week in Solar. I’m your host, Aaron Nichols, and my guest today is Mike McGuire. Mike, would you quickly introduce yourself? Mike McGuire PE - H2DC: Sure, I’m an electrical engineer, and our firm is licensed across the entire US—all 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico. (Not Guam yet!). Part of our shop does distribution engineering. We calculate how much energy you’re going to need for a store—lighting, outlets, appliances—and size the electrical needs. With distributed generation, we look at how much you’re putting in. There’s “behind the meter” where solar takes a bite out of existing loads, or you’re a net producer dumping power back on the grid. 20 years ago, that was straight net metering. It’s primitive—like an abacus. They take a picture of your meter odometer every month and compare the two. Over the years, utilities complained about a glut of energy at certain times, which they call the duck curve. Aaron Nichols: I’ve heard of the duck curve, but please refresh my memory. Mike McGuire PE - H2DC: It’s a glut of energy available on the lines when everyone’s solar is dumping on the grid at the same time. Let’s also talk about peak demand. Every summer, when people leave work and come home, both locations have the air conditioning on. That uses a lot of power and can cause brownouts. Utilities then have to “wheel in” power from an open market at a premium—sometimes 5 to 200 times the normal price. They share that pain with big commercial users through a “speeding ticket” called a peak demand charge. Some manufacturing plants pay as much for their “speeding ticket” as they do for their regular consumption. Now we’re seeing time of use (TOU) charges for residences too, where you might pay 10 times more for electricity between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. Aaron Nichols: Where do you and your company come in to help fix this? Mike McGuire PE - H2DC: We’re the electrical engineers. We figure out how to integrate all these systems—pairing modules, combining them with inverters. We’re the cooks; the customers tell us what they want on the menu, and we figure out how to get it done and deal with the utilities. Aaron Nichols: You’ve been a PE for 30 years and in solar for 20. What are the major changes you’ve seen? Mike McGuire PE - H2DC: Grids are getting full and processes are getting complicated, but now we have energy storage. To combat that duck curve and the peak demand, you capture energy and hold onto it for a few hours. Batteries are the easiest solution. Instead of tapping the utility to charge an electric car—which is a bigger load than most A/C systems—you hit the battery. For the future, I think we’ll see more off-grid solar. I don’t mean a camp on an island; I mean solar running specific loads while the sun is out, regulated by batteries so clouds don’t “pull the rug out” from under you. If the batteries run low, you use an automatic transfer switch (ATS) to snap back to the grid. This is “solar without the utility.” In New England, solar energy per kWh is much less than utility rates, which draws people in. Aaron Nichols: Mike, if you were to guess what energy looks like 80 years from now, what do you imagine? Mike McGuire PE - H2DC: It will still be electric. How we make it will change. I don’t think fossil fuels or uranium will be enough. I believe we’ll use “modern fuels” we can’t even think of yet. One I like is anhydrous ammonia (NH3). It has no carbon, stores like propane, and its energy content is between propane and natural gas. If you have a glut of solar, air, and salt water, you can create NH3. Industry is working on making the manufacturing plants smaller and more efficient. It can also be used for fertilizer. That might be a go-to fuel in 80 years. Aaron Nichols: Thank you for coming on, Mike. For everyone listening, that’s been This Week in Solar. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exactsolar.substack.com

    31 min
  3. Your State-By-State Plug-In Solar Update (Balcony Solar)

    Jun 12

    Your State-By-State Plug-In Solar Update (Balcony Solar)

    Plug-in solar is sweeping the nation. What started as a fringe, under-the-radar DIY movement (look up “guerrilla solar”) will soon be a legally protected appliance class across the United States. Curious where your state stands on legalizing anyone’s right to harvest sunlight? Read on. Listen to this episode on: * YouTube * Apple Podcasts * Spotify If you’ve gotten some value out of this week in solar, please consider subscribing (for free) so we can continue to bring you more! When it comes to plug-in solar, states have wildly different attitudes. A few have made moves to eliminate utility red tape, while others have killed bills under heavy pressure from utility and labor monopolies. States where legislation has passed Five states have officially signed plug-in solar bills into law. These are: * Utah: The pioneer that started the movement when they signed their 1,200W limit into law in March 2025. * Maine & Virginia: Both signed their respective 1,200W limit bills into law in April 2026. * Colorado: Signed into law on May 7, 2026. HB 26-1007 sets the national high-water mark with a 1,920W limit and explicitly stops HOAs from interfering with homeowners’ rights to put a few solar panels on their property. * Maryland: Signed into law on May 12, 2026. HB 1532 is unique because it specifically exempts smaller systems under 391W from needing UL certification or building code alterations. * Connecticut: HB 5340 passed both chambers on June 4th States where legislation is advancing These states have active, moving legislation. * Awaiting Signature: New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont. * Active in Chambers: Illinois (SB 3104 successfully advanced out of committee), California, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Delaware, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Washington, D.C. States where legislation’s been killed stone dead Utility pushback, union opposition, and legislative gridlock effectively stalled progress in 11 states for the 2026 session. * The Casualties: Washington (the plug-in solar exemption was explicitly stripped from a broader energy bill before passage), New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Indiana, Missouri, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Georgia, and Idaho. Opponents in these states largely cited fire risks and technical interconnection concerns, causing bills to either fail a floor vote or die in committee. Sponsors in these states are forced to regroup for 2027. States with no Legislation 16 states remain entirely without explicit legislation. Utilities in these states continue to apply outdated, heavy-handed interconnection rules designed for massive rooftop arrays to simple 120V plug-in systems. * The Holdouts: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Sources: https://pluginsolarguide.com/ https://www.brightsaver.org/legislation-tracker/ https://pluginsolarusa.com/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pluginsolarusa/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exactsolar.substack.com

    4 min
  4. Dr. Janette Freeman: Why Aren't We Recycling More Solar Panels?

    Jun 10

    Dr. Janette Freeman: Why Aren't We Recycling More Solar Panels?

    Aaron talks with Dr. Janette Freeman, VP of Business Development at Fabtech and a leading expert in the circular economy for solar. Janette is a former minister and mindfulness coach who transitioned into renewable energy to help solve the issue of solar waste. Listen to this episode on: * YouTube * Apple Podcasts * Spotify Connect with Janette on LinkedIn here. If you feel you’ve gotten some value out of this week in solar, go ahead and give us your email so we can continue sending you more solar news! Expect to learn: * Why it currently costs $15–$16 to recycle a panel versus $1 to landfill it (and why that gap is closing fast). * The difference between metal stripping (solar recycling level 1) and the advanced separation of glass, copper, and silver (advanced solar recycling). * How the solar industry ended up being the first industry in history to impose recycling standards on itself (before being forced by legislation). Quotes from the episode: “Clean energy has to take care of their circularity and the end-of-life panels. We can’t be in clean energy and add to a problem on the other side of it.” — Dr. Janette Freeman “What I would hope is that within 80 years, human beings evolve enough to handle this kind of technology... that will determine if we actually still have a planet that’s inhabitable and we can live on.” — Dr. Janette Freeman Transcript Aaron Nichols: Janette, why aren’t more solar panels recycled when they reach the end of their useful lives? Dr. Janette Freeman: Basically, the main reason is cost, because it costs to recycle solar panels. And sometimes that is a sticker shock for a lot of customers and companies. Because we’re a new industry, and because waste in solar panels is new, people don’t know about it. The infrastructure for recycling centers is just building because it’s not a typical recycling product to recycle. In 10 years that won’t be the case. There will be more of an infrastructure, more education, and more companies that are budgeting in advance for the cost of recycling. Aaron Nichols: So at the moment, it’s more of a problem of incentives than anything else. We just haven’t lined up the incentives correctly for everyone to make it happen. Dr. Janette Freeman: I think you could say it like that. Everyone always takes action based on certain incentives, right? But I don’t like that to sound like, unless there’s all kinds of handouts and financial incentives, then it’s not gonna happen. There’s a lot of incentives. One major incentive is a company’s social governance. It’s part of their social influence. They don’t want their company to be known as filling the local landfills with the solar panels that are providing power in the communities. Aaron Nichols: And we’ll get to that. I know that you mentioned that social norms are a very powerful motivator when people are talking about a company and what they’re doing or what they’re not doing. We’ll get to that down the line, but for anyone who’s listening, welcome back to This Week in Solar. I am your host, Aaron Nichols, the research and policy specialist here at Exact Solar in Newtown, Pennsylvania. And my guest today is Dr. Janette Freeman. I know you’re at Fabtech—I forgot your title. Would you please introduce yourself and talk about your day-to-day life at Fabtech? Dr. Janette Freeman: Thanks so much for having me on, Aaron. So my name is Janette Freeman and my title is VP of Business Development. To give a little bit of history, Fabtech’s been around over 25 years. We started out in the refurbishing of electronics, from cell phones to all kinds of different things. Then we got into solar panels about 15 years ago. About six years ago, they brought me on. Fabtech is a family company, basically. My brother-in-law and sister started it. They had been in the salvage market, not really in renewable energy. They brought me on to really build relationships in the renewable industry space so that we could get those used solar panels off solar farms in large quantities. It didn’t take long for me to realize that reuse is only one part of the puzzle; recycling is a very key part of that circularity. Aaron Nichols: And what were you doing before? I know there was a quick sidebar there. What did your brother-in-law and sister pull you away from? Dr. Janette Freeman: For about 20 years before that, I was actually a minister in churches. I founded and served new thought ministries. I also did coaching on the side and had written three books. My work was working with people with their personal mindset and deeper spirituality. I was an expert in mindfulness and meditation training. After I had gotten out of nonprofits, I was teaching in psychiatry with mindfulness and behavioral management. I was craving something brand new. I just said to my sister one day, I wonder if there’s anywhere where my particular skill set will meet your growing needs. It’s been great fun; it fills my need to do something with purpose that makes the planet a better place. Aaron Nichols: That is so awesome. I certainly can relate to that. I ended up in this business because I was surfing and trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life in Ecuador. I had just done some yoga teacher trainings and realized that if I spent the rest of my life deploying clean energy, I could look back and feel like that was a good use of a life. Going back to that purpose angle—even though solar has this green image, a lot of panels end up getting taken down and thrown away far before they need to be replaced. Can you elaborate on why that is? Dr. Janette Freeman: There’s actually a lot of reasons and they’re usually good reasons. In larger commercial rooftop projects, they might come off early because of a roofing issue, a transference of ownership, or technology increases. 10 years ago we had 250-watt panels; now you can put a 650-watt panel on. Those are typically the reasons: decommissioning, repowering, or ownership change. The other reason is breakage from weather incidents. Aaron Nichols: So it’s not always motivated specifically by business reasons. It’s no one’s fault. Dr. Janette Freeman: Right. There’s usually a good reason. Aaron Nichols: So what do we do about it? Where do you guys come in? Dr. Janette Freeman: Reuse is always a priority if panels can be reused. That’s first choice before recycling and definitely before landfill. Reuse comes in when panels can be resold. There’s a big difference; 250-watt panels still work, but we can’t really do anything with them because we can’t resell those. Nowadays, it’s really over 320 watts where there is resale value to cover the labor, testing, and marketing costs. The second choice is recycling. Solar panels are sturdy pieces of equipment made with many different materials that have to be recycled separately. The aluminum frame and junction box come off, then the glass is separated, and then the solar cell is processed to pull out precious materials like silver, copper, and lead. Some metals recyclers just strip the frame and landfill the rest—that is no solution. We want “real recycling” where the entire panel gets recycled. Recycling prices have already come down since I started five years ago. As the price of silver goes up and demand increases, I can see a time where recycling costs very little or is even free. Right now, landfilling might cost $1 or $2 versus $15 or $16 for recycling. That’s why 90% of panels are still being landfilled, which is entirely too high. However, we’re seeing prohibitions. Texas and California have legislation banning solar panels from landfills. Aaron Nichols: That’s really good news. I got into this industry because of the amount of trash I saw while traveling through the developing world. You mentioned social pressure is something you believe will change this. How can we ethically and in a friendly way put the pressure on? Dr. Janette Freeman: Social influence has always been a factor—you don’t want people to see you throwing a plastic bottle in the garbage when there is a recycling bin. In the last five years, I’ve noticed a huge difference in companies making it a policy to recycle. Part of that is driven by the consumer in communities where solar farms are being installed. People don’t want those panels in their local landfills. The industry is actually pushing the industry to do things the right way, which is pretty admirable. Aaron Nichols: It is. I live very close to Kate Collardson, who started solarrecycle.org. She mentioned that we’re the first industry in history to impose recycling upon ourselves before anyone made us do it. Dr. Janette Freeman: Yeah, I was just going to mention that. We were talking at the RE+ conference in September and you were saying that. I was like, “Yay us!” Aaron Nichols: Well, Janette, I ask everyone who comes on this show the same closing question. My grandma turned 80 last year. 80 years means she was born in 1945—a world where clean energy didn’t exist. PV wasn’t invented until 1954. Within her lifetime, solar went from a niche technology to the cheapest power source in the world. What do you think clean energy looks like 80 years from now? Dr. Janette Freeman: I’m going to say a little twist to this. Our technology is increasing exponentially now with AI. What I would hope is that within 80 years, human beings evolve enough to handle this kind of technology. What we see in the world will be directly related to if human beings evolve to think more of the common good versus selfish needs. That will determine if we still have a planet that’s inhabitable. Of course, clean energy then will be the normal way that we have energy. Aaron Nichols: That’s a beautiful vision. Janette, where do you like people to find you online? Dr. Janette Freeman: LinkedIn is the best place—Janette Freeman. And of course, my w

    24 min
  5. Is Solar Panel Quality Getting Worse?

    Jun 5

    Is Solar Panel Quality Getting Worse?

    What’s New: Two of the solar industry’s leading independent testing labs, Kiwa PVEL and RETC, just dropped their 2026 solar panel reliability reports. The high-level takeaway is: solar panels are becoming more efficient and delivering higher energy yields than ever before, but their failure rates during extended laboratory stress testing have skyrocketed to historic highs. We don’t say this to scare you; it’s just another reason to work with a reputable, locally owned installer that’s done their research when you’re considering going solar. You can listen to this episode here, or on: * YouTube * Apple Podcasts * Spotify If you’ve learned something from This Week In Solar and you’d like to learn more, drop your email below, and we’ll keep sending you free solar news! Why it Matters: For a high-quality, locally-owned solar installer like Exact Solar, it’s absolutely critical that we can stand behind the promises that we make to home and business owners. Those promises are only as good as the equipment we use to build our systems. We’re brand-agnostic in the systems we build, and we’re always testing new equipment to ensure home and business owners get the best experience. It’s our name on the roof, not the manufacturers’. If the system breaks, we’re the ones who get called to fix it. Most home and business owners only have a vague idea of who manufactured their solar panels, but they know who installed them. Historically, standard certifications kept catastrophic equipment failures from happening on a large scale. But as the market scrambles to meet surging energy demands, manufacturers are cutting corners to save on costs and increase output. We are seeing thinner encapsulant layers, zero-busbar designs, and significantly thinner aluminum frames. Thinner frames and glass mean higher rates of glass breakage and cell cracking when panels are exposed to simulated heavy snow, high winds, and severe hail storms. Let’s look at the numbers coming out of the labs: * 87% of manufacturers evaluated in the Kiwa PVEL Scorecard experienced at least one test failure. * More than 10% of the tested module samples failed during the intensive 2,000-hour damp heat test (this means that layers separated and moisture crept in). * Not a single solar panel model managed to achieve “Top Performer” status across every single test category for the first time in history. How to Find The Top Performing Panels: If you’re interested in going solar, here’s how to make sure you’ll own a system that’s built to last. If you are working with a well-established, locally owned, reputable installer, ask them what equipment they have worked with extensively and like. They have years of experience and will help you find the equipment that works best in your area, for your unique climate. If you want something to cross-reference with, these five brands earned high honors as both a Kiwa PVEL “Top Performer” and an RETC “Overall Highest Achiever” for 2026: * JinkoSolar * Trina Solar * JA Solar * Qcells * LONGi Solar Sources: Photovoltaic Reliability and Standards Development Latest PV Module Reliability Scorecard shows unsettling uptick in failures RETC solar panel report shows troubling performance issues Latest RETC solar module quality report reveals significant issues 2026 PV Module Index Report The 2026 PV Module Reliability Scorecard This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exactsolar.substack.com

    5 min
  6. Inventing a Transforming Solar Shipping Container: Dr. Ryan Wartena

    Jun 3

    Inventing a Transforming Solar Shipping Container: Dr. Ryan Wartena

    Aaron talks with Dr. Ryan Wartena, CEO and Founder of Southern Beams Builds and creator of Dragonwings. If you don’t already know what Dragonwings are, you should. They’re insanely cool. Imagine off-grid power in a box, Blade Runner style. You can look at ‘em here. Ryan has a PhD in electrochemical engineering and a long resume of awesome achievements. He’s now building robotic solar generators that unfold from shipping containers. Listen to this episode here, or on: * YouTube * Apple Podcasts * Spotify Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn here. If you’ve learned something from This Week In Solar and you’d like to learn more, drop your email below, and we’ll keep sending you free solar news! Expect to learn: * How Dragonwings is moving off-grid solar away from slow, custom construction and toward a production line manufacturing model. * Why Ryan picked the 20-foot shipping container shape (it’s perfect for something very specific). * How these cool mobile solar units are powering everything from NFL games to off-grid villages at Burning Man. Quotes from the episode: “I think Dragonwings has been part of a collective dream... let’s not have to do a lot of wiring in the field. Why can’t we just have something to drop it down and it opens up and does the thing?” — Dr. Ryan Wartena “This may be one of the fastest ways to deploy renewables if we can build solar generators like cars... the economics are there, and now it’s about that speed.” — Dr. Ryan Wartena Transcript: Aaron Nichols: Ryan, I’m so excited to finally meet you. Ever since I saw a video of Dragonwings just unfolding out of the shipping container, like some sort of amazing sci-fi robot, I’ve wanted to meet you and talk to you. Would you please introduce yourself, just kind of discuss your background in the solar industry a little bit and talk about the creation of Dragonwings? Dr. Ryan Wartena: Absolutely. Well, thank you, Aaron. I’m Dr. Ryan Wartena. I’m the CEO and founder of Southern Beams Builds, and we build Dragonwing Solar Generators. It’s the first to market three-phase power renewable solar generator with all integrated solar, batteries, power conversion, and the key point is it has enough solar panels to generate enough energy to feed a three-phase power system. And so it’s been a bit of a dream. I think Dragonwings has been part of a collective dream that anyone who’s been involved with solar has been kind of wanting as far as like—let’s not have to do a lot of wiring in the field. Why can’t we just have something to drop it down and it opens up and does the thing? A bit of my background: I have a PhD in industrial electrochemical engineering from Georgia Tech. I did a postdoc at the Naval Research Lab where I started developing micro battery technologies and then another postdoc at MIT for Professor Yat-Ming Chiang while he was starting up A123. My job was on the self-assembling battery. But through all of that, I realized like, even if we had the “everlasting gobstopper” of batteries, we’d really need an energy operating system to coordinate batteries with solar, the grid, and all the loads. Aaron Nichols: Mm. Dr. Ryan Wartena: In 2008, I founded a company called Geli—Growing Energy Labs Incorporated. We were pioneers in software for energy storage, and we sold that company in 2020 to Hanwha Q-cells. After that, I took a step back and looked at how long it took to develop commercial solar storage. I saw productized solutions for residential and utility scales, but nothing for commercial and industrial (C&I). C&I starts at say 20 or 30 kilowatt power and can scale up to a megawatt. Commercial developers didn’t want to develop small projects because there was as much headache as a bigger project. What if we can provide a product that, as soon as it’s delivered, is ready to provide power service? That’s where Dragonwings came from—a desire to build an all-in-one system to productize solar, building power plants like cars on a production line. Aaron Nichols: Right. That’s, I think, the thing that I love the most. The cool factor is just so off the charts. Go to dragonwings.co, just watch the video, watch these things unfolding. They’re such a statement. So obviously you were solving a problem in the market, but how important were aesthetics in the design process? Dr. Ryan Wartena: I am an artist, and I love to make things beautiful. Back at Geli, our first energy storage system in 2006—instead of putting it into a gray box, I designed a turquoise hexagon. We’ve been blind to power systems; we just know they work. There’s always been an intention here to make whatever we do absolutely beautiful. The design for Dragonwings was functionality-driven. We wanted it to open at the push of a button and not take up much ground space. That led to the horizontal scissor design, which we have a patent on. The form factor was inspired by a 20-foot shipping container—they go everywhere, they’re standardized on fork pockets and corner posts. So the beauty followed the engineering. It is the beginning of solar robotics and robotic architecture. Aaron Nichols: Now, just to bring the story down to Earth—what can an average Dragonwing power? How many EV chargers would the average one be able to handle? Dr. Ryan Wartena: We put four level-two chargers on Dragonwings. In the wintertime, we’re going to make between 50 and 70 kilowatt-hours; in the summertime, up to 150. So we can do like two cars in the winter and six cars in the summer. We recently sold a unit to Hyundai and they’ve been using it every day this winter charging one or two cars. Aaron Nichols: I think another obvious place my mind goes is disaster zones or places that need to be electrified. Is that something y’all have worked on? Dr. Ryan Wartena: Absolutely. Dragonwings can be multi-use. You can use them for charging construction equipment or EVs most of the time, and when there is a disaster, they can be utilized for emergency response. We’re working with state agencies in California and organizations like Direct Relief and the Footprint Project on this. Aaron Nichols: Yeah, and the portability is a huge asset. Dr. Ryan Wartena: One of the design goals was to make sure we could put two of them onto a 53-foot flatbed trailer. We have a potential military application coming up for exactly that. Because we fit into the shipping container ecosystem, we fit right into the global logistics industry. Aaron Nichols: Very cool. And what’s been your crowning moment so far? Dr. Ryan Wartena: We have two Dragonwings at Levi’s Stadium right now for the Super Bowl. They’ve been operating great in conjunction with Sunbelt Rentals. We also had units at the Google I/O conference. NextTracker bought a Dragonwing and has been using it for nearly two years on construction sites. Aaron Nichols: I imagine it’s faster to put a hundred Dragonwings in a field than to build a traditional project. Dr. Ryan Wartena: I believe that too, Aaron. We’re talking with Tier 1 construction companies who are building data centers. We’ve actually started looking at our first data center rack over here that we’ll be putting into a Dragonwing to do certified renewable AI compute. Delivering Dragonwings to a site the day you sign a lease means you can start generating revenue immediately. Aaron Nichols: Roughly how many Dragonwings exist in the world today? Dr. Ryan Wartena: We’ve built eight. One prototype and seven that are all online and deployed across California, Arizona, and the Mojave Desert. Aaron Nichols: Nice. Haven’t they been deployed at Burning Man yet? Dr. Ryan Wartena: All of them have been to Burning Man. This last year we had five Dragonwings powering a whole village of 330 people—kitchens, sound systems, and even an electric sauna. Aaron Nichols: If you had your way, where is it going? Dr. Ryan Wartena: I see it developing into fields of Dragonwings for fast setup. This may be one of the fastest ways to deploy renewables if we can build solar generators like cars. We’ve had inbounds from over 50 countries. A lot of the world runs on gas and diesel generators at the edge of the world; I’d love to see us have an international reach and develop projects of 20 or 50 megawatts. Aaron Nichols: I hammer on this all the time—there are enough parking lots in this country to cover several states. Dr. Ryan Wartena: Exactly. Through my experience at Geli, I saw the hurdles of C&I solar. Often it’s a REIT that owns the building, managed by a management company, with a short-term lease. No one is motivated to put in fixed solar. But with Dragonwings, you can. It doesn’t necessarily increase the property value or the taxes because it’s mobile. Having that flexibility and multipurpose use is what opens the market. Aaron Nichols: Ryan, what do you believe clean energy looks like 80 years from now? Dr. Ryan Wartena: In 1999, I asked myself the same question. At the time, it looked like it would take 1,000 years to get to 100% renewables. Then China stepped in and increased solar panel production by 10x, and financial solutions like PPAs gave it another step function. I’d like to believe in 80 years, we will be running on 500% or 700% renewable energy. I think we can get to near 100% in the 2030s. AI and electric vehicles are asking us for more and more energy, so it’s about who can build and deploy it fastest. I can see the world running on 500% renewables in our lifetime. Aaron Nichols: If you like to be found online, where do you like to be found? Dr. Ryan Wartena: LinkedIn is a great place. We have an Instagram under Southern Beams, or you can contact me directly at ryan@southernbeams.com. Aaron Nichols: Ryan, thank you so much. That’s been This Week in Solar. Dr. Ryan Wartena: Awesome, thank you, Aaron. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get acc

    27 min
  7. Elon Musk Planning to Double US Solar Manufacturing Capacity

    May 29

    Elon Musk Planning to Double US Solar Manufacturing Capacity

    What’s New: Earlier this year, Elon Musk set an aggressive goal for Tesla and SpaceX: to build 100 gigawatts (GW) of annual solar manufacturing capacity in the United States within the next three years. The plan’s moving forward, but there’s a lot to overcome. You can listen to this episode here, or on: * Substack * YouTube * Apple Podcasts * Spotify If you’ve learned something from This Week In Solar and you’d like to learn more, drop your email below, and we’ll keep sending you free solar news! Why it Matters: To put this into perspective, the entire U.S. solar industry added 43.2 GW of capacity in 2025, and America’s largest domestic manufacturer, First Solar, projects adding 18 GW of capacity by 2027. If successful, Tesla alone would more than double the entire country’s domestic solar manufacturing capacity. The center of this planned expansion is a massive new factory under development in Brookshire, Texas, right next to Tesla’s existing Megapack Megafactory. Here’s where it gets really interesting. Normally, solar panels that are “manufactured” in the U.S. are actually just “assembled” in the U.S. Making a solar panel is a multi-step process that starts with raw polysilicon that’s turned into ingots, wafers, solar cells, and finally the finished module. Because building solar cell manufacturing lines requires massive capital investments, highly specialized cleanroom environments, and complex chemical processing, U.S. companies don’t generally manufacture all the components. Instead, they import ready-made photovoltaic cells (overwhelmingly made by Chinese manufacturers or their subsidiaries in Southeast Asia) and perform only the final mechanical assembly in America. This final stage involves soldering the imported cells together, sealing them between protective glass and a backsheet, and framing them in aluminum. Tesla is designing this factory to be completely vertically integrated. That means the process will include: * Ingot growth and wafer slicing * Photovoltaic (PV) cell production * Finished module and panel assembly While the surging electricity demand from AI data centers and electrification makes the timing perfect, there are a few logistical issues to overcome: * Supply Chain & Sourcing: Tesla is reportedly spending nearly $3 billion to purchase cell manufacturing equipment from top Chinese suppliers. However, there are risks, including U.S. Section 232 tariffs on raw materials like polysilicon, and potential Chinese export restrictions on solar tech. * Massive Power Demands: Operating 100 GW of shared cell and module manufacturing will require up to 1,200 MW of power. The industrial transformer market faces two-year wait times, but Tesla hopes to bypass this by manufacturing its own transformers. * Space and Labor Constraints: Producing 100 GW will require an estimated 43 million square feet of factory space (four times the size of Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas) and an influx of roughly 22,000 workers (I mean, hey, it’s more jobs than a data center). Hitting 100 GW by 2028 is highly improbable. But Elon Musk is famous for convincing investors he can do the impossible, and then finding ways to pull it off. If Tesla successfully executes even a third of this plan in the next three years, they’ll be a dominant force in the American solar energy market. By manufacturing the panels, the inverters, the home batteries (Powerwall), and utility-scale storage (Megapack), Tesla could offer home and business owners a domestically manufactured “solar energy system in a box” that doesn’t need any non-Tesla components. It could also make solar even more cost-effective for anyone who invests in a solar energy system with a reputable, locally-owned company like Exact Solar. Sources: Assessing Elon Musk’s massive 100 GW solar ambitions Tesla is building a massive Texas solar factory in its clearest push yet for 100 GW How Tesla’s Ambitious Solar Plans Could Soon Power the Stock Higher This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exactsolar.substack.com

    5 min
  8. Episode 100! You Don't Need Permission to Use Solar: Mr. Money Mustache

    May 27

    Episode 100! You Don't Need Permission to Use Solar: Mr. Money Mustache

    In This Week In Solar’s one hundredth episode, Aaron Nichols sits down with Mr. Money Mustache. They dive into the unnecessary red tape surrounding traditional solar installations and explore some highly unconventional, DIY ways to capture the sun’s energy without asking for permission. Pete became an internet legend under the pseudonym Mr. Money Mustache. By optimizing his spending, earning, and investing (and always maximizing for fun while minimizing cost), Pete managed to retire at the age of 30. Pete is also a self-proclaimed “eco-nerd” who loves harnessing the free magic energy from the sky that is solar power. You can listen to this episode here, or on: * YouTube * Apple Podcasts * Spotify If you’ve learned something from This Week In Solar and you’d like to learn more, drop your email below, and we’ll keep sending you free solar news! Expect to learn: * How Pete bypassed city permits by buying cheap used solar panels on Craigslist and wiring them directly into his electric water heater for free hot water. * Why solar is so expensive in the United States compared to countries like Germany and Australia (hint: it’s mostly administrative red tape). * Pete’s wild DIY trick using a $20 farmer’s bucket heater and a direct solar connection to turn his hot tub into a 120-degree cauldron of free, sun-powered hot water. * How to make sure you’re working with a reputable, locally owned solar installer like Exact Solar. Quote from the episode: “It takes very little resources to manufacture a solar panel... You put it in the sun, it's paid back its manufacturing costs within something like three months in terms of the embodied energy. And then it's like 30 more years of profit that you're helping the earth.” — Pete (Mr. Money Mustache) Transcript: Aaron Nichols Hey guys, a quick note before today’s episode with Mr. Money Mustache. Pete, who I interview, has a huge risk tolerance. He’s known for doing out-there things and he’s gonna describe some things that are pretty unsafe. Now, if you are interested in putting solar on your home, consult with qualified professionals. Electricity is no joke. You can really hurt yourself and we would hate to see that. So, please talk to us at X-ACC Solar if you live in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, if you’re thinking of putting solar on your home, and do not go messing around with the electricity in your own home unless you have qualifications. Now, without further ado, enjoy today’s interview with Mr. Money Mustache. Aaron Nichols Pete, I know you as Pete. The world knows you as Mr. Money Mustache. Not too long ago, you asked me to help you break down the solar energy system you’d put on your roof and you’d done something really unique with it. So I’d like to launch into that story. Mr. Money Mustache (Pete) Oh yeah. Sure. Okay. So the background is that I’m an electrical guy in the past, like an electrical engineer, and I’ve done wiring, full houses. So I’m comfortable with all your electricity stuff. But what I don’t like is a lot of red tape and permits and high fees that usually comes with solar, especially like the city we’re in right now, Longmont, is a little bit solar unfriendly compared to some other cities. So I just had a bunch of solar panels that I got off of Craigslist and I wired them up and really just chucked them onto my roof. I didn’t even mount them. I just made like a little metal frame and set them in there. And then I ran that DC current right into an electric water heater. And because of the principles of electricity, a heating element doesn’t care whether you’ve done gone through a fancy inverter and made AC or not, it’s just like solar panels right into the water heater and then I got free hot water for like a year and a half total cost of like just the cost of the solar panels on Craigslist so maybe like $800 of solar panels and I made about $400 of electricity with them in just the first, like per year I guess. So it’s like a giant return on investment compared to these systems where you spend many thousands of dollars in order to save like a little bit more per year. But it takes like sometimes 15 or 20 years to pay it back. Aaron Nichols So for anyone who doesn’t know, I mean you have written online and published all sorts of stuff about how to financially and how otherwise optimize your life. Would you just give the audience an overview of who you are, what you’re about. Mr. Money Mustache (Pete) Yeah, okay, that’s a bigger story. I, on the internet, I write as Mr. Money Mustache, although my real identity is not a secret either. And the basic idea is I like to optimize everything, maximizing for fun, preferably at minimal cost, especially when I was younger, when I didn’t have a lot of money. So what that led to is optimizing my whole spending and earning and investing. And it led to me being able to retire when I was 30 years old, just in time to start raising a child, get married, raising a kid and now I’ve been retired for like almost 22 years because I’m like coming up on 52 years old so it’s just been like a giant fun story of freedom and then I decided to start writing about this at some point and that’s where the Mr. Money Mustache blog was born. Aaron Nichols Yeah and you’ve been a big fan of solar for a long time I mean the building we’re sitting in now which for anyone who doesn’t know you own this building it’s like half co-working space half community center yeah and it is powered by the Sun. Mr. Money Mustache (Pete) Yeah somewhat like it’s a grid-tied solar system and during the summer it makes more electricity than we use and during the winter it runs a deficit so we have to pay a power bill and pull it out of the grid. Aaron Nichols So why are you such a fan of solar? Mr. Money Mustache (Pete) Just because it’s magic free energy from the sky. It’s like raining the equivalent of money down onto you everywhere on earth. So why wouldn’t you want to harvest it? It just seems super cool to me. Aaron Nichols Yeah. I remember, I mean, you’re actually one of the reasons I wound up in the solar industry was reading your story of how you actually got solar on this building. Mr. Money Mustache (Pete) Oh, I didn’t know that. Aaron Nichols Yeah. This was years ago before I was still a vagabond just traveling before I decided to do the installer training that I did and everything that took me here I was just like my god he made solar sound so cool. Mr. Money Mustache (Pete) Yeah well thanks. Yeah. And I also like it because I’m a closet eco nerd as well right like I care about the environment I don’t like pollution so anytime I can displace fossil fuels with clean energy I like that too. But if you do it with the right little tweaks on how you do it it can be more profitable and less hassle and that’s also what I like. Aaron Nichols So let’s talk about ways that people can use this amazing technology without permission and also how they can be safe doing so. Mr. Money Mustache (Pete) Yeah. Yeah. Some of the stuff I do is not always safe. Aaron Nichols I’ve been with you for some of those experiences. Mr. Money Mustache (Pete) Yeah. Like when we took the tree down to the coworking space. Aaron Nichols Oh yeah. Some big heavy stuff falling down. Mr. Money Mustache (Pete) Yeah. I’m a little bit of a honey badger. I might have used up a couple of my nine lives if I were a cat. So don’t exactly do what I do, but you can choose the things that are safe. So what I would recommend... What first comes to mind with today’s solar environment is you buy one of those like all-in-one solar generator battery units, have dropped in price so much. Your solar panels go straight into that and it’s just got a bunch of plugs on the front. And if you get a big enough one, you can have thousands of watts of solar going in there and thousands of watts coming out to power all your stuff, like your hot tub and your electric car and anything else that uses a lot of power. And it can be completely off grid. So you don’t need a permit to do it. And that’s the easiest way to get comfortable and have some fun with solar. And then you can scale up from there. And then there’s like the new laws, which you might mention in this podcast that allow you to have like a mini grid tide system, right? Aaron Nichols Yeah. Mr. Money Mustache (Pete) Then of course, if you have a big enough house and a big enough budget, then it starts to shift over to become profitable to do the big array and make it grid tied. And that’s what we did here at this building because I really wanted it to make a surplus of power and then, you know, get credits that last through the seasons. Aaron Nichols Yeah. Big fan of the battery option, just getting a little battery and plugging appliances into it because power’s just getting more and more expensive. Like you said, those things are cheap and that’s such a great option, especially for, let’s say, renters who don’t own their home. They don’t have the option to put solar on their roofs, but their bills just keep going up and up. There’s nothing stopping you. And it’s not even dangerous from buying a solar panel on Craigslist, buying a battery bank on Craigslist and plugging your refrigerator into it. Yeah, and the cool thing is, especially I moved from Longmont to Denver, in Denver we have time of use pricing and from 5 to 9 p.m. each day the price triples just for those few hours. So you can do tricks like have one of those batteries on a little timer, even if you didn’t have solar it could just charge from the grid and then it flips off the power supply at 5 o’clock and then your fridge runs from 5 to 9 on cheap power and then it recharges itself after hours, simplest system of all. We can later like put in the show notes or something exactly how this would work. So that’s level one. Or if you plug some

    20 min
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About

A weekly look at what's new in solar, brought to you by Exact Solar. Clean energy news, policy updates, and stories that matter. exactsolar.substack.com

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  • Creator
    Exact Solar
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    106
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Exact Solar
  • Show Website
    This Week in Solar

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