The list:

• Solar power helps replace the use of coal for electricity – a major contributor to air and water pollution.
• Helps replace the use of oil for electricity and motion (transportation). Oil is not only a major pollutant (before and after usage) but costs the nation dollars going to benefit regions and nation not exactly friendly to us. I.e. using solar should be a strategic security priority.
• Reduce dependency on imported energy fuels (oil). This has to do with the previous point but underlines the dependency part as opposed to the the economic ones (importing oil for spending dollars).
• Help rural and otherwise economically disadvantaged areas bring opportunities to generate income or reduce outgoing expenditures. Such areas, by implementing solar, can either reduce amount dollars out-flowing to bring services (electric power) and, or bring income by generating power and exporting it to other regions (urban).
• Solar energy almost in the whole value chain is or can be local (national or regional). This is especially true for the part after basic components manufacturing (which specific part can be import). Installation, design and planning effort can be local and is very difficult to outsource. This is a factor to having an industry that is specifically local and specifically capable to produce local employment. The local employment in such industry promotes education in new technology and makes communities more self dependent.

The web site allows a search based on different parameters of the solar panels including power, voltages, currents, efficiency.

Efficiency of solar panels is  important data about the components that is always researched by photovoltaic components buyers but the only way till now to research it is to go panel by panel and open their datasheets. The PVbin.com database displays the efficiency reading for all panels in the search results and can sort the panels by the most efficient one.

After searching / filtering on certain criteria the user can click on a link to the page of a particular panel model and checkout more detailed data about the panel.

Support this free to use solar panels database by visiting it.

Welcome Back, Pittsburgh: FLABEG Brings 200 Green Solar Jobs to … by Tina Casey
FLABEG, the global specialty glass manufacturer, has just opened a solar mirror factory by Pittsburgh International Airport that will bring an estimated 200 jobs to the region, and perhaps as many as 300. …

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SMUD will be installing energy storage devices, solar panel inverter systems and “consumer control concepts in a residential solar community in Rancho Cordova, Calif.,” GridPoint said. Everything will be linked with the utility’s smart …

An Affordable Free Span Solar System by Preston Koerner
P4P Energy, LLC — short for Power for the Planet — recently completed the installation of its first, cable-suspended free span solar system in the parking lot of the headquarters…

At opening of Florida solar-energy facility, President Obama …30 Oct 2009 by Consumer Reports Home & Garden Blog
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Morocco is going to be the next country to undertake an ambitious solar project. Theirs is slated to be worth $9 billion and is anticipated to produce 38% of the country’s installed power generation by 2020. According to Reuters.com, …

Denver’s solar zoning | eLetters by DP Opinion
Denver’s solar zoning : eLetters features The Denver Post’s letters to the editor on select articles. Colorado.

Europe’s Plan to Draw Solar Power From the Sahara Moves Ahead …2 Nov 2009 by Eliza Strickland
Environment | When European Union officials first discussed the idea of a massive solar power plant in the Sahara to provide power to all of Europe, many people took it as a.

SolarMaxDirect.com, a distributor for solar photovoltaic modules, has recently dropped prices for large industrial size orders.

Buyers involved in projects of 50kw and upwards can get their panels at prices $2.25 per watt peak and lower.

The offered industrial solar panels have the same variety of sizes and use the same technology (polycrystalline and monocrystalline) as most photovoltaic modules massively sold these days and carry similar or better warranties like 90% output power 12 years warranty and 80% 25 years warranty.

Prices of the solar modules are a core factor in the economic efficiency of solar power projects.

We are trying to look in this article at top recourses in solar training.

Boots on the Roof -  bootsontheroof.com – US solar energy training provider, offer courses for licensed contractors from the electrical, HVAC, plumbing, roofing and general contracting areas who want to position themselves for the opportunities in wond and solar. Also training new staff for the solar and wind industry as sales professionals, project managers, engineers and designers.

AEE Solar – aeesolar.com – one of the largest solar equipment manufactures in the States also offers training. Options include hands on PV (photovoltaic) training covering design and installation, “Launch and Grow Your Solar Business” Webinar – a free webinar for people starting in the industry as new businesses,  Supplier Webinars – free webinars from AEE Solar suppliers and partners, and many more. We guess the availability of free options is great with this company.

Heatspring Learning Institute – heatspring.com – an educational company focused on providing clean energy training to building professionals. The company offers courses both in solar and geothermal systems.

Training4Green – training4green.com – part of Allied Schools, offers courses like Business of Solar, Introduction to Photovoltaic Systems, Advanced Principles of Photovoltaic Systems Installation.

Solar Training Institute – trainingforsolar.com – provides accelerated training classes for contractors, electricians, engineers, solar energy entrepreneurs and sales people, and anyone who is considering a career change in the growing solar industry.

Rich Hessler Solar Sales Training – pvsolarsalestraining.com – provides complete residential sales training course for a solar sales process.  The sales training includes: Understanding Photovoltaic Systems, Solar system estimate, Cost justification, Quality Solar Presentation, Handling Objections, Effectively closing a solar sale, Beginning a solar career.

US Dept. of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Solar Installer Instructor Training Network – http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/instructor_training_network.html –  promotes high-quality training in the installation of solar technologies. Nine regional resource and training providers support the professional development of trainers and instructors of solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar heating and cooling (SHC) technologies across the country. The goals of Solar Installer Instructor Training are to accelerate market adoption of solar technologies by ensuring that high-quality installations are standard and to create sustainable jobs within the solar installation industry.

Step Up Education, Solar Classes Online – solarclassesonline.com – offers a fully-comprehensive online training program for individuals who want to be a part of the fast-growing solar industry. The programs they offer are mapped to industry standards to provide you with proven general and practical knowledge. Tey state: Once hired, graduates will be fully prepared to hit the ground running. Current workers in the industry will be ready to take the next step in their careers.

Solar Thermal Training Classes from SunMaxx Solar – solarthermaltraining.org – If you are a plumbing and heating expert, you have most definitely heard about the huge explosion in the Solar Hot Water Industry over the last few months and years – in fact, you have likely had customers and leads ask you about Solar Hot Water for their own homes or businesses. SunMaxx is giving you the opportunity to get in at the ground level today, and become the premier Solar Hot Water System Dealer & Installer in your area through SunMaxx Solar Hot Water Dealer Installer Program. SunMaxx is seeking professional, trained and experienced plumbing and heating specialists who are interested in adding Solar Hot Water Sales and Installation to their current business. SunMaxx Solar systems are world-renowned for their performance, reliability and simplicity – and SunMaxx Dealers & Installers put a friendly, trusting face on the SunMaxx Brand across the United States and around the world.

Sun Pirate Solar – Sun Pirate Renewable Energy Technician Solar Training – sunpiratesolar.com – Sun Pirate, Inc. is committed to provide the  community, industry, organization, and student technicians with superior service and continuous education as SunPirate Inc realize the growth of the renewable energy industry only will come with applied knowledge. Through their solar training they intend to aid the growth of the industry by teaching those interested how to work on the technology involved with this emerging industry.

Solar Sphere – spheralsolar.com – solar training books, solar training videos, hands on and online training videos. every day they help more than 1000 customers find the solar power kits and solar panels they need. With a selection of over 1000 solar power kits products you are sure to find just the item you are looking for. They have been in the Solar  business since 1998 and truly appreciate the opportunity to serve you today and in the future.

It seems like everyone who purchases photovoltaic modules in the US is verifying whether the modules are UL listed.

What does that mean and where does the concern come from?

Well here is the latest of what we find.

The requirement really comes from the National Electric Code (NEC), but the requirement does not directly specify that the listing should be by UL (Underwriters Laboratories – a company).

The exact requirement states:

“…

Chapter 6 Special Equipment

…

ARTICLE 690—SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS

…

690.4 Installation.

…

(D) Equipment. Inverters, motor generators, photovoltaic modules, photovoltaic panels, ac photovoltaic modules, source-circuit combiners, and charge controllers intended

for use in photovoltaic power systems shall be identified and listed for the application.

…”

In section 100 there is the definition for listed:

“…

Chapter 1 General

…

ARTICLE 100—DEFINITIONS

…

Listed. Equipment, materials, or services included in a list published by an organization that is acceptable to the authority having jurisdiction and concerned with evaluation of products or services, that maintains periodic inspection of production of listed equipment or materials or periodic evaluation of services, and whose listing states that either the equipment, material, or service meets appropriate designated standards or has been tested and found suitable for a specified purpose.

FPN: The means for identifying listed equipment may vary for each organization concerned with product evaluation, some of which do not recognize equipment as listed unless it is also labeled. Use of the system employed by the listing organization allows the authority having jurisdiction to identify a listed product.

…”

In the same article we look up the definition for Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ).

“…

Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ). An organization, office, or individual responsible for enforcing the requirements of a code or standard, or for approving equipment, materials, an installation, or a procedure.

FPN: The phrase “authority having jurisdiction,” or its acronym

AHJ, is used in NFPA documents in a broad manner, since jurisdictions and approval agencies vary, as do their responsibilities. Where public safety is primary, the authority having jurisdiction may be a federal, state, local, or other regional department or individual such as a fire chief; fire marshal; chief of a fire prevention bureau, labor department, or health department; building official; electrical inspector; or others having statutory authority. For insurance purposes, an insurance inspection department, rating bureau, or other insurance company representative may be the authority having jurisdiction. In many circumstances, the property owner or his or her designated agent assumes the role of the authority having jurisdiction; at government installations, the commanding officer or departmental official may be the authority having jurisdiction.

…”

(this is for reference purposes only; the NEC text is copyrighted and isolated use of extracted instructions from it may be very insufficient for many purposes)

Ok so, obviously UL is considered to be “an organization that is acceptable to the authority having jurisdiction” as worded in Article 100 and ties in with the Article 690 point 690.4 (D) for photovoltaic equipment. So it’s is widely accepted that a UL listing (and labeling) assures that the equipment meets the NEC requirements.

What about other testing organizations though? There is no reason for monopoly of UL.

Well we are not able to find a list of such organizations but we came across information about one more company that does testing – Intertek ETL SEMKO. They state that their ETL labeling and listing is as good as the UL one.

Here is what they say on a brochure you can look up here.

(Click here for the Intertek ETL SEMKO brochure.)

“…

When it comes time to test your products to North American product safety standards, you may be led to believe that your choices are limited to certain marks, such as the UL Listed Mark. In reality, there are others equally recognized and accepted — prominent among them, the ETL Listed Mark issued by the ETL SEMKO division of Intertek.

…”

(again we are only quoting here for the purpose of supporting this article; Intertek’s text is copyrighted and all trade marks are their ownership)

The whole brochure is an interesting reading on the topic.

So we are finding that UL is not the only possible listing that solar panel manufactures can chose. A lot of new manufactures are suffering from the time it takes UL to start and complete the process if testing them and listing them. Some of them report that ETL is quicker to get, not because the testing and inspecting takes less time but because it is a company that at least for now offers less waiting to start working on the certification.

I guess the issue is still open, though, depending on what the AHJ will decide about “an organization that is acceptable to the authority having jurisdiction”. May be some state or local authorities, or insurance companies will have their own list of organizations that are acceptable.

All trademarks are property of their respective owners and are only displayed here as a reference.

Please, as always, feel free to comment on this. The opinion of people who have experience of going through the inspection process or getting a system insured is especially important.

We list the cheapest panels dollar per watt that we can find on the internet and through direct research. We also include listings of products our readers submit to us through the  Contact Us form or in the comments. Representatives of the different vendors are welcome to submit info about their products too. Very differently from other “cheapest solar panels lists” out there we will not charge you for that and we will not tell you the list is already full – yep, this is what some publishers of lowest prices in solar have told some of the vendors of realistically the cheapest panels in certain sizes. Yeah, we had a good laugh listening to the story of one of the vendors here trying to get listed with a web page claiming to be a free survey of the lowest prices. While these vendors were not allowed to be listed their after being asked for money and told that the list is full already there are companies on their list that are listed twice.

We do not claim at all that these are research and results of an absolute character. That is, we realize that there might be products, vendors, pricing structures for certain types of projects and quantities that we are not able to identify through our effort.

That is why nobody should get offended that their product brand or vendor company is not included in our research or they are not ranked correctly because we have not found out about their lowest, low or otherwise competitive prices.

While we maintain that prices as dollar per Watt ($/Wp, dollar per Watt peak) is the number that will take the solar power industry to the stage of playing a major role of resolving the gigantic issues the US and the world have with securing clean, safe and abundant source of energy, we also realize that with many products groups prices reflect many other things than just willingness of the manufactures and the marketers to provide an affordable product.

Namely, different prices may reflect different quality and quality preference of the market – i.e. higher quality products may maintain relatively higher prices given all other factors being equal.

Different prices may reflect different costs to manufacture products of certain type of technology. We are well aware that this is especially true with solar panels. We will try, as effort grows to provide a way for our readers to be able to separate prices listed and researched for different underlying technologies of products.

In this edition of the lowest prices article for example we are separating in different tables the three most popular commercially available cell technologies on which solar photovoltaic modules are based: monocrystalline, polycrystalline and thin-film. That should make it very easy for our readers to get to useful information about the competitors in the different technologies. Also it will give a chance for a vendor who offers a good price in one technology to not to be shadowed by a vendor with low price in the other technology.

We also have tried to include more sizes, that is make the list much longer in order to give chance for vendors that are not necessarily with the lowest price to show in the study. One thing you can expect in future editions is to see the lists broken down in different size ranges which should give even better chance for vendors to appear in their area of strength.

In any case if any reader, buyer or seller of solar products thinks that our best research effort has not presented certain vendors, brand or price – please, feel free to contact us and forward to us details of the the product and price you think we should list. We will add additional level to research to verify that such price is being offered on regular basis and will try to reflect this in our report.

The reason we believe prices in dollar per watt peak with solar photovoltaic modules is so critical for this industry to take off as a major player in resolving the energy issues the world has created for itself is that such price is a major factor in the economic efficiency of a solar power installation. See our article Economics of Solar Power on this.

Have in mind in addition to the very sharply falling prices of solar modules what else is driving the further acceptance of this clean energy technology is the government incentives programs that exist in different places in the world including incentives on federal level in the US in the form of a 30% tax credit on total installation costs and other different state level subsidies and feed in tariffs.

Here is or current ranking:

Monocrystalline

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, technology, Model, Brand,Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$2.25 / Wp, $416.25, 185W, Mono-crystalline, SMD185M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $405.00, 180W, Mono-crystalline, SMD180M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $540.00, 240W, Mono-crystalline, SMD240M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com (sizes over 190W from SolarMaxDirect.com are not UL listed)
(SolarMaxDirect’s prices for less than a container size of order are $2.70)

$3.20 / Wp, $544.00, 170W, Mono-crystalline, DMSOLAR 170 MONO, BrightWatts, DmSolar, http://www.dmsolar.com

$3.40 / Wp, $594.41, 175W, Mono-crystalline, NT-175U, Sharp, Infinigi, http://www.infinigi.com

$3.57 / Wp, $625.00, 175W, Mono-crystalline, SW175, Solar World, Backwoods Solar, http://www.backwoodssolar.com

Polycrystalline

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, technology, Model, Brand, Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$2.25 / Wp, $427.50, 190W, Poly-crystalline, SMD190P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $416.25, 185W, Poly-crystalline, SMD185P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $405.00, 180W, Poly-crystalline, SMD180P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $393.75, 175W, Poly-crystalline, SMD175P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $382.50, 170W, Poly-crystalline, SMD170P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com
(sizes over 190W from SolarMaxDirect.com are not UL listed)
(SolarMaxDirect’s prices for less than a container size of order are $2.70)

$2.43 / Wp, $509.97, 210W, Poly-crystalline, REC210AE, REC, The Solar Biz, http://www.thesolarbiz.com

$2.43 / Wp, $533.97, 220W, Poly-crystalline, REC220AE, REC, The Solar Biz, http://www.thesolarbiz.com

$2.43 / Wp, $424.97, 175W, Poly-crystalline, BP 175B, BP Solar, The Solar Biz, http://www.thesolarbiz.com

$2.44 / Wp, $549.00, 225W, Poly-crystalline, REC EA US 225, REC, Sun Electronics, http://sunelec.com

$2.54 / Wp, $558.00, 220W, Poly-crystalline, REC EA US 220, REC, Sun Electronics, http://sunelec.com

$2.59 / Wp, $543.90, 210W, Poly-crystalline, REC210AE, REC, BeyondOilSolar, http://www.beyondoilsolar.com
(many REC sizes from BeyondOilSolar are at this price)

$2.60 / Wp, $312.00, 120W, Poly-crystalline, DMSOLAR 120 POLY, BrightWatts, DmSolar, http://www.dmsolar.com

$2.68 / Wp, $522.60, 195W, Poly-crystalline, ES-A-195-fa3b, Evergreen, Sun Electronics, http://sunelec.com

$2.89 / Wp, $635.80, 220W, Poly-crystalline, SCHOTT POLY 220, Schott, Affordable Solar, http://www.affordable-solar.com

$2.99 / Wp, $523.25, 175W, Poly-crystalline, PV-UD175MF5, Mitsubishi Solar, Affordable Solar, http://www.affordable-solar.com

Thin-film

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, technology, Model, Brand,Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$3.87 / Wp, $232, 60W, Thin-film, Kaneka, GSA-60, Living Off The Grid, http://livingoffthegrid.ecrater.com

$3.97 / Wp, $237.98W, Thin-film, Kaneka, GSA-60, Green Box Usa, http://www.greenboxusa.com

Feel free to send suggestions through comments on our articles or the Contact Us page.

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SolarByTheWatt.com – Solar By The Watt

The prices of solar photovoltaic panels has fallen dramatically in recent months. News about manufactures starting to feel oversupply of production despite the growing activity in solar power plant construction has made many of them lower prices of modules that are commercially available.

While there are rumors and constant news reports about companies especially in the newest of the photovoltaic technologies trying to deal with the $1 per watt barrier the panels that are available commercially are still above $2 per watt peak. By commercially available we mean a purchaser fro a solar power project can pick up a phone a order them with at most a month to two months lead time for delivery, including possible production lead time for orders above a couple of tens of kilowatt (kW).

Recently SolarMaxDirect.com has lowered prices for large orders to $2.25 per watt peak.

With the 30% federal tax credit available for US projects the realistic cost in the project for panels is just $1.575. Having in mind the tax credit can be applied to all the costs for the project currently more than ever investing in solar power is economically efficient.

In addition to the federal tax credit many states offer a direct rebate on certain equipment up to a couple of dollar per watt and also many states offer special feed-in-tariffs (FITs) for the electricity produced by solar power installations.

A reader of SolarByTheWatt.com commented in a letter to us (via the Contact Us page/form) on how important it is for publications when price of solar photovoltaic is discussed – dollar per watt – to point out the difference between cost of solar just for the modules or panels and the cost of completing a whole system.

The price to complete a whole system in addition to the price of panels will include price of mounting, installation hardware, wiring, junction boxes, disconnects, price of the inverter or inverters, wiring and disconnect boxes from inverter to grid switch box, price of installation service (usually specifically trained and certified professionals are involved). In the case of a large scale projects the part of the project involving connection to the grid can be of substantial value too. In these project the price of the land used and all permits for the land and for the utility project also add to the cost.

While the break down of these expenses can be harder to study (one needs to find internal data from different projects) we thought that it is possible for many large project to find the overall costs and get to an indicative price per watt for solar power in terms of complete projects.

We also thought that focusing on as large projects as possible will let us minimize the error of rounding and approximation some of news articles might have made.

We have reviewed different announcements that indicate the price dollar per watt of complete projects.

Thought there is a lot of information about what the largest solar photovoltaic plants in the world are it has been difficult for us to find specific cost, investment information about many of them. The readers are welcome to contribute through comments or on our Contact Us page/form with links to articles specifying cost of projects.

Here is the table of results we have gathered:

In our results table you can see the name of the project included, peak power or the capacity of the power station in MW (MWp), investment cost in million of Euros – many of the large projects for which capacity and investment cost data was available were in Europe and the articles report the prices in Euros, cost Euro per watt peak, US dollar per watt peak – we used a 1.3 factor (close to the exchange rate at the moment EUR to USD) to get this number which we thought will be useful for anyone used to work in USD as a currency. We ordered the projects in ascending price per watt.

None of the prices we are seeing in the results are very surprising. Different articles mention about a commonly expected price of about US$ 6 – 8 per watt for industrial (utility) size projects. Many specialists involved in the industry, especially in Europe lately talk about bids that projects get in the range of 4 – 5 Euros per watt, approximately US$ 5 – 6.60 per watt.

Related articles:

Lowest Solar Panel Prices Per Watt 2009-02-24

Economics of Solar Power

Solar Energy Land Area Efficiency or How Many Acres per MW, kWp per Acre

A Short Science Lesson for Journalists – Watts, Kilowatts, Megawatts, Kilowatt Hours

Resources used:

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2007/02/phase-one-of-40-mw-german-solar-park-begun-47541

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moura_photovoltaic_power_station

http://www.xltelenergy.com/PRESS%20RELEASE%20170209.pdf

http://www.conergy.de/en/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-181/316_read-9306/

http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/12834

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellis_Solar_Power_Plant

Related Reading:

Large Solar Energy Projects

World’s Largest Solar PV Project to Power Nevada Military Base

Two Large Solar Plants Planned in California – NYTimes.com

Mega Solar: the World’s 13 Biggest Solar Thermal Energy Projects

Evergreen Solar targets utility-scale projects

Improvements to DOE Grant Program

H2M to Complete Work on Largest Solar Panel Installation for a …

SolarByTheWatt.com