SolarTech advised that it had awarded a development contract to SolarNexus, which will allow the organization to integrate SolarTech’s Solar Energy Estimate (SEE) report into an open web service on SolarHub.com. SolarHub, which was developed between SolarNexus, SolarTech and SolarPro Magazine, is a free web-based data source for product specifications on thousands of solar products. Funding for the SEE project was supplied by Pacific Gas & Electric and the California Energy Commission’s PIER grant program.
The SEE report aims to give consumers a uniform performance quote template based off of the US Department of Transportation’s MPG rating system for new car purchases. By using standardized calculations, installer’s site specific equipment design and local solar insolation estimates, SEE provides an estimation for the annual energy production of a solar system in what SolarTech deems is a user friendly report format.
“NREL estimates for customer acquisition costs for your typical 5kW system currently represent up to US$0.20/Wp due to consumer confusion about system performance, difficulties in comparing multiple bids, and prolonged decision making,” said Doug Payne, executive director of SolarTech. “We have integrated our performance and finance initiatives to reduce these costs 20% annually through standardized quotation templates, uniform financing contracts, and related checklists that support this goal. The combined performance and finance toolkits eliminate hidden expenses and risk through delays and lost sales due to a lack of clarity. Our vision is low risk, low cost, high speed PV process. This is a small but important first step that dovetails with our National Solar3.0 platform recently announced as part of the DOE SunShot grant initiative.”
