By Antonio Alvarez, Venture Partner, Acero Capital; Elisa Yoo, Associate, Acero Capital
This paper provides an overview of reducing the ‘soft costs’ of solar, with a focus on driving down the cost of balance of system (BOS) and operations, primarily in commercial-scale installations. Attention is drawn to the internal data and information on specific case studies/best practices that can be replicated by other companies. Mainstream Energy (which supports three business units – REC Solar, AEE Solar and SnapNRack) aims to simplify system design and configuration by utilizing new technologies and streamlining internal processes to reduce total system cost – and take solar to the mainstream.