Westinghouse Solar’s latest white paper, The Revolution in Solar Power Mounting Systems, takes a look at the financial, engineering and customer benefits of rooftop solar power systems with integrated racking, wiring and grounding, including those units from Westinghouse and Zep Solar. The publication details how the standard in rooftop solar system installations has been a field assembly process that uses different “components that must be sourced, kitted and assembled onsite,” which leads to a high assembly cost.
Furthermore, Westinghouse notes that as the cost of solar panels has dropped, the overall BOS costs for a system have taken over as the larger portion of cost for a solar system. The company highlights that in 2001, BOS costs were 40% and that by 2013, BOS costs are anticipated to be 57% of the cost of the system.
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“The total installed cost of a rooftop system is the most important economic factor for customers. Reducing system complexity and installation time is the best way to reduce those costs,” said Barry Cinnamon, CEO of Westinghouse Solar. “Solyndra had the right idea in targeting installation cost reduction; unfortunately, their solar panels were simply much too expensive. Nevertheless, there are now several integrated rooftop systems on the market that are indeed less expensive than ordinary rack-mounted solar panels.”
The full publication is available from Westinghouse Solar here.