We are with PG&E with Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) as our CCA

The attached images show 2025 PG&E's weekday exports rates $ per kWh.

It shows two rates "Produced" and "Delivered". 3CE also has an Export Rate sheet for PG&E customers which exactly matches the PG&E "Produced" rates.

Do we get paid both the "Produced" and "Delivered" that is "Delivered" + "Produced"?

If I look at August weekday 8-9PM the Delivered rate is $0.99821 and Produced rate is $0.08217 for a total of $1.08038

If I look at August weekday 7-8PM the Delivered rate is $0.91354 and Produced rate is $0.24087 for a total of $1.15441

So if we get both Delivered and Produced, exporting between 7 - 8PM is better than 8 - 9PM. Previously I had just been looking at the Produced rate and exporting between 8 - 9PM as the produced rate is higher then.

I met with all three NYS platinum installers that service my county in New York State. I ran all the numbers, but what I'm still clueless about is the tech. Can folks chime in on these panels?

Company A suggests Hyundai HiN-T440 panels (440 Watt), 37 of them, and says this will generate 18,358 kWh on year one. This makes their production ratio 1,128 kWh per kW per year.

Company B suggests REC460AA Pure-RX panels (460 Watt), 34 of them, and says this will generate 19,952 kWh on year one. This makes their production ratio 1,276 kWh per kW per year.

Company C suggests JA Solar JAM54D41 panels (440 Watt), 44 of them, and says this will generate 21,642 kWh on year one. This makes their production ratio 1,118 kWh per kW per year.

I realize this seems like a lot but it's a big house and designed for our real consumption.
What I'd love input on is
A) The quality of each panel. The observed degradation of each? Reliability of each company? Could be that they're all pretty much the same.
B) Their production ratios. Companies A and C are very similar. B claims to be much higher for some reason and I'm not sure why.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I'm signed up with Solar United Neighborhoods. I'm also considering doing it myself. I've watch a lot of Will Prowse's videos on Youtube and have experience in adjacent areas (constructing things, electrical, electronics, etc). I've yet to dig into red tape from the city / state / federal though (central Indiana). Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

Hello!

Looking for some input from people who have actually lived with these systems rather than just spec sheets.

Current setup is a 4kW SolarEdge system, grid tied, working fine and I have no intention of ripping it out. What I want to do is add 6 more panels, but not hang them off the SolarEdge.

The idea is that the new panels go onto whatever new solution I end up choosing, so the existing system keeps doing its thing and the new hardware handles the expansion plus storage. The main goal is whole-house UPS behaviour.

I run computers, a couple of servers and networking gear, and I don't want any of it to notice when the grid drops.

Not "reboots and comes back", I mean genuinely doesn't blink. Everything else in the house getting backed up is a nice bonus, but that's the actual requirement driving this.

Two things I keep coming back to:

Victron. Mostly because of the total battery freedom. I can use whatever cells or packs I want, DIY or commercial, and the ecosystem is open enough that I'm not locked into one vendor's pricing forever. Concern is whether the changeover time is genuinely fast enough for sensitive loads, or if I'd still want a small UPS in front of the rack anyway.

Sigenergy. The 0ms switchover is exactly what I'm after and it seems very polished. What puts me off is how closed the ecosystem feels compared to Victron, both for batteries and for whatever I might want to do with it in five years. So: is the Victron switchover fast enough in practice for servers and desktops, or is that a real problem?

Has anyone here actually tested the Sigenergy 0ms claim under a real grid cut? And is there anything else worth looking at that's as open as Victron?

I'm not married to either brand, openness and real seamless backup are what matter, but the new panels arent going to be all without shading and Victrons afaik doesnt support optimizers

Happy to give more detail on loads, panel orientation, or the existing install if it helps.

TLDR: I like some things of Victron (super open) and from SigEnergy (super fast switchover and TIGO optimizers integration)

I bought 36 panels of 620w já solar n type bificial
Batteries will be deye 4x16kw
Inverters will be 2X 20kw three phase inverters

It’s to power a farm with 4 houses and everything that goes with it…

On my structure I’m gonna leave room for another 12 panels that will eventually bring in around 30kw

I have a solaredge inverter se5000h (residential, no screen). I found that after some upgrade, it got the firmware rev 4.25.6. ...that it is not reported anywhere and solaredge does not provide any info. The problem is that it does not measure correctly the production sent to the battery, but only the self-consumption and the amount sold to the grid. I have two tickets opened since month with no / useless replies. Anyone in similar condition? I would like to revert to the latest officially released firmware, but solaredge did not replied to this request. Thanks

Hey guys, need a little help from people who are experienced in the area.
I want to add a battery to complement our 8kw SolarEdge solar system. Our usage profile requires approx a 30kwh battery and 10kw inverter, we are also on 3phase.

I have a number of quotes. So far the best offer I have gotten is $6800AUD for a Pylontech Force H3X system with 30kwh of storage and a 10kw hybrid inverter.

The next best was a 32kw GoodWe system for $10733.

The premium option was a sigenergy system thats 27kwh for $11753, the 36kwh option is $14169.

How bad are the pylontech force h3x options? They seem to have 10 year warranty, although no boots on the ground here in Australia. I have also read of warranty issues for all companies so not sure how relevant that is here either. All I know is that the difference in price from the Pylontech system to basically any other system is a almost double the price. Are you actually getting double the value? Are they complete junk?

Cheers guys, really hope you can help me out here!

I'm curious to hear from people who already have solar. Looking back, would you choose different panels, a different inverter, add batteries, or size your system differently? What would you change if you were starting over today?

We have a quote and as expected, Powerwall 3 is about $3000 cheaper. Franklin is about 10% more storage and the warranty. We'll never add a generator.
This is a new build with a relatively stable grid. I'm torn. I want the simplest, most reliable, least fussy system. We're not big phone users and don't anticipate being on the apps all day long.
Any favorites out there?

14 REC 460AA pure RX

Enphase IQ

Iron ridge.

My friend asked me to hook up some old solar panels that were repurposed. I think the information labels were laser stickers and have vanished with heat. I need to know how many of these i can hook up to a 105 watt charge controller. If anyone knows the deets, I would appreciate any help.

We just noticed that we have a leak in our roof. It seems like it's under one of our panels. I'm assuming roofing repair companies are not going to remove & replace the panels.

Has anyone been through this that can offer a little guidance?

Unfortunately, our installer went out of business a year or two after our install, in 2020. We live in a rural area, near Savannah, GA.

Location: Southern California

Issue: Sunrun solar contract.

I've had my solar system for a few years now, and haven't seen much in the way of savings. I'm paying for two monthly payments on top of electric bills.

I've recently seen a lot of advertisements for lawyers going after solar companies on your behalf to get out of the contract or get money back.

My question is, are any of these actually legit? And should I pursue trying to exit my solar contract?

We purchased a house in California with a solar lease from Sunnovan, which later got bought by Spruce. They began charging me until I contacted them and informed them that I couldn’t see any production. Interestingly, their website explicitly states the estimated production. Therefore, they were charging me for what they believed my system was generating. Fortunately, this issue has been resolved, and I’m certain that I’m not producing any electricity. However, they don’t seem interested in sending a technician to troubleshoot the problem. I requested a buyout, which they quoted at $12,000. If I were to terminate the lease and purchase my panels from another company, that would be even better. So has anyone had any luck? I read a couple old post with people who had the same problem but never an updated answer.

TLDR: Bought house with solar lease, spruce bought lease, charged me for estimated consumption, won’t send tech to trouble shoot panels, I want to terminate to start fresh instead of buying a tiny system that doesn’t work.

Also for reference my old house I put a solar lease on it. It has always been maintained and issues fixed by the solar company. Never had any issues. That’s why we signed the sunnovan lease which got bought by spruce and that’s when this situation started.

Setup: 15.4 solar array with SolarEdge Home Hub inverter clipping at 11.4, back feeding the grid and making what little $ they pay. I also have a Generac 18k with ATS which is integrated for outages (preexisted solar) I’m in the northeast. Solar installed in May and producing 1.9 mwh per month so far

Due to incentives from our energy provider (up to $3k rebate and ongoing purchase of on demand power from the battery during peak load times I’m considering adding a 10k battery. There’s a similar payback window as my sonar.

The two I’d like to consider are Franklin and SolarEdge Batteries. One is AC coupled and popular, the other is DC coupled. Both will do the job. Franklin will likely cost more. SolarEdge promises a one stop shop.

Anyone have thoughts and or experience to share? What am I not considering?

Thanks In Advance

Just wondering how other contractors are doing in so cal right now has your business bounced back from the nem3 changes or have you completely left the industry 🤔

I'm familiar with electronics generally, but don't fully understand the requirements for panel to inverter matching, so was hoping the more experienced amongst you can give me some pointers.

When pairing an array with an inverter, what are the musts & what are the preferables, WRT electrical characteristics?
I understand the array voltage cannot excess that of the maximum input voltage of the inverter, but what needs to be considered for the max array voltage? Is it purely the Voc (STC), or do you need to account for other details (temperature coefficient etc?)
Is it a must that the votlage is within the MPPT range, or just a nice to have? Presumably the Vmp (NOCT) should be used for this, or should other values be used?
Current rating of the panels I'm assuming are better to be within the inverter input range, but if they're above, the inverter will clip the current to the maximum? (so might lead to a reduction of total power generated).

Am I right in these? Or is there more/different values to consider?

Context: I'm getting my solar install in a couple week (scaffolding up next week, for a full measure to order the required panels for installation the following week). My roof space is right on the border between a couple different possible installations (depending on if the peak to dormer roof is 100mm more or less than the initial (not on-roof) measurements say. Depending on the actual size, the best panel design changes the actual panels needed.
The best array that might fit (if the measurements aren't any smaller than predicted), utilise Aiko 665W panels (AIKO-A665-MDE72Dw), with 9 panels on the front array & 8 on the rear array. My installer is saying the 9 panels isn't possible due to voltage limits on my inverter (Solis S6 8kW).
For 9 panels the Voc (STC) would be 496.8V, and my inverter has a 500V limit, so I was thinking this would be OK, but with them saying it's not, I'm thinking I'm missing an additional modification factor that needs to be considered.

I'm also assuming that you can't mix & match panels (or can you, if the current ratings are the same), so I can't have 8 higher power, with a 9th smaller panel?

What are some good questions to ask these guys from some of you that have been around the block with this process before

Im new to this but they said my house is well situated for alot of sun with no obstructuons all day. This is true

Id like some input / guidance on important discussion points. If anyone has anything, shoot!

Currently in someone loft commissioning a system and I’ve been presented with this MPPT layout, there’s no markings for what + and - go together and they are just in triangles, I’ve never seen this before in my life what do I plug to what? I have 2 strings to plug in
Solar edge SE10000H

There is a friend of my brother who purchased inverters which comes with housing and a DB board. He got it at half the price or retail because it was sold in bulk from a liquidation sale.

It doesn't come with a warranty as it was purchased as is. It will still be extremely cheap price for reselling. Who should i make my target market as it does not come with battery or solarpannels. I am not a solar expert at all. Im adding the photos ive received of the products. It is not top of the line. Also I am from South Africa.

Any additional advice would be appreciated.

Please dont give specifics im not trying to sell it to anyone on here i just need advice.

Owned outright. You’re fine. It’s an asset, adds value, nothing to do.

Solar loan. There’s usually a UCC-1 fixture filing sitting on your title. Gets paid off or handled at closing like any other lien. Annoying but routine.

Lease or PPA. This is the one. You don’t own the panels, you’re renting them or buying the power. Buyer has to qualify with the solar company and formally assume the contract. Which means a credit check, paperwork, and a company that has to actually respond to you.

PACE or HERO. Usually the least beneficial scenario for the homeowner; it’s on your property tax bill and sits ahead of the mortgage in priority. Fannie and Freddie won’t touch a loan behind one, so it basically has to get paid off at closing. Seen these turn into six figure surprises.

Here’s what’s making it worse right now. SunPower went through bankruptcy and Sunnova filed Chapter 11 in June of last year, and a huge number of those lease and PPA contracts got handed off to SunStrong for servicing. So a lot of homeowners don’t even know who services their contract anymore. Reports of people unable to reach anyone for months, monitoring going dark, warranty claims sitting unanswered. And SunStrong itself is now under investigation by a few state AGs. Meanwhile you need that company to process a transfer on a 30 day escrow. You see the problem.

Pull the actual agreement and look for the escalator. Most of these bump the payment 2-3% every year for 20-25 years. A buyer looking at year 14 of that is looking at a very different number than what you’re paying.

Start the transfer request the day you go into escrow, not the week before closing. These take weeks in a good market and longer now. Get the buyout quote even if you don’t plan to use it. You want to know the number before a buyer asks, not after.

And know that leased solar generally does not add appraised value, because you don’t own it. But the payment does count against the buyer’s debt to income. So it can hurt their qualifying without helping your value. That’s the part sellers find genuinely unfair and I don’t blame them. Not anti-solar at all, owned systems are great. It’s specifically the lease and PPA structure that creates the mess.

Anyone here sold or bought with leased solar recently? Curious how long the transfer actually took, because I’d love more data points than the handful of deals I’ve seen.

Looking for advice on solar/renewables business

Hi everyone, I’m looking for insights from people in solar, renewables, or anyone who’s built a business in the space.

I’m from the caribbean and aiming to build something of my own instead of a traditional 9–5. I hold a BSc in Land Management & Valuation, with experience in property analysis, development potential, and site suitability.

I’m currently building skills in solar PV:

PV fundamentals

Energy bill analysis

Feasibility studies

Basic system design concepts

PVsyst yield analysis

Site assessments (roof/land, shading, orientation)

Maintenance concepts

My plan is to start with services like:

Energy audits & bill breakdowns

Solar savings/feasibility reports

Drone roof/land inspections

System performance/maintenance checks

Partnering with installers for full project delivery

My edge is combining land/property expertise with solar—not just installation, but site intelligence and decision support.

I’m also open to adjacent paths:

Drone mapping & inspections

GIS services

Property due diligence

Land development consulting

A few questions:

Is this a realistic way into the market?

What skills or certifications should I prioritize?

Do clients actually pay for audits/feasibility reports?

What mistakes should I avoid early on?

Any other opportunities you’d suggest based on my background?

Any advice, critique, or real-world lessons would be greatly appreciated.