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I studied this for a year fellowship, and there are lots of problems, but problems with permitting and interconnection are pretty unique in the US. NREL, NFPA,

I studied this for a year fellowship, and there are lots of problems, but problems with permitting and interconnection are pretty unique in the US. NREL, NFPA, UL, and Tesla got together and developed SolarAPP (https://gosolarapp.org https://gosolarapp.org). It enables instant online permitting for standard installations, and California passed a law mandating its adoption. It's also sales. Solar is currently sold by salespeople and they need to be paid. The small solar companies contract out to the larger solar companies for crap rates because top of funnel is very hard for them. There is a YC company going after that opportunity: https://projectsolar.com/ https://projectsolar.com/ Software providers like Aurora (https://aurorasolar.com https://aurorasolar.com) are used for making proposals, but they sell software to solar installers rather than vertically integrating and going after it themselves. Tesla sells online, but the online experience ends after you pay and they try to sell you too much solar. Everything, including design, is subcontracted out in my understanding. Sunrun is a great option even though you don't own the panels. PPAs are more popular at the moment because interest rates are so high.

utsolartemp 1y ago
> There is a YC company going after that opportunity: https://projectsolar.com/ https://projectsolar.com/ I have experience in the Utah solar industry. I stopped recommending Project Solar to people after seeing so many bad experiences. You can find stories of good Project Solar installs, but your odds of having a good experience with them seems to be going down year by year. You can see a sampling of complaints by searching Reddit and other solar forums: https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comments/1cheio5/do_your_research_before_working_with_project_solar/ https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comments/1cheio5/do_your_rese... Years ago I recommended Project Solar to a lot of people. Now I almost feel obligated to warn people whenever the topic comes up as penance for all of the trouble I caused multiple people by recommending them. I hope they can clean up their business, but for now I'd approach with a lot of caution.
Aurornis 1y ago
> There is a YC company going after that opportunity: https://projectsolar.com/ https://projectsolar.com/ Are you thinking of a different company? I can't find anything online linking Project Solar to Y Combinator.
- conradev 1y ago
  Oh, huh! I guess they’re not. For some reason I thought they were. Maybe because their site is orange and they’re venture-backed :P (sibling comment got killed for no good reason – definitely talk to a real person with experience with any solar company before diving in. they can have a wide variety of outcomes)

utsolartemp 1y ago

> There is a YC company going after that opportunity: https://projectsolar.com/ https://projectsolar.com/ I have experience in the Utah solar industry. I stopped recommending Project Solar to people after seeing so many bad experiences. You can find stories of good Project Solar installs, but your odds of having a good experience with them seems to be going down year by year. You can see a sampling of complaints by searching Reddit and other solar forums: https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comments/1cheio5/do_your_research_before_working_with_project_solar/ https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comments/1cheio5/do_your_rese... Years ago I recommended Project Solar to a lot of people. Now I almost feel obligated to warn people whenever the topic comes up as penance for all of the trouble I caused multiple people by recommending them. I hope they can clean up their business, but for now I'd approach with a lot of caution.

Aurornis 1y ago

> There is a YC company going after that opportunity: https://projectsolar.com/ https://projectsolar.com/ Are you thinking of a different company? I can't find anything online linking Project Solar to Y Combinator.

conradev 1y ago
Oh, huh! I guess they’re not. For some reason I thought they were. Maybe because their site is orange and they’re venture-backed :P (sibling comment got killed for no good reason – definitely talk to a real person with experience with any solar company before diving in. they can have a wide variety of outcomes)