A New Business Model for the Solar industry

The Transverter could impact it. Please read carefully:  

                               http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/27/markets/thebuzz/index.htm Everything In the past I have tried to articulate the current situation with the Solar market and how the they say about the failed Solar business models is right on but they completely miss the strongest point.  The current Solar market is based on Grid-Tied Solar which, by its very design, can only work as long as it is insignificant.  When all of the solar initiatives and support programs for Solar were passed, Solar was, indeed, very much insignificant.  Now that these programs have been in place for a while Solar is starting to become significant and causes grid instability that has to be addressed by installing expensive, polluting, high maintenance, fossil fuel driven, peaker plants to absorb the dynamics introduced by Solar with a quick enough response time to stabilize the grid.  This is no secrete and every grid company on the planet understands this.  The only reason that the Grid-Tied solar initiatives were passed in the first place is because the grid companies were not very good at articulating the problem.  This is driving the older players, like Spain and Germany, to cut back on the programs. 

Check out this link:

 http://shareholdersunite.com/2011/10/02/feed-in-tariffs-economic-consequences/ This just goes on and on and substantiates the overwhelming need driving a new business plan for the Solar Industry.  The things I have talked about for years are happening now.   As opponents to renewables look for weapons to use to influence governments to drop the Solar initiative programs this will be a very strong, technologically sound, argument.  This, added to everything in the link above creates a very strong need for a new business model for the Solar industry.

Look at this comparison:

OLD BUSINESS MODEL SYSTEM

NEW BUSINESS MODEL SYSTEM (TRANSVERTER BASED)

You will notice that they both cost about the same.  Now look at the comparison:

	OLD BUSINESS MODEL	NEW BUSINESS MODEL
PRICE	$11,496	$11,578
SOLAR POWER	3,680 Watts	1,840 Watts
% SOLAR	65%	32%
UPS	NO	4,000 Watts
GRID INTERACTIVE	INTO GRID ONLY	BOTH WAYS
ENERGY STORAGE	NONE	7.7 kWh
AUTOMATIC DEMAND RESPONSE	NONE	6 30 AMP CIRCUITS 20% REDUCTION TYPICAL
AUTOMATIC SURGE ASSIST	NONE	4,000 Watts
AUTOMATIC POWER FACTOR COMPENSATION OF LOADS	NONE	4,000 Watts
MONITOR AND CONTROL OF ENTIRE GRID SERVICE	NONE	INTEGRATED WITH DATALOGGING
REDUCTION IN GRID SERVICE	NONE	100 AMP -> 50 AMP TYPICAL
COMMUNITY ENERGY STORAGE	NONE	RULE BASED
SMART GRID	NONE	COMPLETELY IMPLEMENTED AUTONOMOUSLY
ENERGY PRODUCED	9 - 18 KWH PER DAY	4.5 - 9.0 KWH PER DAY
AUTOMATIC DEMAND REDUCTION	NONE	8 KWH PER DAY TYPICAL
TOTAL ENERGY SAVINGS	9 - 18 KWH PER DAY	12 - 17 KWH PER DAY
SCALABILITY	1% - 15% MAXIMUM	INFINITELY SCALABLE
ENERGY SECURITY	NONE	FUNCTIONAL LIVING INDEFINITELY

Solar now has a smaller piece of the pie. 

However, now the pie is much much bigger. 

The collapse of Evergreen Solar and Solyndra, and now Sterling Energy Systems, really drives the point home and shatters the dreams of new green jobs for America.  In short, the solar industry needs a new business model that doesn't rely on government incentives or handouts.  That is what we are doing, selling a new business model.  The idea is to replace the old, two value, solar equation (energy produced + government handout) with a fat equation with very many values like UPS, Energy Security, Smart Grid, Integrated Energy Storage, Islanding Capability, Power Factor Compensation, Surge Assist, Making the Whole World a Laboratory, Advanced Automatic Demand Response, Smart Energy management & Reduction, etc., etc.

Transverter at Solar Power International 2011