Tag Archives: Solar energy channel

Forced Labor Issues With Solar Panel Manufacturing

Solar Equipment, , , ,
Welcome to The Solar Energy Channel where you’ll get an honest inside look at all things solar. In this video, we’re going to discuss how child and forced labor practices in a western province in China are impacting the solar industry.

I’m Warren – And I’m Larry, and don’t forget to like and subscribe so that you’ll receive notifications for future videos, just like this. – So Larry, in this video, we’re talking about a specific province in China, western province that’s known to have child and forced labor practices.

And unfortunately that’s where a lot of solar components come from or the silicon at least. – That’s correct Warren. It’s affecting really the entire world, in the solar industry particularly the US, China and all countries for that matter because it affects where a lot of the raw materials come from for solar modules.

So what is exactly is happening Larry? I know that the US customs and border patrol put out this withholding release order a few months ago, in June of this year, what does that mean? And how is that impacting solar panels coming into the country? – Correct, yes.

So what’s happening there is customs is holding a lot of solar modules at the border, nearly all of the solar modules that are trying to make their way into the country, are being held at the border, until manufacturers can produce a documentation that their raw materials don’t come from that province in China.

So this is just a confluence of delays that we’re seeing with solar panels. First it started with COVID and all the manufacturing delays that came with that. Then we had the delays in shipments getting it across the oceans to the United States.

And on top of all of this, their solar panels are now being delayed in customs. – That’s correct, yes. So there’s a lot of delays that we’re seeing right now with our product. And I just wanna be clear that here at Paradise, we stand with customs border patrol, we’re against the child labor and the forced labor.

Unfortunately it affects a lot of what we do, in a lot of our product. – So in summary, we’re just talking about a specific region in China that is responsible for the majority of the production of silicon across the globe.

And unfortunately, those silicon based solar panels are being held at US customs ports around the country. At paradise energy solutions, we’re in full support of this withholding release order. We do not support forced or child labor.

And so we’re just hopeful that the United States customs and border patrol will be able to put process in place that allows them to identify the origin of the silicon, so we can get panels from other regions of the world, into the United States sooner rather than later.

Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this content don’t forget to like this video and subscribe to our channel for future releases.

Source : Youtube

What is Solar Inverter Clipping?

Solar Energy, Solar Equipment, ,
Welcome to the Solar Energy Channel, where you’ll get an honest inside look at all things solar. In this video, we’re gonna talk about solar inverter clipping.  I’m Warren. – And I’m Larry, and don’t forget to like, and subscribe so that you’ll receive notifications for future videos, just like this.

So, Larry, what exactly is inverter clipping? – So inverter clipping, Warren, happens when your solar modules are producing more DC power than what your inverter can actually harvest. – And when would you choose to start clipping? – Yeah, so there’s a couple of situations where you might design so that your inverter clips more often.

One would be, if you have a limitation like a transformer size or maybe utility size limitation, where you’ll build the inverter to match that size, and then you’ll have a much larger DC system size. So even though you’re clipping during the highest production times of the day, during those shorter times, you’re still producing the full amount of what that inverter can actually produce.

So that begs the question, Larry, should I rather have more solar panels or more inverters? – That’s the real question, Warren. And that’s something that we look at on a case by case basis. We look at all the variables for your system and determine how big the inverter should be versus the solar module size so that we can build that system to produce as many kilowatt hours per system costs as, as humanly possible.

So in summary, your design team may choose to use inverters that will require some clipping to in order to either save you money or to meet the requirements of the utility company, their transformer sizes, et cetera.

Thanks for watching, if you enjoyed this content, don’t forget to like this video and subscribe to our channel for future releases.

Source : Youtube

How To Properly Size A PV Solar Energy System

Solar Equipment, ,
Welcome to The Solar Energy Channel, where you’ll get an honest inside look, at all things solar. In this video, we’re gonna talk about how Paradise Energy Solutions determines the size of your solar energy system.

I’m Warren. – And I’m Larry, and don’t forget to like, and subscribe so that you’ll receive notifications for future videos, just like this. So Warren, when the sales team goes out to a customer’s house, what are they looking for? What information do they gather? – Yeah, great question Larry, so the first thing we do is we go to the location, and we’ll take several pictures.

We’ll take a picture of the transformer so we know where it is and what size it is, we’ll take a picture of where the solar’s gonna go, whether that’s out in the field or on the roof, we’ll take a picture of the customer’s utility meter, as well as your electric panels so we know what breaker sizes they have or server size they have there.

And then finally, we’ll get a copy of their electric bill. And we do an analysis to see how much energy they use in a one-year period. And then we take all of that information, and we send it over to our design team for them to design the system.

Let’s talk about that Larry, what do you guys do once you receive all the information from the sales team? – Yeah, good question Warren. So we take that information. Our first goal is to try to cover a 100% of the customer’s electricity usage.

That’s what we focus on. That’s what most of our customers want to see. We look at things like weather, tilt and orientation of the roof, shading, soiling, those kinds of things that will cut down the production of the system.

And then of course we look at the size and space that’s available for the solar project, and we fit as many panels as we can on that space, and try to get as close to a 100% as we can within reason. And then of course there’s other potential restrictions like the transformer size, the service size, some of those kinds of things that we’ll look at as well towards the end of the design process.

So it’s not as simple as thinking if I use 1,000 kilowatt hours a month, I’m gonna need 12,000 kilowatt hours a year, so I need a 12 KW system, it doesn’t work like that? – It doesn’t quite work that way no.

Typically the system is a little bit smaller than your total overall usage. And our goal is to piece that all together into a reasonable, good looking system that covers your electric usage. – So in summary, our sales team will come out, they’ll do an analysis onsite, gather all the information they need to hand over to our design team, who will then account for all of the other variables, such as shading, soiling, and space, so that we can design a solar electric system that’s designed to cover as much of your electricity as possible.

Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this content, don’t forget to like this video, and subscribe to our channel for future releases.

Source : Youtube

Solar Financing Options For Businesses

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Welcome to the solar energy channel where you will get an honest inside look at all things solar. In this video, we’re gonna discuss solar financing options for businesses. (upbeat music) My name is Charles.

And I’m Warren, and please be sure to subscribe and like this video to be notified when we release future videos just like this. – So Warren, solar is a significant investment with a great return. – Yes.

So how should a business pay for a solar investments? – Yeah, well, the first way and the most easiest way is to use cash, but there are some things to consider before you dial out your cash. Number one, do you have cash? And number two, what else could you do with that cash that might have a better return than investing in solar? – Yeah, so the reality, if you have cash, great, there is also the conventional loan where you could borrow and depending on your interest rate, and your return on investment, it may make a lot of sense to borrow that money because you can take your savings, your electric bill that you would have owed to the utility, and you can use that now to pay off your loan.

Correct, and if you’re a business, you’re gonna be essentially eliminating, or dramatically reducing an expense to pay off the debt service that you have on that loan. – Yeah, so you can pay with cash, you can get a conventional loan.

Another option is a lease, there’s two types of leases. One is a capital lease and the other is an operating lease. – Absolutely, and those are primarily for businesses, the capital and operating leases, and we suggest that you seek the advice on your accountant for what makes more sense for you and your business.

Yeah, the capital lease is where you actually own it’s, you can almost consider a traditional loan. – Correct. – Couched in the form of a lease, or an operating lease is you actually do not hold title to, you do not actually own the equipment, but at the end of the lease term, you do get the title.

You do own the system. – And typically the distinction there is that with the capital leases, you get the benefits that come with owning the tax credits, etc. With the operating leases, you do not. So, in most environments, capital leases make more sense for businesses and operating leases make more sense for nonprofit entities.

Yeah, and then another way that you can invest in solar and pay for that investment is through a PPA. And a PPA stands for Power Purchase Agreement. And what that is is a third party will actually own and operate and maintain the system.

So let’s say you have a nonprofit and they do not want to get a traditional loan, or they do not have the cash. They can get solar through a Power Purchase Agreement where someone will buy the solar, maybe an investor, someone close to the entity.

They will sell the power to that nonprofit or to that end user, and in that way they can still benefit from solar. – Sure, and PPAs aren’t necessarily just for nonprofits, they work well for nonprofits, but for profit businesses can explore PPAs as well if they don’t wanna the capital necessary to install solar.

But the person who would get the incentives would be the owner of the system, not necessarily the ones who take it. – Correct, a business that would sign up for a PPA would see a reduction in their kilowatt hour costs or their cost of energy, but they would not take advantage of any of the incentives that come along with it.

So in summary, there’s really four great ways to pay for solar, either with cash if you have that available, taken out a conventional loan, taking out a lease either a capital operating lease depending on your situation or a power purchase agreement.

Thanks for watching, if you enjoyed this information, be sure to like this video and subscribe to our channel for future releases.

Source : Youtube