Web Sales Centers

• Solatron Technologies
• Bitteroot Solar.
• Solar Electric Supply has a lot of good info.
• Affordable Solar
• Alternative Energy Store
• RealGoods sells Inverters and other stuff
• Alter Systems has some nice packages which use the Sanyo 190 panels.

Inverters:

• PV Powered is an Oregon company that makes the Star Inverter series which comes with a 10yr warranty.
• Fronius offers an extended warranty (10 yrs instead of 5) for an additional $500.- to 800.-
• SMA makes the Sunny Boy inverters. The new Sunny Boy 3800U PV Inverter operates at 95.6% efficiency and can be equipped with a Sunny Beam wireless monitor which keeps 1 month's worth of data that can be downloaded to a PC via USB.
• Trace makes a great inverter 90-94% efficient. The ST series is designed for inter-tie (hooks up to power grid) capability. Available from Bitteroot or RealGoods for $2-$3k.

Racks

• UniRac sells several mounting components including the S-5 which will clamp directly to standing seam without penetrating the roof deck. [Comment by Peter:] There is an article describing there use, but I am suspicious that the clips can work just by clamping onto the seams. A package of 20 clips goes for $260, since we'd need about 70 or so that'd be around $800. I am a little concerned about the clearance under the panels the seam is usually around 1" tall, no much room for air circulation.
• Direct Power and Water Corporation makes frames that seem much sturdier than UniRac's, on average - they do cost a bit more, too. The sturdiness becomes important when ground-mounting

Panels:

Important note: Prices are going up (and will continue to do so until the 2nd half of 2007, if I see this correctly)! Check www.solarbuzz.com for average pricing. The reason for the price increase is a worldwide silicon shortage - caused by the rapid growth of the solar cell industry. This shortage is not likely to go away completely, any time soon. There is more capacity coming on line from Hemlock and others, but the pent-up demand will dry up the new supply pretty quickly. One bitter pill here is that the federal tax incentives are due to sunset (= run out) on Dec 31st, 2007. Just after the new capacity may make a dent in the shortage. This may cause demand in the US to shrink back considerably and help the Germans, Spaniards and Japanese

• BP Solar LGBG panels are 17% efficient, which is very high, but they come in sizes up to 90W. Their traditional panels go up to 170W, but are not nearly as efficient.
• Siemens offers panels up to 150W (64"H x 32"W x 2"D) ~$6.75/W from RealGoods.
• UniSolar offers integrated metal roofing, shingle, & stick-on panels. The 136W panels come in 15.5"W x 9' or 18' lengths (which makes them about 60% efficient as crystalline panels). Cost ~$5.5/W. The shingles are 84" wide and black in color, cost ~$8/W.
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• Shell's solar cells apparently perform better in cloudy conditions (according to BitterRoot). Now Solarworld.
• Solatron claims that Mitsubishi makes the best panels because of their performance and they don't contain any lead.
• Sharp
• Evergreen
• Sunpower
• others.. (

See also  http://www.solar-review.com for comparisons and reviews

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