Category Archives: Founder’s Blog
Jim Jenal is the Founder & CEO of Run on Sun, Pasadena’s premier installer and integrator of top-of-the-line solar power installations for commercial and residential customers. Jim is a NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer – as are the other two principals in the business.In addition, Run on Sun offers solar consulting services, working with consumers, utilities and municipalities to help them make solar power affordable and reliable. Articles l Homepage
In Focus: The Potential of Los Angeles Solar
Drive the freeways, ride the train from San Diego to Union Station, or fly into LAX and you cannot miss the obvious – Los Angeles has tremendous, untapped potential for solar growth. Now a new report from Michelle Kinman at the Environment California Research & Policy Center, seeks to layout the case for Solar in [...]
Solar Impulse Flies Across America
If there is anything cooler than a solar-powered airplane that can fly at night, we sure haven’t seen it. The plane is called Solar Impulse (technically HB-SIA) and it is making its way across the country right now! In fact, if you live in Phoenix, you could go see it today or Tuesday (and yes, [...]
SEIA Has California Solar’s Back
The good folks over at the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) are all too aware of the threat facing the solar industry from utility attacks and they are fighting back – with facts about the industry and its importance. Here’s our take. Nowhere is the solar industry more vital than right here in California. Indeed, [...]
Current Solar Industry Trends: Storage and Low Costs
Predicting the future is always fraught with hazards but a recent survey caught our eye with a bold prediction: nearly one-third of solar installers/integrators world wide expect to utilize storage in more than 40% of their installs by 2015! Oh and they need microinverters to come down in cost by 50% before they are willing [...]
New NeoN Modules from LG
We have just learned that Run on Sun’s leading module manufacturer, LG Electronics, is introducing its new NeoN line of modules. This is an exciting product that provides 280-290 Watts in the same footprint as their previous 250-260 Watt modules! But how will they match up with existing Enphase products? Here’s our take. First, some [...]
Who Pays for Solar?
We wrote before about an upcoming study from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to determine the overall cost-benefit of installing solar. Well in advance of that study, the investor-owned utilities (IOUs) in California are coming out swinging, with populist rhetoric about solar’s unfair impact. But just because a utility says something, doesn’t make it [...]
Solar Panel Recalls or Repairs? Look to Centex
Recalls can be messy – but they are made worse when the company performing the repairs insists upon a release of all possible claims before starting work. But just such a mess is what some homeowners have found themselves facing as they try to find a fix for their Centex “solar homes” that are no [...]
California: Vote Yes on Prop 39
Amidst the multitude of measures on next Tuesday’s ballot, Proposition 39 has garnered little media attention. For proponents of renewable energy, however, it might be the second most important vote you can cast on Election Day. Here’s our take. Prop 39 seeks to close a loophole in existing state tax law that allows multistate corporations [...]
My Open Letter to Fox & Friends
Those silly kids over at Fox & Friends really went on a rant against solar the other day and capped it off by asserting that the German solar industry does so much better than ours here in the U.S. because, after all, Germany gets so much more sun that we do in the States. Here’s [...]