I live in the Bay Area, California and I would like to start a company
installing solar panels. I 'm sure there's a future in PV, and
renewable energy. I am currently 17 years old, and I am planning to go
to college next year, but if possible, I would like to start this
hopefully this summer, and do this on the side of my college education,
and later see how profitable it gets. I did a good amount of research
(books, online), on the process of installing (DIY). I know there are
many highly educated people on this forum, and many people that do this
themselves I don't have a contractors license (general nor PV
specialized). I will probably install it for a while without a
license, since it's a fairly long process to acquire. I've heard
that you can set up the panels and have an electrician do the wiring,
until I'll be knowledgeable to do it myself. I will soon be calling
contractors and talking to them about this, but I would like to first
find out from this forum. I am planning to install at least one
system, on one of my dad's houses, and then move on to relatives and
friends, and soon to customers. If all works out, later on move on to
commercial systems. This is a fairly broad plan, and my main concern
is the future demand for PV mainly in residential, and also commercial.
I know there are about 500 companies currently doing this in CA, but
this is still a fairly small # compared to the houses available. I
know it's still fairly expansive for the average home owner. Please
give my any suggestions on this plan, the future in PV, and any other
advice you guys can give. Please give reasons. I also have a specific
question, if I start doing this without license is it still possible to
get all the permits, especially for connecting to the utility grid.
Your help will be greatly appreciated.
"... I will probably install it for a while without a
license,.."
Not in California you won't....
I would suggest trying to get a job with one of the existing solar install
companies as a "gofer", because to be honest at under 21 and with no
experience, that is probably the best you will get until you get some
background behind you. Just learning the codes can take months.
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>I live in the Bay Area, California and I would like to start a company
> installing solar panels. I 'm sure there's a future in PV, and
> renewable energy. I am currently 17 years old, and I am planning to go
> to college next year, but if possible, I would like to start this
> hopefully this summer, and do this on the side of my college education,
> and later see how profitable it gets. I did a good amount of research
> (books, online), on the process of installing (DIY). I know there are
> many highly educated people on this forum, and many people that do this
> themselves I don't have a contractors license (general nor PV
> specialized). I will probably install it for a while without a
> license, since it's a fairly long process to acquire. I've heard
> that you can set up the panels and have an electrician do the wiring,
> until I'll be knowledgeable to do it myself. I will soon be calling
> contractors and talking to them about this, but I would like to first
> find out from this forum. I am planning to install at least one
> system, on one of my dad's houses, and then move on to relatives and
> friends, and soon to customers. If all works out, later on move on to
> commercial systems. ....
Vadim wrote:
> I live in the Bay Area, California and I would like to start a company
> installing solar panels. I 'm sure there's a future in PV, and
> renewable energy. I am currently 17 years old, and I am planning to go
> to college next year, but if possible, I would like to start this
> hopefully this summer, and do this on the side of my college education,
> and later see how profitable it gets.
Greetings, Vadim. We're neighbors! I'm in San Jose. It's exciting to
see a young person who appreciates solar energy the way that you do.
> I did a good amount of research
> (books, online), on the process of installing (DIY). I know there are
> many highly educated people on this forum, and many people that do this
> themselves I don't have a contractors license (general nor PV
> specialized). I will probably install it for a while without a
> license, since it's a fairly long process to acquire. I've heard
> that you can set up the panels and have an electrician do the wiring,
> until I'll be knowledgeable to do it myself.
[snip and rearrange...]
> I also have a specific
> question, if I start doing this without license is it still possible to
> get all the permits, especially for connecting to the utility grid.
Standard disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. But I do have a PV system on
my house, recently installed. Inspectors from both Pacific Gas &
Electric and the City of San Jose were required to sign off on my PV
installation before I could legally operate it. The city inspector
found a problem with my circuit breaker box which held us up for a
week. They're picky.
If you are planning to do only the roofing part of a PV installation,
it's *possible* that you will be allowed to do that work yourself. But
there's no way that the State of California will grant an operating
permit to a grid-tied PV system, if anyone but licensed electricians do
the work. You MIGHT get away with doing the wiring yourself if the
house in question was off-grid -- but even then, there would be
liability issues when you go to sell the house. Most homeowners would
not want to assume that risk. Also, I don't believe that the
California Energy Commission offers any rebates for systems that aren't
grid-tied. So the market for off-grid systems will be much smaller.
> I will soon be calling
> contractors and talking to them about this, but I would like to first
> find out from this forum. I am planning to install at least one
> system, on one of my dad's houses, and then move on to relatives and
> friends, and soon to customers. If all works out, later on move on to
> commercial systems. This is a fairly broad plan, and my main concern
> is the future demand for PV mainly in residential, and also commercial.
> I know there are about 500 companies currently doing this in CA, but
> this is still a fairly small # compared to the houses available.
[more snip and rearrange]
> I
> know it's still fairly expansive for the average home owner. Please
> give my any suggestions on this plan, the future in PV, and any other
> advice you guys can give. Please give reasons. I also have a specific
> question, if I start doing this without license is it still possible to
> get all the permits, especially for connecting to the utility grid.
> Your help will be greatly appreciated.
There are about 30,000 homes in California today with solar PV
installations. In 2004, the total output from all solar power systems
in the state, residential and commercial, was 741 gigawatt-hours over
the course of the year. This was 0.3% of the state's total electrical
use.
http://www.energy.ca.gov/electricity/gross_system_power.html
>From your research, you are probably aware that the California state
government has committed to a policy of having "one million solar
roofs" by 2018. That's a lot of new PV, about 33 times what we have
today. We would be supplying about 8.4% of our total energy needs from
PV, if this goal is met. This solar energy would be most abundant on
hot, sunny days, when California's electrical usage peaks. That makes
it much more valuable. I estimate that California could supply as much
as 25% of its instantaneous electric demand from PV, which would
effectively eliminate the need for other types of peaking power plants,
such as those that burn natural gas. Furthermore, much of that PV
energy would be generated very near to where it is used, which reduces
transmission losses.
Now, will we actually reach the one million solar roof goal? I'm
hopeful, but there are major hurdles. Besides the money issue, there
are two obstacles -- the availability of silicon (I'm not joking, this
is a significant problem in the industry), and the psychological
inertia of customers. Let's focus on the latter issue.
The United States census reports that there are about 12 million
residential housing units in California. 6.8 million of these are
single-unit dwellings. Detached homes are the easiest to retrofit for
PV -- and their owners, being sole title holders, are easier to
negotiate with.
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id 000US06&-qr_nameÞC_2000_SF3_U_DP4&-ds_nameÞC_2000_SF3_U
So now, if we go after single-unit homeowners, how many do we need to
convince to go solar? About fifteen percent of them. Can we do that?
Some people can be awfully difficult to convince. My own father, who
saw the value of his home decline by about $50,000 when the Calpine
Corporation forced a new power plant into his neighborhood, used to
scowl when I mentioned solar power. I got similar reactions from him
when I advocated compact fluorescent lights, when I made a point to
take public transit, and when I commuted by bicycle. He has gradually
come around to the idea of PV, but still hasn't made the commitment --
even when he has suffered directly from the alternative.
If we include multi-unit dwellings, the number of homeowners/landlords
that we need to convince drops to eight percent, which is less daunting
but still represents a very significant sales effort.
Let's look at this another way. You report that there are 500 PV
contractors in California right now. Even if we Californians install
one million solar roofs by 2018, that amounts to 160 roofs for each
existing solar PV contractor per year. A year ago, my PV contractor
reported that they were installing about 30 residential systems per
year, plus a few larger commercial systems. So, 160 roofs per year
represents a significant amount of growth in the PV installation
business. However, it's not a bottomless well of opportunity. Will
every contractor get an equal share of that business? No.
I chose my PV contractor in part because of their long history in the
business (30 years). If you want to attract customers, you need a
reputation. The more systems you have installed, and the more positive
customer feedback you receive, the more likely it is that new customers
will trust you. There are some horror stories out there. So if you
want to succeed in the PV installation business, get in as early as you
can, and focus on providing problem-free systems to customers who can
vouch for your good work.
Good luck!
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> installing solar panels. I 'm sure there's a future in PV, and
> renewable energy. I am currently 17 years old, and I am planning to go
> to college next year, but if possible, I would like to start this
> hopefully this summer, and do this on the side of my college education,