Every year I gaze into my solar crystal ball and make ten educated guesses about the rooftop solar industry. I did OK on last year’s predictions, only completely whiffing on two,  so I’m back with my yearly list of predictions for the rooftop solar industry for 2018.

  1. U.S. solar manufacturing will not restart anytime soon.
  2. The threat of solar tariffs will perpetuate solar panel shortages until at least the end of the second quarter
  3. Wires will disappear from solar system monitoring as cellular cloud based solutions become more cost effective.
  4. Dumb solar modules on residential rooftops are dead on arrival
  5. Utilities will continue to thwart behind-the-meter solar
  6. “Smart home” energy monitoring systems will continue to fail in the marketplace
  7. Energy storage system price declines will stagnate
  8. Integrated packages will become more important
  9. Backup power is important for consumers
  10. The lithium shortage will mirror the silicon shortage of 2004-2007

Listen up to this Week’s Energy Show for the details on these 2018 Rooftop Solar and Storage predictions.