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