World4Solar introduced their HelioWing, a pre-constructed solar canopy structure.It comes in two base models, HelioWing 5 with 7.38 kWp and the HelioWing 7 with 9.84 kWp. The HelioWing 7 roof is made of 24 Aptos 400 W bifacial solar panels and they use Sol-Ark 12kW hybrid 2-phase inverters for the canopy. The canopy should take about six hours to install on a prepared foundation.

Oregon based steel solar module frame manufacturer Origami Solar announced partnerships with three steel fabricators who will domestically produce steel solar module frames. The fabricators are Welser Profile in Ohio and Unimacts in Texas. This will allow them to produce regionally and ship steel frames to customers in Q1 2025 in a much shorter timeframe.

Greentech Renewables lays out the two main categories of solar lenders: local Credit Unions and National “FinTechs” like think Mosaic, Sunlight, EnFin, etc. They lay out the pros and cons of both.

Nico Johnson of Suncast talked with Sean White, a leading figure in solar ed (IREC Trainer of the Year and Trainer of the Decade award winner), about NABCEP certification. They discuss how a NABCEP PV Associate credential can boost an installer’s career and dig into the NABCEP cert process.

The sixth annual PV Module Index Report from RETC found that spontaneous module glass breakage in fielded projects is going up (often before commissioning) because some manufacturers are using thinner glass. One NREL spokesperson says that “modules are either barely passing the base static load test or they are not passing with higher safety factors. Some new module designs are simply not passing the minimum static load test.”

In this Solar Conversation, Kerim Baran and Nico Johnson of SolarAcademy host Alyssa Edwards (Sr. VP Government Relations and Environmental Affairs) and Virginia Brown (Director of Ecosystems Services) of Lightsource bp US. In this conversation, the quartet talk about the challenges that come with being one of the largest developers of utility scale solar farms in the world and balancing that act with the responsibilities that come with being the stewards of large land areas. Alyssa and Virginia share details on Lightsource bp’s approach to Responsible Solar including the following:

• • What is biodiversity in solar development and why it is important
  • The importance of land stewardship, habitat preservation, and agrivoltaics
  • Cost benefit analysis of developing solar with biodiversity
  • Benefits of topsoil management, preseeding, sheep grazing, and habitat curation
  • The video is below

In this Solar Conversation, Kerim Baran of SolarAcademy hosts George McClellan of REC Group where the duo talk about the evolution of solar module technologies over the past couple of decades and REC’s recent HJT offerings. In this conversation, George shares with Kerim and the audience the various iterations of material, format, and technology that solar panels went through over the recent decades. The topics discussed in this conversation include the following:

• George McClellan’s background before and after joining the solar industry, and with REC Group for the past 14+ years
• REC’s HJT Solar Panels and their benefits
• Evolution of solar panel technologies including explanations of PERC/PERT, P-Mono vs N-Mono and TOPCon vs HJT panels
• REC’s new product roadmap
• The video is below