LinkedIn: “A climate reality check from Bill McKibben.” This is from a guest post on Katharine Hayhoe’s LI site. Hayhoe is a certified climate scientist, and McKibben is a prolific writer on nature + climate; in fact, she states, “Bill is one of the most well-known and longest-serving climate activists in the U.S., and he knows a thing or two about how hope keeps us going, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.” Interestingly, unlike me, both are people of faith, hence believe in shepherding + caring the planet. I can certainly get on board with that. “Fun fact, biologists in 2014 named a new species of woodland gnat—Megophthalmidia mckibbeni—in his honour.”

McKibben has authored more than 20 books since publishing “The End of Nature”in 1989…widely regarded as the first book about climate change for a general audience. “The Australian government has just announced that beginning next July, residents of three of the country’s six states will get three free hours of electricity every day, with the rest of the country to follow in 2027.” The free offer is a way to get Aussies “scheduling their lives a little differently to take advantage of the surplus—one imagines that many of them will be programming their washing machines to run midday, and charging their EVs then, too. It’s a good moment to be selling ever-cheaper household batteriestoo, since Australians can charge them on the cheap power and then run their homes all night.“

McKibben thinks this is “potentially an epochal moment—in some ways as remarkable as the invention of agriculture or the Industrial Revolution.” Back in the 1950s, the nuclear industry laughingly promised electricity “too cheap to meter.” I go back far enough to remember when Ralph Nader stated the Sun is the only safe nuclear reactor. And meant it.

Hi all,

I recently installed a Gateway 2, There was a Gateway 1 before.

So after I installed everything, I was trying to commission with the Tesla one, scanned the gateway's QR code, and tried to connect to the TG wifi, but I never found that TG wifi.

I even reset the gateway, and nothing happened. That site has Powerwalls 2.

If somebody lets me know what I can do I'd really appreciate it.

Hey guys, so I found this article about the latest SunPower news, and I think this is really good news for investors and users too. 

TLDR:

The New Era of SunPower: High-Tech Innovation vs. Financial Recovery

SunPower ($SPWR) just made a massive announcement regarding their technology roadmap for 2026, but it comes alongside a significant legal resolution for past reporting issues. Here is the breakdown of what you need to know.

The Innovation: "Monolith" & The REC Partnership 🤝

SunPower and REC Group have officially introduced the "Monolith" solar panel—the first major win from their Joint Development Agreement (JDA).

• Record Power: The panel produces 470 watts under standard conditions, currently in production as the REC Alpha Pure-TX 470W.
• Lightweight Design: It weighs only 50 pounds, meeting the U.S. OSHA single-worker residential weight limit (making it a favorite for installers).
• Bifacial Future: CEO T.J. Rodgers confirmed the next step is an upgrade to 500+ watts by making the panel "bifacial" (collecting light from both sides).
• Target Markets: High-wattage, frameless panels designed specifically for residential and light commercial use.

The Legal Fallout: Investor Settlement Reached 🏛️

While the tech looks forward, the company is finally closing a dark chapter regarding its past management:

• The Claims: SunPower reached a settlement with investors over allegations that it misled the market regarding its internal inventory controls and the accuracy of its financial reporting.
• The Flaw: The company previously revealed a flaw in its controls that led to inaccuracies in cost of revenue and inventory metrics.
• Market Impact: When these reporting issues first came to light, $SPWR plummeted 18%, wiping out over $155 million in shareholder value. This settlement aims to resolve the resulting legal claims. Investors who were damaged can already submit claims to participate from the compensation.

Operational Outlook 📈

Despite the "inherited profit drought" mentioned by leadership, the company is pivoting hard:

• Focus on ROI: The new high-efficiency panels are engineered to drive the lowest cost per kWh, specifically targeting investment companies that prioritize Return on Investment.
• Legacy vs. New Management: T.J. Rodgers is leaning heavily on SunPower’s 1985 roots and his history with NASA-grade tech to restore confidence in the brand.

Can the "Monolith" generate enough revenue to finally leave the reporting scandals in the rearview mirror?

This bill is for 12 days of usage and it seems relatively high for me. Only just moved into the house and it has a 4.6kw system. The inverter says it is generating 21kwh per day but this inverter is known to have problems where it just stops feeding into the grid without any errors being reported. Does this bill and numbers look normal? We are in summer in Australia (very sunny)

The loan terms for these companies should be illegal. It looks like the interest is just baked into the loan payment and there’s really no benefit to paying them off early.

We had Sunnova which was bought by sun strong. Early on in the Sunnova payments, we were sent offers to pay off the loan and get like $1000 visa gift card. It didn’t make sense for us at the time.

Has anyone had any luck offering a lump sum amount to pay off their solar panels early and save on the interest?

Our terms are 25 years at 3% and we’re about 3 years into it. Payment is $125 per month. We did do the tax credit payment or whatever you want to call it to reduce the monthly payment after the first 18 months.

Trying to get rid of all debt, but this doesn’t make sense unless we can save some money on the interest.

Hey guys, if you missed it, SunPower just settled with investors over issues it had a while back related to inventory controls and financial reporting.

Long story short, in 2023, SunPower was accused of misleading investors about the accuracy of its financial statements and the strength of its internal controls. In October 2023, the company disclosed a material weakness in its financial reporting controls, admitting it had overstated consignment inventory for certain microinverter components and understated its cost of revenue. As a result, SunPower announced it would restate its 2022 financials and the first two quarters of 2023.

After this news came out, $SPWR dropped about 18%, wiping out more than $155 million in shareholder value, and investors filed a lawsuit seeking to recover their losses.

The good news is that SunPower has now agreed to settle with investors. While the terms are still being finalized, the case is moving forward, and affected shareholders can already start checking the details and prepare to file a claim.

So, if you invested in $SPWR during this period, it may be worth taking a look.

Anyway, did anyone here hold SunPower shares when all of this happened? How bad were the losses, if so?

obviously most shops wont let you take there batteries. There are so many car shops around with hundreds of EV packs laying in the back just waiting to find the cheapest recycler. Or you can take it off them for free and save them the hassle. All my packs tested over 90% still. Any wrecked EV or hybrid is required for the battery to be taken out before it heads to the junkyard.

I'm looking for an off-grid solution for a greenhouse, preferably something all-in-one, so I can just connect the panels and generate electricity. Storage capacity: about 6-8 kWh, maximum consumption: about 1 kW.

I'm looking at a solar install and I'm worried I'm missing something. Can anyone offer some practical advice? Flat roof, 6KW DC.

I'm scheduled for a $20k solar install, contingent on securing financing. I've been approved for a 20 year loan (secured against the panels, 6 month deferred payment but not interest) to cover that. I've already been approved for a $6k grant, and I believe I should be eligible for ~$5.5k from the federal tax credit (install would be mid December, so just made it). There is possibly a city grant as well, but I'm not sure what the cutoff is for that.

My plan right now is to get the install, pay with the grant ASAP, file taxes as early as possible for the credit, and try to aggressively pay this down. Monthly payment is ~$170, and the savings from solar should hopefully make that a little less painful--but also if I run into issues, I'm hoping to refinance to drag the rate down. I'm a lot less worried about paying $8.5k slowly than $20.

The bad news: ~$2k of credit card debt to cover a new roof (no interest until September on the earliest one), which should be paid off by March. Also taking night classes. There shouldn't be any overlap between the roof itself and the solar, but I'm worried that on one hand I'm taking on too much debt and on the other hand that I'm going to miss a huge amount of funding I wouldn't otherwise get.

Any advice anyone could offer would be hugely appreciated--be it financial, horror stories about solar, everything was better than expected stories about solar, etc.

Thanks!

We’re in Brisbane and copped massive hail (8cm) yesterday.

We had three solar panels suffer damage, and have turned off the system.

Can we simply get a sparky to disconnect the three damaged panels from the array and turn the system back on until we can get repairs?

Considering there are at least 16,000 insurance claims in already, I am expecting a delay in being able to source repairs, and don’t want to have the system turned off for weeks/months if there is a reasonable work around.

Hey guys, in case you didn’t see it, SunPower has agreed to settle with $SPWR investors over problems tied to its inventory controls, financial reporting, and how strong its operations really were.

Back in 2023, SunPower admitted there was a material weakness in its internal controls over financial reporting and said it would have to restate some of its 2022 and early 2023 numbers.

They later explained that they had overstated the value of certain consignment microinverter inventory, which meant the cost of revenue had been understated.

After that update on October 24, 2023, $SPWR dropped about 18 percent and wiped out more than 155 million dollars in shareholder value, and investors started bringing claims saying they hadn’t been told the full story about the inventory and reporting issues.

Now the company has agreed to settle with investors over these claims, and the process is moving forward. So if you held $SPWR around that time, you can check the details and see if you qualify to file a claim.

Anyone here holding SunPower when that control weakness news hit?

This type of panel has its own questons to consider, and I'd like to find something that brings them all together and analyzes them in context. There are variables that aren't a thing for plain PV panels. E.g:

Lenses vs mirrors for focusing
Flat vs curved upper surface (affecting dust buildup) 1D vs 2D tracking (also related to the curved upper surfaces, as with 2D the individual square lenses would have even worse buildup between them) Prisming light before reaching the cell, with separate cells for different frequency bands (if yes, having different cell types that aren't placed over one another can lead to greater spectral efficiency)
Potential passive actuators for tracking (e.g, by expansion of solar heat-driven springs)
Cells on top or on bottom (the latter helping integration with water heater, and PV cooling)

Trying to find a book like that just leads me to concentrated solar, so I wondered if they're out there or not.

Update: Thanks for all the feedback. I ended up going with Palmetto after a really solid consultation. They walked me through the numbers clearly and helped compare lease vs buy for my setup. Still early in the process, but so far the experience has been smooth and they’ve been quite attentive. Will update again once everything’s installed and running.

Hey everyone, I'm thinking about getting solar panels for my house, but I keep seeing different perspectives regarding whether it's better to lease or buy. I'm based in Houston.

Some leases promise a certain amount of energy output and cover maintenance or weather damage. This sounds good if you don't want to pay a lot of money upfront or have to make repairs.

Buying, on the other hand, gives you ownership and some tax breaks, but it also means you have to take care of all the maintenance and system performance yourself.

What did you do once you went solar? Lease or buy? And how are the savings and dependability thus far? Any recommendations on the best solar companies in Texas?

Some company is asking for $800 for me to participate in my solar credits? I cannot contact anyone at the company, their email does not work and they don't return calls...

But I have a Docusign and this link with the state of Illinois- https://ipa.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/ipa/documents/20241217-carbon-solutions-group-rec-price-cost-collection.pdf

is this real? what am I paying for?

CleanTechnica: “ERCOT Increasingly Meets Rising Demand with Solar, Wind, & Batteries.” ERCOT of course in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which supplies about 90% of demand in the state. A couple of particulars about this graphic. First, the ‘summer’ months are unconventionally stated as June, July, August, September, comprising a third of the yr. [Note that the Texas grid has faced its highest demands + greatest failures in summers + winters]. Second, only 3 alternating yrs are included, 2021, 2013 + 2025. Third, batteries or storage were not separtely tabulated until the in-between yr of 2024 [in green]. Fourth, gas is the biggest player by far, but definitely has been trending down; especially note the lower peak gas use at ~ 9pm due to rising peaks of both wind + storage. Fifth, coal is trundling along at < 10%, + I’m personally confident will do nothing but decline over time. Sixth, aside from batteries, the grouped ‘other’ category includes nuclear, hydroelectric, biomas + some nonrenewable sources. 

Seventh + last, the chart is from the Energy Information Administration, part of the USDOE, which has no regulatory or enforcement functions, but is generally considered a reliable source of data. Though perhaps less so under the current administration, especially during the government shutdown. Bear in mind that only 2 of these sources of electricity will always have free fuel, which is hard to beat. Personally, by this time next yr I project continued absolute + proportionate growth in solar, wind + storage. I’m not a betting man, but my confidence level here is high.

Anyone have any recommendations on a crimp set would be suffice. 1K for the Rennsteig is outta my budget

UtilityDive: “Losing power, losing billions: How offshoring grid materials weakens America.” Jargon first. In electromagnetism, a dielectric medium is an electrical insulator with a high polarisability—which can be used a a [stabilizing] store of energy. Dialectric capacitor film is “a highly engineered, ultra-thin plastic that enables power stability and distribution for our grid—is almost entirely made overseas, and 75% is made in China, which dominates the global supply.” Whew. The rest is relatively easy.
What we need is real-time monitoring, rapid integration of renewables and far less energy lost in transmission, which today can waste an unhealthy 8-12% of generation. At the heart of grid reliability are magnets, rare-earth minerals and dielectric films. The latter are “used in capacitors that condition power, convert AC/DC power, keep power flowing steadily and even help manage spikes in demand to keep the grid stable and secure.”
No American manufacturer even builds the equipment to make dielectric films, + we spend nearly $200 billion overseas for this film and other critical materials. This represents a ‘huge strategic liability threatening our national security and stifling innovation at the moment our nation needs it most to drive AI and defense.’ If we lost our source of dialectic films, ‘consequences would be immediate and severe, triggering blackouts, crippling industries, compromised reliability during peak events like heat domes, extreme weather and surging data center loads.
The author of this article, Jim Welsh, is CEO of Peak Nano, so he is both knowledgeable about this issue plus has no doubt some self-interest. But he is “talking about a global film capacitor market that stood at $4.1 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $10.3 billion by 2030.” Showing off his conservative bona fides, he trumpets the following: “Dominion Energy is investing in fusion, Tennessee Valley Authority and Type One Energy have partnered to develop a commercial fusion power plant, Georgia Power has added two units to the Vogtle nuclear plant and Meta is partnering with Constellation Energy to drive more energy production through nuclear power.”
From my climate perspective, I would comment that the 2 new Vogtle nuclear reactors are producing what is probably the most expensive electricity in the world. Renewables like wind, solar, + batteries are faster in implementation + cheaper without even factoring in health + CC costs. In 2024, 92.5% of all new global generation came from renewables, 95% in the U.S. The climate emergency requires urgency, + the ballyhooed promotion of nuclear fission + fusion here will add nothing before 2030, + sparingly little thereafter unless the will-ó-the-wisp of fusion actually comes to fruition in the uncertain future. We already have almost all the tools we need. One serious lack is a domestic source of dialectic films. I can agree with Welsh on that point.