"As a residential and commercial solar salesperson for many years, I would often tell prospective customers that it was silly for them to pay for solar panels to generate electricity that they shouldn't have been using in the first place. It was an acknowledgment that, in a perfect world, they would make their homes more efficient and reduce their base electricity usage before 'going solar.'
"At the time, the discussion about energy efficiency was a way to help customers decide what size systems they really needed. If budgets were tight, smaller, less-expensive systems might suffice and still offset 100% of electricity usage after some simple and relatively inexpensive upgrades. Most still went with the larger systems, possibly thinking that it would be too hard, expensive or unimportant to make the effort.
"Now, I see that as an opportunity - both for individual solar-property owners and for our larger efforts to reduce emissions and accelerate the clean energy transition. The ~4 million solar homeowners around the United States are the perfect constituency to change minds and increase demand for energy efficiency and electrification products and services in their communities."
Read this article by Dara Bortman, who is a member of the ASES Board of Directors and a life member of ASES...
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Kat Friedrich
Editor in Chief
American Solar Energy Society
Monona WI
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