A✌️450-word✌️2.5-minute✌️read
Earlier this week I touched upon how the news from the solar industry is beginning to look as dismal as that for wind. A new report from HelioVolta has added a new layer of bad.
I’ve seen LinkedIn posts on the subject of solar project quality before, but haven’t been able to verify them, until now.
HelioVoltas’ annual SolarGrade PV Health Report is positioned as the largest publicly available benchmark of U.S. solar contractors. It’s based on the company’s proprietary HelioVolta Quality Standard (HQS) methodology and summarizes third-party data from more than a thousand projects.
This year ’s report included projects built by nearly 120 subcontractors and 70 EPCs. Of the projects reviewed 52% were new construction and 48% were operational.
HelioVolta was founded by two certified PV system inspectors and field engineers, so they have the requisite expertise. However, the company sell services to developers and has a somewhat vested interest in finding issues.
I’d assume some bias. However, this year’s findings are so alarming, that even accounting for bias, the picture of overall quality is bleak.
According to the report, 67% of solar EPCs are not meeting an appropriate level of quality standards. Not a single EPC rated above the HQS, although some projects did. Here are the highlights:
▶ 85% of projects contained major issues requiring urgent corrective action.
▶ 7% of projects had critical issues that required immediate partial or total “de-energization” (shut down) and same-day corrective action.
▶ 80% of projects had wiring issues and 83% had connector-related issues. It’s hard to believe but the 83% for connected-related issues was an improvement over the 2024 results.
▶ Smaller projects (under 5 MW DC) averaged 109.48 issues per MW DC while projects over 100 MW DC averaged just 0.45.
That last point is telling.
The solar industry has been like the gold rush. Emerging markets typically have a high percentage of what I consider amateurs, particularly in their early stages. When you add lucrative financial incentives to the mix, the population of amateurs increases further.
Companies building larger utility-scale projects aren’t typically run by amateurs. However, smaller projects, including community solar and rooftop have attracted many smaller, less professional companies chasing quick profits.
David Penalva, CEO of HelioVolta, summed it up nicely. He said, “As the era of guaranteed profits ends for the American solar market, the era of limited oversight must end with it.”
In some ways, the Trump administration’s elimination of tax incentives may, in the long-term, be a blessing for the industry. It will weed out the amateurs leaving professionals to carry the industry to full maturity.
This “market cleansing” is painful to watch, but it should make the industry stronger.
#solarpower #solarinstallation #HelioVolta