The Week In Solar (6/16/2016) - Musk, ITC Trade Case, Russian Hackers

Inside “Steel Pulse,” The Project That Became Elon Musk’s Solar Roof    Tesla’s Solar Roof is changing the aesthetics of solar.  While v1.0 may not be the highest efficiency it has removed so many of the objections to people installing solar (It’s too ugly.  I don’t want that on the front of my house.  Squirrels and birds will nest under it, etc.).  

88,000 American Solar Jobs Are Under Threat From Suniva’s Trade Case, Says SEIA    The case is one of the wild cards in US Solar now.  It will nearly double the price of most panels and make solar much less affordable.  Normally, I wouldn’t expect this to get much traction, but with our current President and the Koch brothers, it has me and many others quite concerned. 

U.S. Power Companies Warned ‘Nightmare’ Cyber Weapon Already Causing Blackouts   If the power (and gas) grid were to go down, what would you do?  If you have solar with battery backup you could survive and thrive.  While this concern may still be in the future, this article (similar to one in WaPo) talks about the possibility of Russian hackers taking down part of the power grid.