Panel making business?

Re: Evergreen Solar files for bankruptcy, plans asset sale

My wife is an accountant. Has been for 25 years. In that time we've seen a lot of businesses come and go. Many of them start up without a clue (business plan) and they nearly always fail. The odds are against you from the start. You need to know that going in to any business so that you can see the pitfalls before they break your leg.

Building solar panels isn't like an artistic hobby, building bird houses say, where there aren't many things that can go wrong. If purple Martins don't like your birdhouses and starlings move in instead, you can change the birdhouse design and easily replace them for any dissatisfied customers.

Not so with a panel. People who install approved commercial units get complaints that they don't perform the way the homeowner expected. Granted much of the time that's due to unrealistic expectations on the part of the homeowner (many of whom don't understand that 3kW of panel doesn't produce 3kW even under good conditions, much less 24/7) but you would have that same problem.

In my opinion there are too many shysters out there giving solar a bad name by making unrealistic claims. This taints the market. "Spin your meter backwards!" is shouted at them until they believe it's possible with just one 45 Watt panel. There are also too many who declare you can build your own panels cheaply and easily at home. You've already discovered it's not quite as easy as it's made out to be.

Trying to compete with multi-million dollar companies that have huge assembly lines and can churn out quality panels backed with 25 year warranties at a cost under $3 per Watt? You'll find that customers expect yours to be exactly the same, and cost half as much. You'll also find you're soon working for $0 per hour (count up how much time it takes to actually build one panel by hand, assuming it works out right the first time through).

And then there's every business' boogeyman; liability. You'll probably not get insurance against it, if only because (as we've seen in another thread) insurance companies do not understand solar and are scared of it. But realistically the product could fail and potentially burn someone's house down, or at least be blamed for it. You'd be on the hook for all of that, even if it is unfair.

There are plenty of businesses you can get in to that are solar related and less potentially hazardous to your financial health. If you haven't realized by now that building your own panels isn't simple, easy, and cheap you haven't been paying attention to your own posts. A good learning experience, yes; but you should learn that it's not very practical on a large-scale. You'll soon get sick of hand-soldering tabs.

Yeah, I know: 'Coots a killjoy.

Re: Panel making business?

I split this off because it had wandered far away from the original subject.
We're good at lateral thinking here, eh?