The Solar Plus Software Decade Is Upon Us -- Get Ready with These Three Events in January

As I write this, it’s mid-December. By now, you’ve no doubt heard that Congress did not pass an extension of the full 30% solar investment tax credit (ITC)—at least not this year. Consequently, commercial solar installers have to find new ways to make up for a loss in ROI when the ITC drops to 26%. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that 2020 is the “Solar Plus Decade,” and solar plus software is here to help. PV, energy storage, energy efficiency, energy management, and EV chargers will soon become a standard part of the modern solar contractor services. Intelligent software will be critical for managing the creation of solar proposals as well as providing the maximum ROI with or without any tax credit.

With that in mind, we’d love to invite you to three events in January 2020 that will help inform you about all the solar plus software tools that will energize (pun-intended) your commercial solar business in 2020 and the entire decade.

1) Webinar: Making Commercial Solar Sales Easy with Intelligent Solar+ Software Tools

Thursday, January 9, 2020 -- 10 AM PT/1 PM ET

You won’t want to miss this 3-fer of solar-plus software education. In a case study format, Extensible Energy, Energy Toolbase, and UtilityAPI are going to run through the proposal process for a 200 kW solar office building with high demand charges. You’ll learn about two ways to streamline your commercial solar proposals and at least one way to potentially offset the ROI loss of the ITC with demand charge reduction software. Sign up here.

2) Solar, Storage and Smart Energy Expo Northern California

January 16-17, 2020 at the Hilton Union Square, San Francisco, CA

If you’d rather have more hands-on learning and more opportunities for “solar plus” education, join Extensible Energy at the first major solar event of the new decade. At least 600 solar company reps will be there, and we’ll be there too at Booth# 405. Every hour, we’ll be giving an interactive overview of our DemandEx demand charge reduction software and how it can increase ROI in commercial solar buildings without batteries. You can also watch our Product Manager, Raine Scott, on the exhibit hall stage on Wednesday, January 17 at 2:05 PM, as he discusses how software is improving sustainability in commercial buildings -- Register here. If you’d like to schedule a time to meet with one of our Extensible Energy team members, set up a time here.

3) ASES Webinar: How to Raise the ROI for Commercial Solar Projects - No Batteries Required

Tuesday, Jan 21, 2020, at 11:00 AM PT

The American Solar Energy Society (ASES), the oldest solar advocacy organization in the U.S., will be hosting a webinar with yours truly and Lucas Oehlerking of Black & Veatch. And why would an engineering goliath like Black & Veatch be doing a webinar with Extensible Energy? Let’s just say we’ve gotten to know each other very well. In any case, Luke and I will be discussing the problem of increasing utility rates and demand charges and why commercial solar installers need to have a customer-oriented approach to solar plus software projects. Of course, we’ll also be talking about how solar with our DemandEx load flexibility software can be a win-win-win for the solar installer, the business owner, and the utility. Register here.

That’s the schedule so far for January 2020, and the year has just started. For February, we'll also be at Intersolar in San Diego, Booth 1627!

We hope to see you at one of the above events, but if not, we’ll certainly be having more webinars, white papers, and other useful information as we kick off the Solar Plus Decade. Sign up to get notified for future events.

From all of us at Extensible Energy, Happy New Year and wishing you great success in 2020 and beyond.