[RE-wrenches] quite the conundrum

[Marco Mangelsdorf]

In 2008, about 200 Net Energy Metered systems went in on this Big Island of
Hawaii, where I live.  About 400 in 2009 and over 800 in 2010.  The same
increase in adoption rates took place across the Aloha State.

 

I think that the next two years or so will bring a stop to this kind of
growth most likely because of the fed grant in lieu of tax credits very
likely going away come 1-1-2012 and a likely change to the HI. state tax
credits as well after this next legislative session as well as the continued
progression of our small island grids becoming more closed to PV due to grid
saturation issues.

 

Be that as it may, until there's a contraction in the PV biz in our Aloha
State (not a question of if but when), we're going to continue to be in an
insanely competitive sales environment.

 

My commercial sales these past 9 months have been kinda light and I'm
bothered by that.  Our standard approach is to always offer the highest
efficiency mods from Brand X.  But we've been losing sales to others who are
undercutting us by as much as 30 or more percent.  No surprise, really,
since these mods are so much more than pretty much the rest of the market,
aside from Brand Y with its HIP and HIT lines.

 

I've resisted going all in or even mostly in as far as getting container
loads of good quality Chinese mods as we've been hyping ourselves as
providers of the highest efficiency production mods on the planet along with
our solid econoline of U.S.-made mods with a minus zero PT and flash test
data for every mod.  But if you hit 'em with Brand X and they're not really
educated on Brand X nor asking for the best, any other quotes that they're
considering from others will make the Brand X quote look way high.  And at
that time you can usually kiss the sale good-bye.

 

So I'm considering a substantial change in our approach to selling PV.  Go
mostly Chinese, go low price to keep up with the competition, offer quotes
using Chinese mods as a standard matter of course and perhaps offer Brand X
on a more limited basis.  It just seems to me that the commoditization of
the PV biz these days has most consumers concluding that price is the most
important factor whether the mods come from China, the U.S. or Timbuktu.

 

Let the fireworks begin.

 

marco

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