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Founded in Houston, Texas in 2012, Sunnova started its journey to create a better energy service at a better price. Driven by the changing energy landscape, technology advancements, and demand for a cleaner, more sustainable future, we are proud to help pioneer the energy transition.
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While some distributed solar systems can be ground-mounted or placed atop car ports, the vast majority of residential systems are placed atop a homeowner’s roof. As such, it’s helpful to know what changes, if any, need to be made to a roof before installation, and for replacement and upkeep down the road.
Pre-Installation Roof Repairs & Responsibility Before the installer goes about putting in an initial solar system, they should be able to let you know whether roof repairs are needed initially (roof replacement is usually recommended beforehand). Further, you should discuss with the installer whose job it is to repair damages to the roof or leaks.
Vent Pipe Placement Most roofs have plumbing vent pipes along them. Installers may simply work around them, but if you want to maximize your placement of panels, a roofer can be asked to either relocate vent pipes, or install low-profile vents which sit below panels.
6-Step ProcessADT Solar recommends following a sex-step process which involves 1. Notifying the system installer; 2. Have the system installer remove the solar panels; 3. Place the removed solar panels in an enclosed and protected area; 4. Have a roofer remove the damaged roof; 5. Have a roofer install a new roof; 6. Have the system installer reinstall the solar panels.
Identify Cost-Savings The DOE and NREL estimate that while in theory, the combined cost of roof replacement and solar installation should be $30,000, but that when performed together, the actual average cost was $25,000. The $5,000 in savings are possibly the result of partnerships between roofers and installers, essentially slashing the customer acquisition costs. Ask your roofer/installer about partnerships they have, which could result in savings of up to 30% on roofing.
Ethan Miller, TXSES Intern, and Larry Howe, Solar and Climate Solutions Advocate
It’s not hard to find estimates for utility-scale solar capacity in Texas; ERCOT regularly releases that information.1 What has been harder to find are estimates of distributed (rooftop) solar. Up until now, getting a realistic idea of how many buildings had rooftop systems was practically guesswork.
There are a few reasons for this:
Distributed solar can be metered or unmetered (and there are multiple metering techniques);
Distributed solar can be placed on residential, commercial and industrial buildings;
Reporting varies by utility provider (municipal, electric cooperative, competitive market, investor-owned); and
There is no singular reporting agency/organization.
Through the Texas Solar Energy Society, I connected with Larry Howe, who in his spare time was working on such an estimate. After meeting with him and reviewing his methodology and data sources, we devised a method to determine the volume of rooftop installations in the state.
For our analysis, we relied on scraping data from two main sources: the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Energy Information Administration (EIA). For the latest numbers, we used ERCOT’s Load Profiling Profile Type Counts (last updated October 3, 2023), EIA’s Annual Electric Power Industry Report, Form EIA-861 (both for net-metered and non-net-metered, updated 2022 and 2021 for Austin Energy), and EIA’s Form EIA-861M (monthly, updated July 2023). [2][3][4]
Since ERCOT’s Load Profiles tracked the amount of distributed energy only in competitive (deregulated) regions of the state, we used the EIA-861 and EIA-861M to get installation counts for residential and commercial buildings in municipal and cooperative utilities. The biggest challenge, however, was that the EIA-861 only reported installation count for net-metered projects. The EIA-861M counts customers for residential and commercial. ERCOT had only an idea of how much MW capacity the non-net-metered generators were producing. To resolve this, I used Google’s Project Sunroof per roof system capacity of 12.3 kW DC.[5] It’s important to note that Project Sunroof is a tool designed to estimate maximum distributed capacity in the state. Because that 12.3 kW DC is a much larger system size than is typical, we believe our final estimate is likely conservative. Lastly, EIA data often included private utilities as well (those already reported in ERCOT numbers). We removed them to ensure we weren’t double-counting.
It’s important to disclose the limitations of our estimates.
As previously noted, we had to rely on Project Sunroof’s estimate of average project capacity. Additionally, not all data are dated for 2022. Because Austin Energy’s net-metered count didn’t appear in EIA’s 2022 data, (possibly because of the city’s use of Value-of-Solar in place of net-metering), we relied on data from 2021 which may be marginally outdated. Lastly, the data are incomplete. EIA doesn’t seem to report numbers for all municipal or cooperative utilities in the state, and ERCOT’s numbers are restricted to ERCOT’s area, so those serviced by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, Southwest Power Pool, or Southeastern Electric Reliability Council have not been included.
With clean data, we tallied all the installations. As of today (October 19, 2023), we estimate the total number of rooftop solar installations in Texas to be ~294,817.86. To give a better idea of the scale, take the U.S. Census Bureau’s figure of 12,136,678 housing units in the state (as of 2022).[6] Using the numbers for residential installations only, it looks like 2.39% of all Texas residences have rooftop solar installed. For all buildings in the state, it is 2.31%. While that number might seem small, it’s impressive progress for a fledgling industry that didn’t even appear in the Solar Energy Industries Association count of annual solar installations until 2013.[7]
One decade in, we’ve made significant progress but there’s much more to do to enact sound distributed solar policies that will build a well-trained distributed solar energy workforce and mitigate impending grid disruptions and failures. Our newest initiative, Infinite Power: Take Your Share of the Texas Sun, is an ambitious statewide educational campaign intended to double the amount of distributed solar in Texas by 2030. Through a collaborative process with industry groups, business members, and solar homeowners alike, TXSES will lead that charge, intensifying consumer education and heightening awareness that distributed solar will support ambitious clean energy and carbon reduction goals, enhance the resilience and reliability of the electric grid and build a diverse, equitable, well-trained distributed solar workforce.
If you’re interested in getting involved with similar research or would like to access our data, please reach out to Ethan Miller (ethan@txses.org)
Sources:
“Annual Electric Power Industry Report, Form EIA-861 Detailed Data Files.” Electricity, 2022. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia861/.
“Estimated Rooftop Solar Potential of Texas.” Project Sunroof, June 2019. https://sunroof.withgoogle.com/data-explorer/place/ChIJSTKCCzZwQIYRPN4IGI8c6xY/.
“Profile Type Counts.” Load Profiling, October 3, 2023. https://www.ercot.com/mktinfo/loadprofile.
“Texas Solar.” Solar Energy Industries Association, 2023. https://www.seia.org/state-solar-policy/texas-solar.
“Texas.” QuickFacts, July 1, 2022. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/TX,US/EDU685221.
Vegas, Pablo, et al. “September 2023 Fact Sheet.” Electric Reliability Council of Texas, September 2023. https://www.ercot.com/files/docs/2022/02/08/ERCOT_Fact_Sheet.pdf.
Statewide educational campaign aims to double the amount of distributed solar by 2030
November 2, 2023
Austin, TX – As the Texas distributed solar industry matures and diversifies, there is an increasing need for consumers to understand the benefits, separating fact from fiction and educating decision-makers on the critical importance of sound, favorable solar policies that will grow the industry and lay the foundation for building a strong diverse, distributed solar industry in Texas’ rapidly changing clean energy economy.
Since 1976, TXSES has been the single statewide organization advocating for a robust distributed solar energy industry in Texas. A membership-based organization, TXSES’s unique niche is its well-established local chapters in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston and San Antonio. Its educational and outreach expertise has been key to raising awareness that distributed solar will support ambitious clean energy and carbon reduction goals and enhance the resilience and reliability of the electric grid, while building a diverse, equitable, well-trained distributed solar energy workforce.
“Over the past year, we’ve convened thought leaders in the distributed solar industry, educators, decision-makers and other stakeholders to get their input on the highest priorities that would enable every Texan to adopt solar energy as part of an equitable, 100% clean energy future,” says TXSES Executive Director Pete Parsons. “Given the unrelenting consumer demand for solar, while addressing the unreliability of the Texas grid, this statewide campaign represents a natural progression for TXSES in our nearly half-century of educating and raising awareness of the value and benefits of distributed solar in Texas.”
Using EIA data and Google’s Project Sunroof, TXSES policy committee member Larry Howe and TXSES intern Ethan Miller estimate conservatively there are nearly 300,000 residential and commercial distributed solar rooftops in Texas. This initiative proposes to double that within seven years.
“If growth in both demand and supply of Texas’ distributed solar sector is to continue in a safe and sustainable way, we must ensure that consumers, industry and policymakers are well-informed; that innovative and efficient business models thrive and a well-trained, quality workforce is responsive to both industry and community needs,” says Chair of TXSES Board of Directors Dr. Ariane L. Beck. “This is classic TXSES: providing straightforward educational distributed solar expertise to advance a secure, clean energy Texas.”
“Doing everything possible to ensure reliable power to the citizens of Texas cannot be over-emphasized,” says Texas State Representative Erin Zwiener. “The role of distributed solar is an important piece of that puzzle as it helps to reduce demand on the grid for everyone. As the only statewide organization that advocates for distributed solar, I am excited to learn that TXSES seeks to achieve this ambitious goal of doubling Texas’ distributed solar footprint. The impact of this initiative is a win-win for us all.”
