This Week in Solar

A weekly look at what's new in solar, brought to you by Exact Solar. Clean energy news, policy updates, and stories that matter. exactsolar.substack.com

This Week in Solar is a news podcast hosted by Exact Solar, with 120 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Exact Solar hosts This Week in Solar, a news show with 120 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  This Week in Solar

  Everything You Need to Know to Buy and Sell a Home With Solar

  Aug 19, 202641 min

  Realtors often think of solar as a four-letter word. So how do we change that? Today’s episode was recorded live in front of an audience and features two guests: John Nichols is a realtor with Lokation Real Estate who has had some frustrating experiences with solar energy systems during home transactions. Kate Collardson has two decades in the solar industry under her belt, and now runs a solar inspection and service business that helps give home-buyers peace of mind. If you own solar, want to own solar, or might someday buy or sell a house that has solar on the roof, this is for you. Listen to this episode here, or on: YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Connect with John on LinkedIn here. Connect with Kate on LinkedIn here. Watch Kate’s first appearance on the show here: We Can Fix Solar’s Recycling Problem . Expect to learn: Why a paid-off solar system can add $10,000 to $30,000 to a home’s appraised value. The single most important thing to demand before you buy a house with solar panels. How you can find service and production records for solar panels on homes (even if the company that installed them is out of business). More like this from the archives: How We Fix The Solar Service Crisis: Sean Swentek How Any Homeowner Can Choose the Right Solar Company: Laura Gutierrez My Experience Going Solar With a Great Local Installer: Thomas Crookham

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  This Week in Solar

  Balcony Solar's Biggest Problem Isn't Legalization

  Aug 14, 20266 min

  What’s new I’m going to be testing a plug-in solar system on my house, and as I’ve researched the best way to set it up, I’ve realized that some limitations will have to be solved before this is widely adopted in the U.S. Yesterday I went to pick up a few panels at my local Green Tech Renewables to test with my new plug-in solar inverter, and we spent most of the time I was there talking about a problem we’re both seeing. Listen to this episode here, or on: YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify We interchangeably call plug-in solar “balcony solar,” but at the moment, there are only a few solutions for actually mounting these panels to balconies, and no widely available standard. That’s a big problem. Solar panels can weigh between 30 and 50 lbs., and they have sharp corners. If people are going to be mounting them on apartment balconies, we need to know beyond any reasonable doubt that they are securely mounted. We don’t want someone four stories below getting taken out by a falling solar panel. I personally live in a home that has a lot of shade in all areas except the roof, but I’m not ready to commit to mounting the panels on my roof. There are a few areas I could lean them against things, but then they’re just sitting out in the open, vulnerable to the elements and theft. This Week In Solar is always brought to you by Exact Solar , your locally owned, twenty-year-old solar installer for Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Energy costs are skyrocketing in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and no one has a good plan to fix it. You can’t control what the power company charges next year, but you can opt out of the cycle by going solar. Our customers have told us over and over again that they don’t get mad anymore when the power company raises rates, because it just doesn’t even apply to them. If you live in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, we’d love to show you the numbers. Book Your Free Solar Estimate

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  This Week in Solar

  Leaving Big Oil to Build Self-Sufficient Homes: Rob Avis

  Aug 12, 202634 min

  Aaron talks with Rob Avis, an engineer and permaculture designer who walked away from a career in the fossil fuel industry to found 5thWorld . Rob and his team design food, water, and energy-autonomous homes, acreages, and farms. If you’ve ever wondered if you could sustain yourself on even a small plot of land, today’s episode is for you. Listen to this episode here, or on: YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Connect with Rob on LinkedIn here. This Week In Solar is always brought to you by Exact Solar, your locally owned, twenty-year-old solar installer for Pennsylvania and New Jersey. And starting today, we have a special bonus for This Week In Solar Listeners. For a limited time (July 1st–August 31st, 2026), we’ll pay you $1000 if you refer a friend to us and they go solar. (We only install in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, so please do not refer anyone outside those states). All you have to do is: Click the “Refer a Friend and Earn $1000” button below. Fill in your information (we need your address to mail you a check if your friend goes solar). Select Aaron Nichols as the sales representative. Add your friend’s name, address, and contact information. Get a $1000 check mailed to you if your friend goes solar with us! Refer a Friend and Earn $1000 Expect to learn: Why Rob pulled a 180 and left his fossil fuel career for good. How anyone can build food, water, and energy resilience on as little as a third of an acre (and the $2 book that’ll teach you everything you need to know). What we can do with “waste” heat from data centers. Quote from the episode: “We’ve over-educated in the white-collar system and under-educated in the blue-collar system. We’re all really good at working with the bits, but there aren’t enough of us anymore who know how to work with the atoms.” — Rob Avis

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  This Week in Solar

  Trump Administration Planning New Tariffs on Solar Materials

  Aug 7, 20265 min

  What’s new The Trump administration is planning to impose tariffs of at least 15% on imported polysilicon and set minimum prices on many parts of the solar supply chain. Polysilicon is the ultra-purified silicon (basically refined sand, made from quartz) that gets sliced into wafers, built into cells, and assembled into the solar panels on your roof. It’s also a key ingredient in the computer chips inside your phone and laptop. Right now, China makes the vast majority of the world’s Polysilicon. Here’s the Trump Administration’s plan to make sure more solar is made here in the U.S., based on reporting from Reuters and Bloomberg: Impose 15% or more tariffs on imported polysilicon. Add legal minimums on how cheaply imported polysilicon, wafers, cells, and modules can be sold in the U.S. A built-in delay before the rules kick in, so U.S. manufacturers who currently rely on imported parts have time to adjust. Offsets for companies that invest big in American manufacturing. The move follows a year-long national security investigation by the Commerce Department into where our polysilicon comes from. Tariffs and price floors push equipment costs up. So as families across the country are getting hit by electricity bills, the one choice they have is about to get more expensive. But a tariff like this only matters if your solar installer hasn’t planned ahead. Exact Solar has. We’ve already pre-secured a large supply of solar modules and solar components that qualify for domestic content (which won’t be subject to the same regulations). And because everyone’s finances look different, Exact Solar doesn’t box you into one way of paying for solar. We’ve partnered with organizations like Clean Energy Credit Union and the Amicus Solar Co-operative to make sure we can offer ethical financing that we can stand behind as a locally-owned company. No matter how you want to go solar, we have a way to finance that will get panels on your roof and lower your energy bills. Tariffs come and go, but the value of making your own clean power at a fixed cost while everyone else’s bill keeps climbing doesn’t. If you live in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, now’s the time to contact Exact Solar and see what the numbers look like for your home. Book Your Free Solar Estimate Sources: Trump Readies Tariffs and Price Floor to Help US Polysilicon — Bloomberg US weighs polysilicon price floor, tariffs to counter China in solar, chips — Reuters Trump administration to impose 15% tariff in polysilicon probe meant to counter China — Yahoo Finance

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  This Week in Solar

  How We (Literally) Take Our Power Back: Sean Garren Decray

  Aug 5, 202624 min

  Aaron talks with Sean Garren DeKrey, Chief Program Officer at Vote Solar, who leads the state-level solar policy and advocacy work in more than two dozen states. If you feel powerless when you think about clean energy and how much needs to be done, this is the episode for you. Listen to this episode here, or on: YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify Connect with Sean on LinkedIn here. Learn more about Vote Solar at votesolar.org . Expect to learn: Why roughly 70% of this century’s carbon reduction came from state and local policy (not the federal policies we’re so busy arguing about) How ordinary people can actually sway state legislators and energy regulators (and why it’s a smaller pond than you think) Why the solar transition is already past the tipping point, and how we’re going to have a “two-way relationship” with electricity in the future. This Week In Solar is always brought to you by Exact Solar, your locally owned, twenty-year-old solar installer for Pennsylvania and New Jersey. And we have a special bonus for This Week In Solar listeners. For a limited time, we’ll pay you $1,000 if you refer a friend and they go solar. (We only install in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, so please don’t refer anyone outside those states.) Here’s how to claim the bonus: Click the “Refer a Friend and earn $1000” button below. Fill in your information (we need your address to mail you a check if your friend goes solar). Select Aaron Nichols as the sales representative. Add your friend’s name, address, and contact info. Get a check mailed to you if your friend goes solar with us! Refer a Friend and Earn $1,000 Quote from the episode: “The clean energy economy isn’t a tiny seed we’re still watering. We’re one of the big trees in the forest now, and we’ve got to start playing like that.” — Sean Garren DeKrey

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