The partnership between Robco Electric and Diazo Wealth marks an important milestone for both companies. It will allow Robco Electric to expand its services and offer its expertise in electrical contracting to a wider audience. As a preferred vendor/partner, Robco Electric will work closely with Diazo Wealth to provide exceptional service to its clients and ensure that all projects are completed quickly, accurately, and within budget.

Robco Electric believes in bidding on projects fairly and being transparent about timelines and budgets. The company treats everyone it does business with, including its employees, with respect, courtesy, and gratitude. This approach has helped Robco Electric build a strong reputation in the industry and win the trust of its clients.

“We are thrilled to have been selected as a preferred vendor/partner by Diazo Wealth,” said Rob Kowalczik, President at Robco Electric. “We are committed to providing the highest quality electrical contracting services to our clients, and we look forward to working closely with Diazo Wealth to help them achieve their goals.”

For more information about Robco Electric, Inc., please visit https://www.robcoelectriclv.com. For more information about Diazo Wealth, please visit https://www.diazo.com.

On Saturday, April 22, 2023, Las Vegas Area Council Boy Scouts hosted an event at the Clark County Shooting Complex in Las Vegas, Nevada, for a day of sport clay shooting. Participants aimed for their targets from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Participation in lifelong recreational activities can also strengthen families, as families can bond over shared interests and experiences. Additionally, shooting sports can help young people develop physical and mental control, goal-setting skills, and an awareness of related career opportunities.

For Boy Scouts, in particular, sport clay shooting offers the opportunity to earn the Shooting Sports merit badge. Requirements for the badge include identifying and demonstrating the rules for safely handling a shotgun and the knowledge, skills, and attitude necessary to safely shoot moving targets using the fundamentals of a shotgun.

The participants at the Clark County Shooting Complex showed that some things are worth aiming for. Not only did they demonstrate their skills in sport clay shooting, but they also showcased the valuable life skills that programs like this can offer to young people. By participating in events like this, we can help to ensure that our youth are equipped with the skills they need to succeed in all areas of life.

Solar panels comprise multiple photovoltaic cells² and are typically installed on rooftops or in open spaces where they can absorb the most sunlight. In addition to photovoltaic cells, solar panels also contain other components, such as an inverter, which converts the Direct Current solar panels can generate into Alternating Current (AC) that appliances and other electrical devices can use.

Solar power is a form of renewable energy derived from the sun’s rays. The sunlight that strikes the earth’s surface in an hour and a half is enough to handle the world’s energy consumption for a full year¹. The basic principle behind solar power is the conversion of sunlight into usable energy. This is done with photovoltaic cells or solar cells.

The amount of energy solar panels can generate depends on several factors, including the amount of sunlight available, the panels’ angle and orientation, and the photovoltaic cells’ efficiency. The conversion efficiency of a photovoltaic (PV) cell, or solar cell, is the percentage of the solar energy shining on a PV device that is converted into usable electricity.³ Advances in solar technology have led to improvements in efficiency, making solar power a more viable and cost-effective option for generating electricity.

Call us, Robco Electric. We can handle the design and installation of your solar system. We will help you with all the questions and apply for appropriate permits to ensure you have all the necessary permits before installing your solar panel system.

¹ https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/how-does-solar-work

² https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-photovoltaic-technology-basics

³ https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-performance-and-efficiency

Expanding a solar panel system can significantly increase your solar production and reduce your NV Energy bill. Here are some things to consider when expanding your solar panel system:

• Assess your energy needs. Before expanding your solar panel system, assessing your current and future energy needs is essential. This will help you determine the size and capacity of the additional solar panels you will need. For example, if you plan to add a pool or spa, an electric vehicle, or even expand the number of people in the household.
• Check your current solar panel compatibility. If you add panels to an existing system, ensure the new panels are compatible with your current solar panels. This will ensure that your system runs efficiently and effectively.
• Consider upgrading other components. Expanding your solar panel system may require upgrading components such as inverters. Make sure these components are also compatible with your new solar panels.
• Monitor and maintain your system with the Robco App. Once your solar panel system is expanded, monitoring and maintaining it regularly is important. This will ensure it continues to run efficiently and effectively and can help identify any issues that need to be addressed.

Call us, Robco Electric. We can handle the design and installation of your system expansion. We will help you with all the questions and apply for appropriate permits to ensure you have all the necessary permits before expanding your solar panel system.

A drizzly rainy day is a free solar panel cleaning! Thanks, Mother Nature! Solar panels are typically installed at an angle, which allows rainwater to clean the surface naturally. You don’t need to get on the roof and risk hurting yourself. If there’s no rain, using a garden hose with a sprayer head is perfectly fine to rinse off your panels. DO NOT USE ANY CLEANING SOLUTIONS, and never when the outside temperature is above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

If rainwater or homeowner cleaning is insufficient to remove all the dirt and debris, you can schedule an appointment with Robco, and we will clean them for you at our regular service rate.

It’s important to follow the manufacturer’s instructions for cleaning and maintenance and any safety precautions for accessing the solar panels.

Yes, rain and clouds can affect solar panel energy production because they reduce the amount of sunlight that reaches the panels. When the sky is cloudy, the sunlight is diffused, which reduces the intensity of the light reaching the solar panels. Both weather conditions can cause a decrease in the amount of electricity the panels produce by as much as 25%-90%. However, this effect depends on the type and density of the clouds, but solar panels can produce electricity on partly cloudy days. Luckily, Nevada has more than 300 sunny days a year.

How many rainy and cloudy days in Southern Nevada?

Las Vegas receives about 4.2″ of rainfall per year. Most rainfall occurs in winter, with February being the wettest month, receiving an average of 4 days of rain.

Does rain affect your solar panels?

Our solar panel systems are designed to be weather-resistant and can continue to produce electricity even under cloudy or rainy conditions.

Does rain clean your solar panels?

Rain does help clean your solar panels, removing dust, debris, and bird droppings.

How does this affect your NV Energy Bill?

If you use more energy than your solar system produces, you may see a slight increase in your bill. If you have built Net Meter credits, the credits may be applied to your account to cover your consumption.

Solar panels and micro inverters produce a small amount of heat that needs to be dissipated. Solar panel arrays are mounted a few inches above the roof, and microinverters are mounted in the shade under the solar panel. Air circulates, convection, between the roof and panels removing heat and lowering the temperature of the roof and panels.

Pigeon guards need to be installed

Pigeon guards need to be installed on all solar panel arrays because pigeons can nest under the panels, and their waste causes damage to your panels and your roof.  Robco uses a solid flashing guard instead of netting or mesh for stronger protection and a cleaner look.

Robco’s pigeon guard is designed to look solid and completely flush with solar PV panels from the ground. However, there are 1/4” air gaps along the guard’s edge where it meets the roof tiles and where it is attached to the panel skirting. The gap is enough for rainwater and heat to escape but not let in pigeons.

Robco has used this guard design for more than eight years, and several punishing Las Vegas summers have shown no issues.

Don’t hesitate to contact us with other questions; our Solar Consultants are always here to support you during and beyond installation.

We have gotten some variation of this question about 1,000 times in the last 3 summers from customers who have had solar for years and are used to only seeing $15 or so on their NV Energy bill.

WHAT GIVES??????

2019 was the last “normal” year for solar production in the Las Vegas Valley. You can see from the chart in the right the smooth production curve (Blue bars) where solar output peaks during the hot summer months, right as our consumption is also peaking for the year (orange bars).

A parade of Black Swan Solar Events have hit Las Vegas for 3 straight years. As solar pros, we can’t design for these unforeseen extreme events. We can’t even imagine these kind of crazy changes to people’s behavior and the weather patterns happening year after year.

The Black Swan Parade

2020: The Stay-at-Home Year

In 2020, the global pandemic shook our collective world. The widest spread Black Swan event to hit modern civilization since WWII. Starting in March of 2020, the stay-at-home orders spiked power use by about 20% for the average household. Turns out, if people are at home more, they use a lot more power. More TV, more computer, more air conditioning, more vacuuming, more cooking, more everything! Look at the orange bars in the 2020 image compared to 2019. Those measure my house’s total consumption. See the spike in March that lasts all year? My solar system (and all the others in Las Vegas) was making power…but we were all using WAAAAAAAY more power than usual. The systems don’t magically make more power than they were designed to produce, just like the engine in your car doesn’t somehow transform from a 4 cylinder to an 8 cylinder. So, if your power use increased by 20%, you’re going to have an after solar power bill because you’ll be buying that extra power from NV Energy at full retail price.

2021: The Year of Fire Haze and Extreme Heat

In 2021, solar and power use got smacked by a different “Black Swan” event. This one was localized to the Western US and Las Vegas was right next door to the hardest hit region. Most folks had returned to a more usual amount of at home time… but then in the summer of 2021, the west coast was ablaze with out of control wildfires for months on end. The smoky haze from our neighbor’s disaster movie existence settled over the entire Las Vegas valley. Remember those days when the sky was just a glowing orange haze and it looked like we had all moved to Tatooine or Mars? That particulate dense smoke blocked sunlight from hitting the city’s solar panels at the same level it usually does during those cloudless, long sunny days. You can see the noticeable dip in production (blue bars) during the summer of 2021. So, every solar system made less power than usual that year because there was a lot less sunlight to work with. The extreme heat also didn’t help. Power use spiked again over the summer trying to keep folks cool during the hottest summer ever recorded in Las Vegas. So for 2021, you had both LESS POWER being made AND HIGHER POWER DEMAND. Thus, for the second summer
running, we all bought more power from the NV Energy grid to fill the gap.

2022:The Cloudiest Summer in a Decade

Now here in 2022, we have yet another Black Swan event mucking up solar land. This summer had the longest, wettest, cloudiest monsoon season we’ve seen in 10 years! (This here black swan had a silver lining, though, because we sure needed that water desperately!) Again, solar needs clear skies and long sunny days to hit maximum output over the summer and we didn’t get them for most of the summer. Temps were not as extreme as last summer, so we didn’t see quite the same 1-2 punch with reduced production AND higher power demand, but still the effect was enough that yet again a big old dip in the blue production bars over the summer means here we all are buying more power than normal from the grid to fill the gap.

In summary, solar needs clear, sunny skies for maximum power output. The last 3 years haven’t seen that during the summer, so every solar customer in the city is seeing bigger than usual after solar power bills.

If you are concerned about your system’s performance, please get in touch with your Robco Solar Consultant.

If you previously received quotes from installation companies for your solar project and request new ones today, it is likely you’ll see notable price increases or be informed that the company isn’t able to commit to completing your install due to a lack of materials.

With companies facing pinch-points and rising component prices, many have no choice but to pass on these expenses to you, the end customer. Perhaps what makes this shift so abrasive is the fact that people have become accustomed to the trend of solar prices decreasing every year as the industry grows and technology improves. This is the first time that the industry has seen prices increasing quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year across all market segments. Taking it a step further, Rystad Energy analysts estimate that shipping conflicts and rising material costs could result in 56% of 2022 solar projects worldwide being postponed or canceled completely.

So, where in the solar supply chain are these disruptions happening?

There are two main points of disruption in the solar supply chain: port delays and material costs. Both of these issues feed into one another and serve to create a downward spiral for the industry’s supply chain as a whole.

With shipping backlogs at virtually all ports, product shortages and price increases are a given. Currently, shipping a container via a primary U.S. port takes three times as long as normal. At the Port of Los Angeles alone, roughly 200,000 shipping containers are still onboard ships along the coast due to the current gridlock. Additionally, with the peak holiday season in full swing, the situation is set to face even greater pressure as demand increases even more. Current projections predict that port delays, and the resulting product shortages, will continue until mid-2022.

 On top of the increase in shipping prices and related conflicts, there have been drastic increases in material and manufacturing costs for solar panels. These price increases are the result of the bullwhip effect, which was triggered by the halting of production during the pandemic. Prior to manufacturers being shut down, there was a surplus of polysilicon available. However, once restrictions lifted and production began again, the economic bounce-back occurred faster than anticipated. As a result, demand exceeded what manufacturers were prepared to handle and prices skyrocketed.

With an increase in the cost of polysilicon by over 300%, the manufacturing costs for modules have increased by nearly 50% between 2020 and the end of 2021. Other necessary raw materials have also seen price increases that have added pressure to the manufacturing costs and, in turn, increased the prices of panels themselves.

Now that we understand what’s going on, what is Robco doing to serve you despite the disruptions?

Providing concierge style customer service is significant to everything we do, and an aspect of that is anticipating the pain points of our customers before they even have a chance to reach you. Knowing supply disruptions were only set to get worse, we ensured we secured enough inventory to cover our installations for the next six months.

That’s right. When you sign your contract with us, you can rest assured knowing we are more than ready to complete your project.

With that being said, even with our preparedness, we aren’t immune to the inflation of material costs. In response to the increased prices of our manufacturers, you will see our quoted project costs increasing in January.

So, if you know you want solar, don’t wait.

We strive to be forward-thinking and customer focused, we will continue to actively seek out ways to minimize any negative impact on our customers. We hope that this post has provided clarity surrounding the solar supply chain and assurance that we are doing our due diligence.

If you still have questions regarding this topic, or any other, please reach out. We are always here to help!

In the mood to dive deeper into all things solar? Check out the rest of our blog posts here!