A&R Solar has once again been named one of the top solar companies in the Pacific Northwest. In the annual rankings released by Solar Power World, A&R ranked #2 in Washington (#1 Residential only) and #4 in Oregon. We are ranked #22 in rooftop contractors nationally. Not bad for a solar company battling perceptions that solar doesn't work in the Northwest! As a...
A&R Solar's work to promote solar-friendly policies was featured in a national industry magazine. Solar Power World featured Policy & Partnerships Director Bonnie Frye Hemphill and CEO Reeves Clippard as part of the release of the country's top solar contractors. A&R has worked with other installers in Washington and Oregon to pass such legislation as the Solar Jobs Bill and Solar...
Thanks to the 100% Clean Electricity Act passed in 2019, sales tax has been removed from most typical residential solar energy systems. For the average customer, that means savings of around 10 percent. Systems 100kW and under installed after July 1, 2019 will not be subject to sales tax. A typical residential system is around 10kW. Larger commercial solar projects will also...
The number of solar customers in Washington who can own the power generated by their systems has just significantly increased. Net metering is an agreement between a solar home or business owner and the electrical utility. It allows solar customers to build up credits with their utilities during the summer like a savings account and then use them in the winter...
Around 20 A&R Solar employees took to the trails again on May 4, 2019 to help the Washington Trails Association with some much-needed cleanup and maintenance. This year, staff spent a sunny Saturday on the trails at Snoqualmie Lake hauling rocks, building a bridge structure, and filling in an eroded section of the trail with dirt. A&R Solar is an employee-owned B...
We have a fun tradition at A&R Solar of allowing our employees to decide what organizations the company should donate to at the end of the year. During the past two years, we've extended that to our solar customers, allowing them to nominate nonprofits in their communities. We received amazing recommendations! We were happy to see groups that care for the...
New affordable housing Eleanor Apartments in Bellingham, Washington, goes solar to help protect the environment and assist with city’s housing crisis. Mercy Housing Northwest developed and operates the Eleanor Apartments, a new affordable senior housing community located in Bellingham. The nonprofit decided to add solar power to its affordable housing community when it was being designed. This was done as part...
Mighty Tieton adds solar to its largest facility to do away with a substantial electric bill and continue to support artists and the town of Tieton. The partners at Mighty Tieton chose to add a solar system to their 40,000-square-foot facility to eliminate the bulk of their almost $2,000 a month power bill. They felt that bringing the bill down to...
Transcript One of the most common questions is what performance can I expect from my system? To understand that, you have to understand how a system is sized, or what the nameplate rating means. If you take one module that is 300 watts and multiply that by 30, then you get a 9 kW system. In reality that 9 kW system, those modules...
Transcript The solar panels on your roof collect the energy from the sun and convert that into DC voltage. That DC voltage then travels down into your inverter which converts into AC voltage. That AC voltage is going to be used by the loads in your home like a refrigerator in the daytime or the air conditioner, something being used in your...