A Free Industry Resource with Detailed Solar Product Information
Industry consortium, leading professional magazine, and software developer collaborate to produce the solar industry's centralized repository of product specification data.
Berkeley, CA, February 4, 2010—SolarTech, SolarPro magazine, and SolarNexus today announced the launch of a new, free resource for solar professionals called SolarHub (www.solarhub.com). The site provides a one-stop shop, aggregating detailed product specifications and allowing users to search listed products by a variety of attributes specific to each product type. Data in the site maintained directly by manufacturers and the SolarHub team.
"SolarHub directly supports SolarTech's mission of accelerating the solar industry's growth by removing market barriers," said Doug Payne, Executive Director for SolarTech. "SolarHub reduces time to market by identifying and addressing one of the key inefficiencies inherent in the delivery of solar PV systems: timely access to accurate technical information. We look forward to working with our partners to expand the scope and functionality of the site in the months to come."
Using SolarHub will save professionals a significant amount of time when compared to accessing the same data via manufacturer websites, datasheets, or printed distributor catalogs. Consistent format and data further facilitates comparisons.
"Our industry needs more standardized and centralized data repositories if we're going to accelerate the adoption of solar energy," said Shawn Murphy, Principal Engineer of Solar Technologies, Inc., a prominent Santa Cruz, CA-based solar installation company. "SolarHub provides this for equipment specifications, giving us one place to go to gather critical information during the product selection process."
Data on the site comes from a variety of sources, and includes a significant amount that has been reviewed and approved directly by the manufacturers. Much of the data was gathered by SolarPro magazine in the regular coverage of the equipment market.
"We are happy to partner with SolarTech and SolarNexus on the launch of SolarHub," said Joe Schwartz, Publisher and CEO of SolarPro Magazine. "SolarHub provides a live, constantly updated database of product specifications, and directly supports SolarPro's mission to provide engineers and integrators with technical infomation that helps them streamline design decisions and component selection.
The site functionality will be enhanced over time with features such as side-by-side comparisons and user comments. SolarNexus, developer of the site, is focused on adding features that will add direct value to its users and streamline the product introduction lifecycle, benefiting the entire solar industry.
"SolarNexus is hard at work building comprehensive software tools that help installers and distributors automate their business workflow, collaborate with their key partners, and remove unnecessary friction throughout the process," said Eric Alderman, CEO of SolarNexus. "We are proud to partner with industry leaders SolarPro and SolarTech in releasing SolarHub, and look forward to providing professionals with more useful tools in the near future."
About SolarNexus, Inc.
SolarNexus, Inc. is developing software solutions that solve real problems and improve profitability for participants in the solar deployment value chain, including manufacturers, distributors, integrators, financing providers, installers, and customers. Its applications will remove barriers between buyers and sellers, enable information sharing across the solar deployment chain and streamline back office processes. See www.solarnexus.com for more information.
About SolarPro
Independently published by solar industry veterans, SolarPro is a technical training resource available by free subscription to qualifying professionals. Written and edited by and for North American system engineers, designers, integrators and installers, each bimonthly issue delivers a previously unavailable perspective on equipment, tools, safety and best practices for optimizing both photovoltaic and solar thermal systems. Subscribe at www.solarprofessional.com.
SolarTech, an initiative of Silicon Valley Leadership Group, is a collaborative organization formed to create a Solar Center of Excellence in Silicon Valley. The purpose is to identify and resolve technical and market barriers to solar technology by addressing issues of performance, processes, standards, and workforce readiness. The SolarTech consortium's industry-spanning collection of products, services and practices will assure member companies achieve faster time to market, with lower risk, and higher consumer adoption of solar powered systems. For more information visit www.solartech.org.