SMASHsolar Receives $1 Million Accelerator Grant For Snap-Together PV Module Mounting System

Clean Power

Published on November 2nd, 2014 | by James Ayre

November 2nd, 2014 by James Ayre 

The California-based SMASHsolar Inc has been awarded a $1 million accelerator grant by the US Department of Energy in order to aid the introduction of the company’s snap-together PV module mounting system â€" the SMASH PowerStation â€" to the market, according to recent reports.

According to the company, the SMASH PowerStation cuts home solar system installation times in half, as well as reducing the technical know-how needed for system installation â€" a potential which certainly makes it easy to see why the Department of Energy has awarded the grant.

The new grant is actually the second that the company has received from via Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative Incubator Program. As per the company’s recent statements, the new funds will be used to arrange new strategic partnerships, financial backers, and new relationships with manufacturers and distributors. The first grant that SMASHsolar won was used by the company for development and research.

The company’s CEO Troy Tyler â€" as stated before â€" has put forward the statement that simple, snap-together frameless module systems most certainly have a place in the market, owing to their cutting of installation time and lowering the level of technical expertise needed for said installation. Both should reduce costs considerably, and also appeal more to people who want to do the installations themselves.

There’s certainly an untapped market out there for simple-to-install, relatively inexpensive home solar systems â€" as far as I can see anyway. (A recent survey found that more than 30 million US households want a home solar system, while only 500,000 such systems have been installed yet.)

It’ll be interesting to see what happens next with the company during these next couple of years.

Image Credit: SMASHsolar

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Tags: Department Of Energy, DIY solar, DOE, plug and play solar, plug and play solar panels, SMASH Powerstation, SMASHsolar, snap-together solar module, SunShot Initiative Incubator Program

About the Author

James Ayre 's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy. You can follow his work on Google+.