Hello and welcome to Unirac’s first newsletter!

Unirac launched this newsletter to keep our ever-growing solar community informed and inspired. We’ll share the latest industry news for you, give you tips on how to get the most out of relevant products and services, and share stories of our customers—solar heroes just like you. It’s part of our commitment to Better Solar Starts Here, our mission to help you capture cost savings and grow your residential and commercial solar businesses.

Unirac was founded by an installer named John Liebendorfer. John envisioned making solar PV easier to install and invented the first universal mounting system. More than 20 years later, Unirac is still creating the best installation experience and still stands behind Better Solar Starts Here with unparalleled service, passion, and expertise.

While this year brought many challenges for the solar industry, I am confident that our industry will have exceeded all expectations when 2019 comes to a close. We have experienced significant growth in our residential and commercial business across in North America. And this is a great testimony to the fact that an overwhelming majority of people strongly support solar as the clean, affordable, and reliable energy solution that it is.  I am excited that Unirac is part of making solar easier and more affordable. On a recent trip to California, I witnessed the devastating impact of wildfires that clearly show that we can no longer hide from climate change. Thank you for helping make solar happen every day!

And that is why I am looking at the coming year with full optimism and excitement.

As my children say when I leave for work each morning, “Go save the world with solar!” In the coming months and year, I look forward to hearing your input and feedback as well as topics you would like us to address in our newsletter. Please share your feedback with me at info@unirac.com

All the very best to you and yours this holiday season,

Peter Lorenz,
Chief Executive Officer

Because commercial installations can be massive undertakings, it’s critical to have the right partners on board to ensure projects’ smooth completions. Commercial installations are often one-time or limited-series events, making it difficult to build a pipeline for success.

“Commercial solar project planners should be looking for more from their racking partners,” says Brandon Carrasco, Director of Customer Solutions at Unirac. “What it means is that planners really need to seek out partners throughout their supply chain who can help avoid pitfalls and add value, especially as the market becomes more challenging.”Read More

First in a series of spotlights that feature Unirac employees and how they make Solar Better for installers.

Chase Alford is Unirac’s Senior Customer Fulfillment Coordinator.  “Most roads cross at my desk,” said Alford, who is responsible for coordinating order fulfillment for the customers. “I’m at the intersection between Unirac and its customers. It’s my job to ensure our customers have a constant supply of mounting systems.”

Read More

Twende Solar crew, students and staff. Durissy, Haiti.

You’ve heard the phrase “do well by doing good”. But what does it really mean?  Is it Amazon employees bringing an idea to life, helping the homeless in Seattle? This idea ultimately led to Mary’s Place, the largest dedicated permanent shelter in the city. Or, is it Microsoft’s Airband initiative that is boosting the economy in rural areas by bringing broadband to them? Or—my new personal favorite—a manufacturing company in New Mexico that donates equipment, time, and resources toward rural electrification projects in Haiti, Mexico, and Peru through a great organization, Twende Solar. For many of us in the solar industry, we live by this unofficial mission statement, “do well by doing good”.

Read More

AC solar panels simplify installation by integrating the inverter and module into a ready-to-install unit, eliminating steps to mount microinverters and to connect and manage DC leads.

Mounting AC panels requires making a few key adjustments to the typical installation process and may be new to some installers. This video demonstrates how to unlock the time-saving benefits of Solaria AC panels during an installation with Unirac’s SOLARMOUNT mounting system and SOLARTRAY wire management.

See more videos at our Video Library.

Written by Anne Fischer

The Los Angeles Community College System in California (US) was all set to go with a huge solar installation, but the designs were scrapped because the arrays were going to be built above seismic faults. The problem may not have been that installing solar equipment in seismic areas is inherently life threatening, but rather that engineers and code enforcing agencies had nothing to go by in ensuring the safety of such systems. Fortunately this is changing. The Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Committee of the Structural Engineers Association of California (SEAOC) is a group of PV specialists who have been working on the development of standards for solar arrays in earthquake-prone regions, the results of which will likely have broad impact throughout the industry. – See more at: http://www.solarnovus.com/seismic-guidelines-for-pv-installations_N7868….