Two years ago, for example, most PV module manufacturers that I met with were telling me that they were not interested in electrical distributors in the U.S.
In a nutshell, here is why:
1.) They made more profits selling their products in Europe and elsewhere around the globe;
2.) There was such a shortage of PV modules (concentrated in about 9-10 major manufacturers) that one vendor told me an electrical distributor and his customers would have to wait 2 years for product to be delivered for a major job;
3.) Although some companies used other channels or sold direct to installers, solar specialty distributors were good customers who had all the training and all the market presence that the vendors needed;
4.) With the market concentrated largely in California and New Jersey, there was no real need for national distribution; and
5.) Electrical distributors - with a few exceptions - were making money nicely in the traditional areas of their businesses. While a few had moved into selling solar, the obstacles to entry and plentiful traditional work provided little motivation for some.
Then several factors changed all of these things including the economic downturn worldwide, the approaching end of many of the incentives in Europe, the change in national energy leadership policy by the Obama administration along with consistently rising energy costs.
Suddenly in the last year, it appeared to have changed radically:
1.) There were now plenty of opportunity in the U.S. for profits in solar as a truly national market could be seen in development;
2.) The number of vendors had increased (especially PV module suppliers including some now manufacturing in the United States) making product plentiful and dropping prices dramatically;
3.) The national financial crisis caused new challenges to vendors selling direct to installers as well as those selling through solar distributors whose margins were squeezed as demand dropped while supply of their specialized products and competition increased for projects;
4.) Changes in government energy policy, increasing costs for energy and new power plants and popular sentiment for clean, abundant energy began to create a more genuinely national market for solar products; and
5.) Electrical distributors - looking for new opportunities in the economic downturn - turned their attention directly to renewable energy and (its natural complement) energy efficiency.
This shift has been noted clearly at the National Association of Electrical Distributors and elsewhere. PV solar vendors have been attending the last three major conferences (and the one scheduled for next month in Marco Island, Florida) as proof of this shift. Many - but not all - solar vendors are now looking to the more diversified, better financed, more stable electrical distributors with their base of customers and long standing relationships - especially with the most important segment of the new, national workforce - electrical contractors.