Albion Power Company

After doing a lot of research, including on Yelp and Angie's List, I interviewed 6 solar install companies in person over the course of a couple of weeks. SolarCity (expensive lease, limited panel choice options; require a deposit to even give you a quote), Sungevity (expensive lease, limited panel choice options; require a deposit to even give you a quote), NRG Solar (not impressed), Highlight Solar (fairly unresponsive), Clean Solar (very good presentation, so-so responding to my questions, not satisfied with their answers) , and Albion Power Company. Albion stood out for several reasons. 1. Thomas Wilde made a very good presentation. 2. But the real clincher was Charles Adams spending large amounts of time answering my endless questions over the course of a few weeks. I must have sent 50 emails and spent a lot of time on the phone discussing research I'd done with questions about inverter vs. micro-inverter, roof mounts, yields, shade concerns and strings, bypass diodes, etc., both before and after signing the contract with them. He was super patient in addressing all my questions. He made a good argument against micro-inverters, which he finally talked me out of getting. 3. They have licensed roofers install the racks, so roof penetrations are done professionally. 4. Their price was also fairly competitive. 5. They seemed like honest and straightforward people, wanting to give me what I wanted. I considered several system configurations with different panels, running CSI calculations on all of them. I ultimately chose 20 SunPower SPR-X20 327 modules, not top of the line in power production, but more than sufficient for my present and expected future needs. SunPower has a great reputation. I also chose an SMA SB6000TL inverter, also a top notch company, with their WebConnect module for monitoring on my computer. Albion came up with an excellent panel configuration for my two roofs, avoiding vents and chimney, while optimizing placement to avoid as much shade as possible. The design phase was an iterative process, going back and forth with Albion to come up with a final design to my liking. They were extremely responsive to my needs and desires, being very flexible in helping me get what I wanted. Install was delayed a week, but finally happened. Riley Caron was the project manager. He was superb, being extremely nice, and going the extra mile to get my system up and working. He was up on the roof doing work along with the roofers and electricians. They installed the racks and some of the wiring on Monday, and the panels in a half day on Tuesday. Delayed one day, then installed the inverter and rest of the wiring on Thursday. The system was up and running Thursday afternoon, except for WebConnect, which took more than another day for Riley and me to troubleshoot and get working, Riley even working evenings with me. So a total of 4 working days, just about what they had allotted for my install (4-5 days), even with the WebConnect problems, which SMA tech support was helpful with. My system is fully up and running now and producing more power than I currently need (but about right for expected future needs), and more than expected, since we are currently experiencing very sunny days. Would I recommend Albion to my friends and relatives? Without any hesitation. I give them the highest marks and would give them 6 stars if I could.