1.2.1 The truth about "American brand" solar equipment

There is no real "premium American brand" in residential solar equipment.

Globally, the heavyweight solar manufacturers all sit in a handful of Asian countries. The "premium American brand" names that U.S. salespeople drop are mostly companies that manufacture in the U.S. so they can collect domestic-content subsidies — not because the products themselves are better.

Because their price-to-performance is poor, these brands rarely compete outside the U.S. Their global market share is tiny. Search any of them on the open international market and you will see the same picture every time: "American premium" exists only inside the American market.

We see a lot of these "premium" brands in the repair and replacement work we do.

You should not pay a premium for the marketing of a name brand. This is especially true if you are doing a DIY install — you can use better-value alternatives without sacrificing reliability.