Most of my rooftop solar customers express a preference for buying "Made in the U.S.A.” solar panels. And they were willing to pay a premium for domestically manufactured panels. But because there were very few U.S. manufacturers -- and hundreds of overseas companies manufacturing panels at lower prices -- the prices for U.S. made panels were always significantly higher.

For a variety of reasons, the price gap between U.S. made solar panels and overseas made solar panels has been narrowing. Tariffs on certain manufacturers has been a factor; unfortunately, these tariffs have been one of the most contentious and divisive issues in the solar industry over the past three years. But a bigger factor has been the gradual resurgence of U.S. manufacturing of all types — capitalizing on automation, low overhead operations and shorter supply chains.

My guest on this week’s Solar Energy Show is Mamun Rashid, Chief Operating Officer of Auxin Solar. Auxin began contract manufacturing of solar panels in the U.S. in 2008, and now they are finding success with their own brand of crystalline panels. Please Listen Up as Mamun explains how a California-based company can compete on both quality and price with overseas manufacturing by keeping their overhead low and leveraging the latest in automated production equipment. Full disclosure, we use Auxin solar panels at Cinnamon Solar for many of our projects, and have successfully partnered with them for Spice Solar integrated racking.