The solar industry is not so much a unified bloc as a loose amalgamation of distinct and often competitive technologies, products and business models. These form an industry insomuch as they share a common source of fuel and often benefit by moving government policies in the same general direction.

However, like most so-called industries, the solar sort encompasses members that have very specific differences. The various competing technologies - concentrating vs. photovoltaic, silicon vs. thin film, central vs. string, etc. - demonstrate the most rudimentary forms of tension.

One of the most interesting dynamics is the means by which solar power is brought to the consumer. Broadly, this can be viewed as on-site vs. off-site generation. When the average consumer thinks about solar power, it is probably in the context of solar panels on the roof of the house or business. Perhaps the first real brush most people have with the solar industry is in the form of an unsolicited phone call during dinner or passing an installer’s van on the highway.

Recently, the same people may have noticed the ground-mounted solar arrays that have sprung up alongside the roadside or atop the landfill. It might take a while, but eventually, one wonders where the electricity generated by that solar installation goes. The arrays are not connected to a particular building; they must contribute the electricity they generate to the collective supply.

Of course, grid-connected roof-mount installations are not necessarily putting their particular electrons into the television set, either. But before most people actually sit down with a solar dealer, this is the idea they might start with. The point is, one particular business model for solar is to have the owner host the installation on his or her property.

Increasingly, competing business models are offering consumers an alternative in the form of off-site generation. Practical considerations limit the structures and properties that are suitable for a solar installation. However, policies such as virtual net metering and community solar have essentially opened up residential and commercial solar to anyone with decent credit who wants it. The generator can be over here, and the off-taker can be over there.

As the levelized cost of electricity for solar power settles toward parity with fossil-fueled sources, additional opportunities for off-site generation are emerging. Some developers and independent energy providers are pursuing business models that connect consumers with solar plants elsewhere in the state - or even in another state. The connection is in the form of a contract, but somewhere, solar power is producing electrons in part because of that contract.

There is tension between solar installers and solar power providers because they will be competing for many of the same customers. Excellent.

The abstraction of saying you are a solar customer because you have a piece of paper is, perhaps, not so attractive to those consumers who want their own arrays to point to. That’s wonderful. The solar industry will be happy to oblige them.