The combination of drastically lower prices for solar panels and the huge potential for industry growth is attracting the next level of industry players -- the consolidators.
It's a familiar trajectory. As an industry matures, companies with greater marketing and financial muscle roll up many of the pioneering "mom-and-pops" into fewer but larger firms.
That's beginning to happen with the solar integration firms. A handful of solar integrators are buying small U.S. installers. Akeena Solar, Real Goods Solar, Solar City, Renewable Energy Corp., and Acro Energy Technologies are the most active consolidators.