NextWave Energy Monitoring
By Nader Yarpezeshkan, CEO, NextWave Energy Monitoring
The solar industry has entered a new chapter and its winners will be determined by one often overlooked piece of technology: solar energy monitoring.
For years, monitoring was treated as a box to tick on project checklists — a compliance item that faded into the background once a site went live. But that era is over: As the market matures and pressures mount, monitoring has become the backbone of project profitability.
The solar industry is changing
Across the United States, developers and long-term asset owners are facing a new set of realities. Federal incentives that once ensured strong margins are tightening. Interest rates remain high. Projects are more complex, with mixed technology stacks and accelerated construction schedules driven by OBBBA deadlines.
At the same time, the solar industry is taking new lessons from its past. With roughly 25 GW of U.S. PV capacity now crossing the 10-year mark, asset owners are seeing the cost of these earlier “checked box” maintenance approaches that have been the industry standard: lower output, shorter equipment life and a rise in warranty disputes.
From these challenges, we are learning exactly what the next decade of solar energy monitoring demands: This must-have technology is now the difference between projects that quietly underperform and those that deliver on their modeled returns.
Why smarter monitoring matters in today’s solar industry
Amid the changing solar landscape, every small decision now matters. Data quality, visibility and speed of response have become essential to keep systems productive through their full operating life. But many of today’s solar monitoring systems leave a lot to be desired: Too often, data is fragmented. Dashboards tell different stories. Alerts go unanswered because they lack context.
Smarter monitoring provides the visibility needed to adapt. It tells owners which assets are drifting below target and why, gives O&M teams the data to act before small problems cascade, and shows asset managers how performance connects to the financial model.
Take, for example, a utility-scale project in the Southwest that recently integrated NextWave’s monitoring and analytics layer after years of relying on a major third-party platform. Although the existing system captured inverter data, it lacked visibility into secondary components such as step-up transformers and medium-voltage equipment.
After switching to a platform that combined field metering, waveform analysis and real-time alerts, the O&M team discovered transformers were intermittently overheating due to unbalanced phase loading. This issue was not visible through SCADA alarms or inverter telemetry. But with early detection, they were able to prevent a potential transformer failure and an extended outage during peak summer production. Smarter monitoring saved the asset owner on both repair costs and lost revenue. This type of diagnostic insight is where smarter monitoring proves its value not only in data aggregation, but in exposing conditions that traditional monitoring cannot see.
Accurate field data and intelligent validation logic — a set of rules, checks, and automated decision-making processes that goes beyond basic validation — also play a key role in properly diagnosing asset management issues. Earlier this year, NextWave partnered with the manager of a multi-site commercial portfolio who found their previous monitoring provider was delivering consistent but misleading performance data. Over time, the system’s irradiance sensors drifted slightly, skewing performance ratios and masking underperforming strings.
By upgrading the system’s hardware and software, we were able to introduce localized reference sensors and automated cross-checks between inverter and weather station data. Within weeks, the analytics engine identified two arrays with abnormal string mismatch — an unexpected difference in electrical output between PV strings that can indicate early-stage issues like hot spots — and degraded diodes, which can reduce a module’s lifespan. By addressing these issues, the asset owner recovered roughly 4% of the asset’s annual energy output, and the recalibrated sensors ensured more reliable benchmarking across all sites. This type of detailed, accurate data is what distinguishes smarter monitoring systems built by engineers from those built for presentation.
The need for solar monitoring partnership
NextWave Energy Monitoring
Solar developers and owners do not just need more data — they need better collaboration with monitoring providers. Solar energy monitoring should never be a one-time purchase but, rather, an ongoing partnership between asset owners and monitoring providers, where insights lead to measurable improvement and everyone sees the same truth about performance. A partner who understands hardware, analytics, and operations can guide all stakeholders toward the same goal, from meeting accelerated tax incentive deadlines to maximizing the lifecycle value of an asset.
The urgency comes from what is happening in real time. Developers are racing to meet construction deadlines. Investors are demanding better performance verification. And owners who once depended on incentive margins are now relying on operational discipline to stay profitable. In this context, monitoring is no longer a tool for compliance; it is a foundation for reliable long-term performance.
The solar industry is again at an inflection point. Policy shifts, component volatility and new hybrid assets are reshaping how projects are developed and operated. Those who invest in smarter monitoring systems and view their provider as a strategic partner rather than a technical requirement will lead the next wave of solar industry growth.
