sunalysisAbout
Michelle Propst, founder and principal analyst
Michelle Propst founded sunalysis llc to give solar asset owners, lenders, and investors independent performance analysis of utility-scale PV plants. She is an electrical engineer with more than 25 years in engineering and 15+ years analyzing PV system performance.
Career
- 2025 to present
Founder and principal analyst, sunalysis llc
Independent technical analysis of utility-scale PV plants.
- 2015 to 2025
Field applications engineering, a PV power-electronics company
Rose from field applications engineering manager to director of field applications engineering. Built and led a global team of 15 across 5 time zones in PV system design, deployment, commissioning, and ongoing performance analysis, and developed algorithms that detect the electrical signatures of PV system failure modes in operational data from a 2 GW+ installed base of utility-scale PV and PV+storage plants.
- 2012 to 2019
Founder and president, Pearl Laboratories
Built and ran a third-party PV performance and reliability testing facility, including a 400 kW outdoor test facility. Third-party testing and verification of PV modules, inverters, and other components; PVsyst modeling and verification; on-site performance audits and root cause analysis of underperforming installations, from rooftops to utility scale; accelerated life testing including light soak, potential-induced degradation (PID), and lock-in thermography.
- 2008 to 2012
Product characterization and performance engineer, Abound Solar
Developed characterization techniques for thin-film solar modules, evaluated lifetime degradation rates, and supported customers with energy-yield modeling and in-field testing of live systems.
- 1996 to 2008
Semiconductor engineering, Intel
Flash memory process technology development, designed experiments and statistical analysis to improve device performance, and reliability testing of failure mechanisms.
Patents and research
- US patent holder
- Has presented research at NREL PV reliability workshops and IEEE PVSC conferences
Skills
- PVsyst and SAM modeling
- IV curve analysis
- SCADA and data analytics
- Reliability testing
- Root cause analysis
How that shapes each engagement
Every sunalysis engagement draws on that mix of device physics, module testing, field debugging, and failure-mode detection from operational data: start from the plant’s own data, build an expected baseline, and isolate each loss.
Let’s get a pulse on your plant.
If your plant is underperforming or you need independent analysis, email sunalysis with your plant size and what’s going on.