5:48 Batteries are more efficient, the price of solar panels has plummeted, and solar customers are no longer restricted to the liberal crowd concerned about their carbon footprint. “We can sell it to essentially both sides of the aisle,” says Ian Olmsted, president of Peninsula Solar. For Olmsted, it’s obvious why there’s so much interest in the technology. “Basically it comes down to price. I mean, you can be sending your kid to college for what you are paying electric rates in the U.P. for,” he says. Yet despite all the potential for residential solar in Michigan, there’s a huge cloud hanging over the industry. Olmsted says state policy is crippling expansion — especially in the Upper Peninsula.