There are more and more companies specializing in the PV business but I cannot find a documented tag for those nor a topic here in the forum dealing with this issue. I am not talking about companies manufacturing photovoltaic panels nor about shops selling photovoltaic miniplants for your balcony.
My issue are small to midsize companies selling, installing and servicing PV plants to private or business customers. Sometimes this goes together with other crafts like electrical works or heating installation but here I am looking at companies offering this as their core business.
Taginfo has
24 shop=solar_*
3 company=solar_*
7 craft=photovoltaic
and a couple of craft=solar_*
I would understand this business more as a craft than a shop and I would definitely prefer photovoltaic instead of solar because the latter does not specify if the subject is solar generated electric power or solar generated hot water.
That is why my own choice would be craft=photovoltaic if there are no objections or better proposals.
To me shop=photovoltaic implies that they sell the equipment without (necessarily) offering installation.
Using office=company and company=photovoltaic_installation in combination with craft=photovoltaic_installation seems like it could work. I’m not a fan of lumping all skilled labour under the craft key, but it seems to be the way we’ve standardised.
To me craft=photovoltaic does imply that they make the panels themselves, but with the way craft encapsulates all trades in OSM others might not read it the same way as me.
Same to me - a shop would be a place where you could go to buy a couple of panels to install them yourself.
There is definitely some overlapping of the meaning of “trade” and “craft”, but considering the use of “craft” in OSM the scope of work the photovoltaic companies offer is clearly a craft to me.
The combination of office=company + company=* does not make much sense to me to I am definitely not using that one.