Celebrating Top Solar Companies: Mayfield Renewables In the solar industry, technical expertise and education often live in separate worlds. Engineering firms focus on design, while training organizations handle workforce development. Mayfield Renewables has grown and evolved into something different: a company where engineering excellence and education… Continue reading “Celebrating Top Solar Companies: Mayfield Renewables”
Why Just Adding Batteries Won’t Solve Your Interconnection Problems When a solar project gets denied interconnection approval due to grid constraints, the natural impulse is to find a workaround. Can’t export to the grid? Can’t you just add batteries and keep everything on-site? If you’re not sending power back… Continue reading “Why Just Adding Batteries Won’t Solve Your Interconnection Problems “
What is the 120% “Rule” in Solar PV Design? If you’ve spent any time learning about solar PV systems, you’ve probably heard someone mention the 120% “rule.” It turns out that it’s not actually a rule at all. It’s one of several options for connecting solar to the utility… Continue reading “What is the 120% “Rule” in Solar PV Design?”
Join This Month’s Free PRO Circle: Learn Interconnection Strategy with Vaughan Woodruff Here’s something we don’t do often: This February’s PRO Circle is open to everyone – not just PRO subscribers. We’re sitting down with Vaughan Woodruff, principal of EquinoxDG and one of the nation’s leading voices on distributed energy resource interconnection.… Continue reading “Join This Month’s Free PRO Circle: Learn Interconnection Strategy with Vaughan Woodruff”
How Tax Credit Deadlines Are Overwhelming Utility Interconnection Queues The Inflation Reduction Act’s tax credits were designed to accelerate clean energy deployment. With tax credits prematurely winding down, solar professionals are having to juggle multiple critical timelines with their projects. That’s because the customer tax credit eligibility doesn’t just… Continue reading “How Tax Credit Deadlines Are Overwhelming Utility Interconnection Queues”
We’re Hiring! – Course Developer & Lead Instructor We’re building HeatSpring CORE and we need the right educator to lead it. HeatSpring has spent years creating best-in-class training for solar professionals, building performance experts, and clean energy specialists. Now we’re expanding that mission to welcome people at the… Continue reading “We’re Hiring! – Course Developer & Lead Instructor”
How Solar Companies Can Get Ahead of Interconnection Challenges Across the country, many solar companies are following the same pattern. They build their interconnection processes around current conditions, assuming approvals will keep flowing seamlessly. The challenges start when saturation hits their local circuits and delays start to become more… Continue reading “How Solar Companies Can Get Ahead of Interconnection Challenges”
Practical Advice for Adding Energy Storage to Your Solar Business The transition from solar-only to solar plus storage doesn’t require a complete business overhaul, but it does require sound strategy. HeatSpring instructor Wes Kennedy shares actionable advice for solar companies ready to integrate more energy storage: how to identify markets… Continue reading “Practical Advice for Adding Energy Storage to Your Solar Business”
Common Misconceptions About Interconnection When interconnection problems arise, it’s easy to assume the utility is the villain by actively blocking clean energy projects or acting in bad faith. In some instances, that can be true. It turns out the reality is far more complex… Continue reading “Common Misconceptions About Interconnection”
Can Residential Solar Companies Make Money Doing Energy Audits? When solar companies consider adding energy audits into their service offering, one question always comes up: can you actually make money doing them? In this clip from HeatSpring PRO Circles, building performance expert and “Avoiding Main Panel Upgrades” instructor Spencer… Continue reading “Can Residential Solar Companies Make Money Doing Energy Audits?”
The Gateway to Building Performance | How Solar Companies Can Diversify into New Revenue Streams For residential solar companies squeezed by declining margins and saturated markets, the path forward is clear: diversify. The fuzzy part for many is where to begin. In this clip from HeatSpring PRO Circles, building performance expert Spencer Rosen breaks down… Continue reading “The Gateway to Building Performance | How Solar Companies Can Diversify into New Revenue Streams”
Celebrating Top Solar Companies: Solar States Solar States has a clear mission: to become the on-ramp to the green collar economy for inner city Philadelphians. Founder Micah Gold-Markel grew up in West Philadelphia, where he saw skilled neighbors doing skilled work – replacing doors, windows, even… Continue reading “Celebrating Top Solar Companies: Solar States”
Why Solar Professionals Can’t Afford to Ignore Interconnection Anymore The assumption that solar projects submitted to utilities would automatically be approved used to be standard operating procedure in jurisdictions with established interconnection policies. Unfortunately, those days are over in many places. As solar deployment has accelerated, interconnection delays and… Continue reading “Why Solar Professionals Can’t Afford to Ignore Interconnection Anymore”
Meet Spencer Rosen – Instructor Spotlight Behind every HeatSpring course is an expert instructor – a seasoned professional who brings not just knowledge, but passion, real-world experience, and a commitment to helping others grow. While thousands of students benefit from their expertise through our online courses,… Continue reading “Meet Spencer Rosen – Instructor Spotlight”
HeatSpring CORE: A Universal First-Year Curriculum for Construction Trades HeatSpring CORE is a safety-centered alternative to NCCER CORE. We’ve been thinking about this for a long time and it’s kind of a big deal. If your company uses or has considered NCCER curriculum in the past, give HeatSpring CORE… Continue reading “HeatSpring CORE: A Universal First-Year Curriculum for Construction Trades”
Why DC-Coupled Solar Plus Storage Is Finally Ready to Take Off For years, DC-coupling was the way off-grid systems worked. Then AC-coupling took over. Now, interconnection bottlenecks and new tax incentives are bringing DC-coupling back – this time at commercial scale. HeatSpring instructor Wes Kennedy walks through the economics and engineering:… Continue reading “Why DC-Coupled Solar Plus Storage Is Finally Ready to Take Off”
What is Combustion Safety Testing? When building performance professionals seal air leaks and improve insulation, they’re fundamentally changing how air moves through a building. This can have serious consequences for fuel-burning appliances like furnaces, water heaters, and gas stoves. That’s where combustion safety testing plays… Continue reading “What is Combustion Safety Testing?”
3 Ways to Get Cleaner Indoor Air With Filtration So you want to have better indoor air quality at home but you aren’t sure what to do. If you follow my articles, you know you shouldn’t buy an electronic air cleaner. Instead you should stick with the tried-and-true methods of source… Continue reading “3 Ways to Get Cleaner Indoor Air With Filtration”
Your Guide to Making the Most of HeatSpring Assessments You’ve enrolled in a HeatSpring course to build your expertise – in solar, building science, energy storage systems, or another area. It’s important to remember that the video lessons are just a part of your learning journey. HeatSpring courses now… Continue reading “Your Guide to Making the Most of HeatSpring Assessments”
The Difference Between Load-Side & Supply-Side Connections: Sean White Explains The distinction between load-side and supply-side connections is fundamental to solar and energy storage installations, yet the terminology keeps evolving, and the common terms don’t always match what’s actually in the code. In the video below, HeatSpring instructor Sean White… Continue reading “The Difference Between Load-Side & Supply-Side Connections: Sean White Explains”