3 Reasons Massachusetts is a Great Place to Sell Solar Thermal and How to Start Doing it Why? A few reasons: I’d argue too many people are looking at solar pv and it’s becoming more competitive. Just look at how many solar pv installers there are in Massachusetts, there’s around 50. This number is increasing as more… Continue reading “3 Reasons Massachusetts is a Great Place to Sell Solar Thermal and How to Start Doing it”
How the Shift from Early Adopters to the Mass Market Impacts your Solar Marketing Efforts What strikes me most about renewable energy websites is how much companies tend to to talk about themselves and the technology and not about what the customer actually cares about. Actually, let me rephrase this, what “mainstream customers” care about.… Continue reading “How the Shift from Early Adopters to the Mass Market Impacts your Solar Marketing Efforts”
[Photos] How to Frame a Super Insulated Home There has been a lot of hoop-la and craziness around passive homes, net zero energy homes, and super energy efficient homes. I’ve been amazed at how easy it can actually be. My friend is building a house that will burn… Continue reading “[Photos] How to Frame a Super Insulated Home”
How to Select the Most Profitable Projects (and clients) for Your Business In the last post, we discussed “the sales equation” that every solar company should maximize. As a reminder, here is the equation (Note, for this article the questions are applicable to both solar and geothermal companies): “The Sales Equation” =… Continue reading “How to Select the Most Profitable Projects (and clients) for Your Business”
Answer 3 Questions to Make your Small Business a Solar Sales Machine The most important element of a profitable solar company is maximizing what I am referring to as “the sales equation”. In this article, I want to share specifically what the sales equation is, and what questions you can ask to… Continue reading “Answer 3 Questions to Make your Small Business a Solar Sales Machine”
Lessons Learned from Selling a Solar Company to SunEdison Now that hard installation costs are dropping rapidly in the solar pv industry, everyone’s looking at how to decrease soft costs. Across the board support for decreasing solar’s soft costs is the result of how well organized the industry is… Continue reading “Lessons Learned from Selling a Solar Company to SunEdison”
Solar Shingles Are Available – Does Anyone Care? I remember many years ago, there was a lot of emphasis and news around solar shingles. Why? Because 3 or 4 years ago many people thought that the look of solar photovoltaic modules would hinder adoption and the whole industry… Continue reading “Solar Shingles Are Available – Does Anyone Care?”
The Battle to Reduce Solar’s “Soft Costs” is Starting and How it Can Increase Your Solar Company’s Profits The solar industry is going through massive change. Module and balance and systems prices are dropping quickly, there has been an influx of new products, financing is becoming commoditized and the solar supply chain is shifting rapidly. The results of… Continue reading “The Battle to Reduce Solar’s “Soft Costs” is Starting and How it Can Increase Your Solar Company’s Profits”
Let’s be Honest, This is Not a Solar Trade War with China As recent news of a “solar trade war” has emerged, I’ve searched for words to convey my opinion on the situation. From the point of a solar installer and the whole industry for that matter, one thing is clear. Lower prices… Continue reading “Let’s be Honest, This is Not a Solar Trade War with China”
IGSHPA Installer Accreditation Versus Vertical Loop Installer (Driller) Accreditation In the past, we’ve written a few articles about what exactly the IGSHPA accreditation is, if it’s worthwhile, and when contractors should get it. The International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) now has a separate program for drillers, called “Vertical… Continue reading “IGSHPA Installer Accreditation Versus Vertical Loop Installer (Driller) Accreditation”
Renewable Energy is Making the Trades Sexy Again Although I went to Babson College, a relatively conservative business school, I grew up in rural Maine working on farms and doing carpentry. I find huge value in craftsmanship and hard work and its why guys like Gerry Wagner are… Continue reading “Renewable Energy is Making the Trades Sexy Again”
A Couple DIY Solar Thermal Ideas For You I didn’t go to engineering school, but I love engineering and prototyping. I love thinking about systems, how to maximize output (or whatever your goal is) depending on the constraints whether it be space, time, or money. From concept, to design,… Continue reading “A Couple DIY Solar Thermal Ideas For You”
The Best Sales Tool For Small Renewable Energy Companies I’m in the search for the best sales tool to sell solar pv, solar thermal and geothermal. I am building a renewable energy company, and I’m focused on building the most profitable company I can. We’re a small company, we haven’t… Continue reading “The Best Sales Tool For Small Renewable Energy Companies”
HS TV Ep 4: Renewable Energy Politics. A Conversation with Stephen Lacey Politics is hugely important to the renewable energy industry. Above all else, our industry needs stable policy. Being a small businesses, it’s hard to keep up on the very industry-specific policies, even though these policies are very important for your… Continue reading “HS TV Ep 4: Renewable Energy Politics. A Conversation with Stephen Lacey”
The Entrepreneur vs General Contractor. Who Will Win the Clean Energy Race? There’s an interesting split in the residential and light commercial clean energy space lately. As consumer demand is surging and some “old” solar pv players are moving to bigger projects (Nexamp no longer does residential and is installing 4.5 MW… Continue reading “The Entrepreneur vs General Contractor. Who Will Win the Clean Energy Race?”
Solar Financing Options and the Benefits of Each The residential, commercial and utility scale solar financing markets are different and have their own dynamics. If you’re really interested in learn more about financing commercial solar PV projects, I have three resources for you. Click here to sign up… Continue reading “Solar Financing Options and the Benefits of Each”
How to Use Lean Startup Methods in Renewable Energy to Increase Profits In the last few posts I’ve written about the process of expanding an existing construction company into renewable energy business and the single thing our marketing planwill focus on. If you’re new to the solar industry, go to the Solar 101… Continue reading “How to Use Lean Startup Methods in Renewable Energy to Increase Profits”
How to Create a Solar PPA Today the US solar market is booming–67% growth in 2010, according to SEIAs 2010 Solar Market Trends Report–easily the fastest growing industry in the US. In the US Solar photovoltaic market, there are largely two main obstacles to growth. The… Continue reading “How to Create a Solar PPA”
HS TV Ep 3. How to Study for the NABCEP Certification HeatSpring TV is coming along nicely. We’re planning on having a combination of interviews and conversations with other industry experts, myself presenting news stories and how it affect contractors, or Brian and I discussing a specific topic. In this episode,… Continue reading “HS TV Ep 3. How to Study for the NABCEP Certification”
What is an SREC? [HS TV Ep. 2] In the past, we’ve written on the basics of SRECs but I wanted to get a more in-depth perspective on what an SREC is, how the markets are developed and are different from each other and how the SREC market… Continue reading “What is an SREC? [HS TV Ep. 2]”