Filling the Solar Worker Gap with Flexible, Employee-Friendly Training Programs To address climate change, local governments are moving toward electrification, embracing solar energy, heat pumps, energy storage and electric vehicles. But there aren’t enough people to fill the positions needed to transition to electrification. In addition, solar and other renewable… Continue reading “Filling the Solar Worker Gap with Flexible, Employee-Friendly Training Programs”
Three Trends in Solar That Can Boost Income for Solar Industry Members With wildfires increasing, along with solar mandates, power shortages and power outages, new trends in solar are emerging. In fact, the top three trends in solar in 2022 will be power purchase agreements (PPA) that include storage, car companies’ embracing… Continue reading “Three Trends in Solar That Can Boost Income for Solar Industry Members”
How Drones Can Speed the Growth of Solar Energy With a drone and software, solar industry members can reduce the time, costs and errors associated with designing solar systems. And, as the industry learns more about the benefits of drones, the technology will help move solar energy forward, says… Continue reading “How Drones Can Speed the Growth of Solar Energy”
Providing Much-Needed Information About the Solar and Storage Industry For HeatSpring instructor Justine Sanchez, the energy storage system explosion at Arizona Public Service in 2019 was an eye opener.As a result of the explosion, nine first responders were hospitalized. “For me, this was a real wake-up call about the… Continue reading “Providing Much-Needed Information About the Solar and Storage Industry”
An Insider’s Guide to the NABCEP Conference Aug 9-12 You can take a beginning PV course live from HeatSpring instructor Sean White, network with solar industry professionals, check out industry members’ exhibits and get your continuing education credits at the NABCEP (North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners) Continuing… Continue reading “An Insider’s Guide to the NABCEP Conference Aug 9-12”
For Potential Solar Entrepreneurs, These Opportunities Await The U.S. has 1 million untapped solar entrepreneurs, says Kerim Baran, instructor of HeatSpring’s Solar Entrepreneurship course. Right now, the U.S. has about 10,000 active solar installers and 1 million electricians. Many of these electricians aren’t aware that they can… Continue reading “For Potential Solar Entrepreneurs, These Opportunities Await”
How Can Fast-Moving Solar Companies Adjust to Growth? It’s no secret the solar industry is growing quickly. In fact, 2020 set records for the industry. The fourth quarter exceeded the quarterly records set in fourth quarter 2016 by 22%, and the year ended with 19.2 GW installed, 43%… Continue reading “How Can Fast-Moving Solar Companies Adjust to Growth?”
Climate Change and COVID Crisis Boost Interest in Ventilation The Covid-19 crisis and climate change are boosting interest in ventilation and in training that helps people calculate the amount of ventilation needed in a home or building, says HeatSpring instructor Rick Karg. Karg, who teaches ASHRAE 62.2 Ventilation for… Continue reading “Climate Change and COVID Crisis Boost Interest in Ventilation”
With a Mission of Boosting Solar + Storage, Chris Brown Makes his Mark In the 1990s, when Chris Brown was in high school, concerns about global warming sparked his interest in renewable energy. He knew that climate disasters were in his future. “And I was convinced that it was inevitable that we’d deplete… Continue reading “With a Mission of Boosting Solar + Storage, Chris Brown Makes his Mark”
Understanding Solar Project Finance Risks In an ideal world, solar developers would find an appropriate site for solar, the local utility would offer low interconnection costs, the investor would receive a reasonable financial return and the surrounding community would welcome the project. This would make… Continue reading “Understanding Solar Project Finance Risks”
Why This Long-Time Solar Advocate is Having So Much Fun “We are at the leapfrog stage in renewable energy. This is a paradigm shift. This is the answer, the holy grail,” says Christopher LaForge, co-instructor of two new courses from Heatspring, Utility Scale Commercial & Industrial Storage 101 and Utility… Continue reading “Why This Long-Time Solar Advocate is Having So Much Fun”
Humbly Making an Impact on the Geothermal Industry HeatSpring instructor Ryan Carda doesn’t like to brag about the positive impact he’s had on the geothermal industry. But Brian Hayden, co-founder of HeatSpring, is happy to sing Carda’s praise. “Ryan is the ultimate teacher because he’s so smart and… Continue reading “Humbly Making an Impact on the Geothermal Industry”
Justine Sanchez is Passionate About Moving the Solar Industry Forward Justine Sanchez, lead instructor for “NEC 2017 & 2020 Solar + Storage Requirements“, has installed solar electric systems, served as an editor for Home Power Magazine, worked as a PV technical trainer for Solar Energy International (SEI) and served as… Continue reading “Justine Sanchez is Passionate About Moving the Solar Industry Forward”
Evaluating the Financial Returns of Energy Storage A number of factors now contribute to changes that allow storage to reap returns for owners and operators, says Wes Kennedy, instructor of HeatSpring’s Comprehensive Solar Plus Storage course. “Storage makes money with demand charge management, time of use arbitrage… Continue reading “Evaluating the Financial Returns of Energy Storage”
How to Get into the Renewable Energy Industry Jack Bishop of Portland, Oregon recently graduated from Tulane University with hopes of entering the renewable energy industry and doing his part to address environmental challenges. While he had taken numerous courses related to the industry, he didn’t know where… Continue reading “How to Get into the Renewable Energy Industry”
Storing Embodied Carbon in Buildings to Address Climate Change More and more, green builders and architects are looking to reduce embodied carbon, and when possible, store it in buildings, says Marc Rosenbaum, instructor of HeatSpring’s Zero Net Energy Buildings course. “We’re changing our view from net zero energy buildings… Continue reading “Storing Embodied Carbon in Buildings to Address Climate Change”
Students Demonstrate the Promise of Drone Training for Solar Applications During his Monday evening “fireside chats” with students and graduates, Keven Gambold, instructor of HeatSpring’s Drone Pilot Boot Camp gets excited when he hears what students are doing in the field. In the course, which launched about a year ago,… Continue reading “Students Demonstrate the Promise of Drone Training for Solar Applications”
How to Complete the Deal by Keeping Solar Financing Simple Developers of small to mid-sized commercial and industrial projects, those under 300 or 400 kW, are often tempted to think about power purchase agreements (PPA) and partnership flips as the one-size-fits-all financing solution for solar projects, says Christopher Lord, instructor… Continue reading “How to Complete the Deal by Keeping Solar Financing Simple”
Solar ITC Extended, Huge Public Market Investment in Solar: What it Means for 2021 The solar industry’s year ended with good news for 2021, and other positive headlines may be coming. Not only did the industry see high public market investment in 2020. The solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) was extended. “The solar industry… Continue reading “Solar ITC Extended, Huge Public Market Investment in Solar: What it Means for 2021”
How to Boost Your Income in the Solar Industry During the COVID-19 Crisis “Get educated and work from home during COVID,” says Sean White, instructor of HeatSpring’s 30-Hour NABCEP Advanced PV Certification Training and CEUs. With HeatSpring’s courses, solar installers can get off the roof and start working from home, says White, the… Continue reading “How to Boost Your Income in the Solar Industry During the COVID-19 Crisis”