New Free Course: Solar Development on Brownfields & Landfills In the past few years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified over 80,000 brownfields and municipal solid waste landfills across the country that could be used for renewable energy facilities. There are many benefits to reusing contaminated land for renewable energy, such… Continue reading “New Free Course: Solar Development on Brownfields & Landfills”
HeatSpring Alumni Spotlight: Flying Drones with Ian Ian Ricci enrolled in the HeatSpring Drone Pilot Boot Camp in 2020. He is the Co-Founder and COO/CTO at SolBid, where he uses his flying skills and commercial drone pilot license to do everything from initial site inspections to showing… Continue reading “HeatSpring Alumni Spotlight: Flying Drones with Ian”
Ask an Expert: What Are Some of the Top Ways to Bring New Clients into Your Solar Business? In the Ask an Expert series, HeatSpring instructors and industry thought leaders answer a question on the minds of the HeatSpring community. We are joined by Keith Cronin, instructor of the Solar Business Masterclass, the Solar Executive MBA, and more.… Continue reading “Ask an Expert: What Are Some of the Top Ways to Bring New Clients into Your Solar Business?”
Ask an Expert: What is the Biggest Opportunity for Solar Entrepreneurs? In the Ask an Expert series, HeatSpring instructors and industry thought leaders answer a question on the minds of the HeatSpring community. This session, we are joined by Kerim Baran, instructor for the Solar Entrepreneurship course. He answers the question – what is the… Continue reading “Ask an Expert: What is the Biggest Opportunity for Solar Entrepreneurs?”
Gain a Broad Perspective of Solar Development to Advance Your Career Learning the solar development process through HeatSpring’s Solar Executive MBA can help you accelerate growth in your career. Working within a given role at a company can only provide you with so much perspective. It can be challenging to continue… Continue reading “Gain a Broad Perspective of Solar Development to Advance Your Career”
Ask an Expert: If someone wants to build their own solar company, what teams should they assemble? In the Ask an Expert series, HeatSpring instructors and industry thought leaders answer a single question on the minds of the HeatSpring community. We are joined by Brian Hayden, Co-Founder of HeatSpring and Co-Instructor of the Solar Entrepreneurship course. Brian… Continue reading “Ask an Expert: If someone wants to build their own solar company, what teams should they assemble?”
Three Solar Startups You Should Know The reason that Kerim Baran is my co-instructor for the Solar Entrepreneurship class – the reason that I always come to him with solar startup questions – is because he did it. He started a business in the solar industry.… Continue reading “Three Solar Startups You Should Know”
Ask an Expert: What are Some Challenges of Adding More Distributed Energy to the Grid? In the Ask an Expert series, HeatSpring instructors and industry thought leaders answer a question on the minds of the HeatSpring community. This session, we are joined by Chris Brown and Chris LaForge, instructors of the Utility Scale Commercial &… Continue reading “Ask an Expert: What are Some Challenges of Adding More Distributed Energy to the Grid?”
Ask an Expert: What are 3 things a solar business could improve upon to see higher revenue? In the Ask an Expert series, HeatSpring instructors and industry thought leaders answer a question on the minds of the HeatSpring community. We are joined by Keith Cronin, instructor of the Solar Business Masterclass. Keith answers the question – what… Continue reading “Ask an Expert: What are 3 things a solar business could improve upon to see higher revenue?”
Be Worth the Wait Let me guess – You’re booked out months. The phone rings steadily, and you’re turning people away because you can’t come out until the spring or summer. One of my clients – a residential energy contractor in Oregon – turned… Continue reading “Be Worth the Wait”
Sharing Solar Developer Secrets for 10 Years: The Enduring Value of the Solar MBA The Solar Executive MBA launched in 2012 and there’s still nothing quite like it. I sat down with instructors Chris Lord and Keith Cronin to talk about the origins of the course and why it’s still such a unique course.… Continue reading “Sharing Solar Developer Secrets for 10 Years: The Enduring Value of the Solar MBA”
Design Considerations when Sizing Grid-tied Solar versus Off-grid Solar Appropriately sizing a customer’s solar system is imperative for happy clients. Correct sizing is even more critical with off-grid solar systems, as the utility grid is not available to use as a power source. Needlessly oversizing an off-grid system means… Continue reading “Design Considerations when Sizing Grid-tied Solar versus Off-grid Solar”
Agrivoltaics: a multi-faceted approach to climate change Climate change affects everyone and farmers are feeling the pressure now more than ever. Higher temperatures, dwindling water supplies, and a challenging economy are pushing farmers to explore new revenue streams and opportunities for their land. What is agrivoltaics? Local… Continue reading “Agrivoltaics: a multi-faceted approach to climate change”
Here’s the Financial Model Chris Lord Uses to Unlock MW Solar + Storage Projects Financial models get solar projects built. Financial models make deals happen. Financial models make owners, developers, EPCs and investors a lot of money. So the people who build financial models are valuable. Many people understand financial models from a high… Continue reading “Here’s the Financial Model Chris Lord Uses to Unlock MW Solar + Storage Projects”
How to get your NABCEP PV Technical Sales (PVTS) Certification The PV Technical Sales (PVTS) Board Certification was created for those who have a demonstrated knowledge and expertise in qualifying prospects, site analysis, performance analysis and financial incentives of PV systems. PVTS Board Certified Professionals can collect technical requirements, analyze… Continue reading “How to get your NABCEP PV Technical Sales (PVTS) Certification”
Learn Solar and Drones Together Ten years ago “solar plus drones” would have sounded like a made up thing from the future. But here we are. Today it’s an in-demand combo of skills that you can use to differentiate your career and your solar business.… Continue reading “Learn Solar and Drones Together”
Is Your Solar Company Built to Handle 100% Growth? What would it take to double the number of solar projects you do next year? Every solar company should be asking this question right now. Because the demand is there. We’ve arrived at an energy inflection point. Solar is the… Continue reading “Is Your Solar Company Built to Handle 100% Growth?”
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”
How Do We Get From 4% to 45%? Today the Biden administration released a plan to increase the amount of solar energy produced from 4% of total generation (where it is today) to 45% by 2050. That represents a lot of growth for the solar industry. What will… Continue reading “How Do We Get From 4% to 45%?”
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”