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”
Learn Financial Modeling to Win Your Next Renewable Energy Job Learning how to build a financial model to develop large renewable energy projects is hard. Details matter. Getting one number wrong can cost millions of dollars. That’s why learning how to develop a financial model is such a valuable skill.… Continue reading “Learn Financial Modeling to Win Your Next Renewable Energy Job”
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”
Where are the Best Opportunities for Solar + Storage? We’re excited to announce a new free class, developed in partnership with Energy Toolbase: “Optimizing the Economics of C&I Solar + Storage Projects in California“. It’s worth paying attention because the presentation is packed with useful data you won’t find… Continue reading “Where are the Best Opportunities for Solar + Storage?”
The Duck Curve: One Picture Explains the Rise of Solar + Storage Kerim Baran teaches our new “Solar Entrepreneurship” course. Last week we had our first live, interactive lecture. It was lightly attended, fun, and I learned something really interesting: The Duck Curve. Here’s how Kerim explains The Duck Curve: Net metering… Continue reading “The Duck Curve: One Picture Explains the Rise of Solar + Storage”
Industry Growth Creates Opportunities for Solar Entrepreneurs Ever think about starting a solar business? The solar industry is growing and creating a lot of jobs. Some of those jobs will be at new firms – startups – founded by people like you. Smart people who see a… Continue reading “Industry Growth Creates Opportunities for Solar Entrepreneurs”
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”
Marc Shackelford-Rowell Awarded Genius Grant for Speeding Up Solar Permits in Philadelphia Please join us in congratulating Marc Shackelford-Rowell, the third Genius Grant award recipient for 2021. Marc identified a problem when he joined the solar industry – the residential permitting process takes too long. So what did Marc do? He helped… Continue reading “Marc Shackelford-Rowell Awarded Genius Grant for Speeding Up Solar Permits in Philadelphia”
Basic CAD Training – Where Should a New Solar Designer Start? My job is to help growing solar companies manage their training program. It’s the best. But I don’t teach the classes, so I rely on smart people like Sean White to answer technical questions. Here’s a question I get a… Continue reading “Basic CAD Training – Where Should a New Solar Designer Start?”
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”
What Happened in Texas? February 2021 Power Outages At its highest level, electric power elevates us in so many ways. It helps us build our awareness of local and global events, understand the experiences and perspectives of others, and collaborate with others to enact change. It is a… Continue reading “What Happened in Texas? February 2021 Power Outages”
HeatSpring is the Official PVA Training Provider at the 2021 NABCEP CE Conference We’re trying something new in 2021. Why not? We’ve been named the official PVA training provider for the 2021 NABCEP CE Conference. If you’re interested in live training at one of the best solar industry events – you can learn… Continue reading “HeatSpring is the Official PVA Training Provider at the 2021 NABCEP CE Conference”
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”
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”
Learning How to Safely Fly Drones In February 2015, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a list of proposed regulations that paved the way for small drones (or “unmanned aircraft systems”) to enter mainstream civil aviation. The regulations came after many close calls or accidents involving… Continue reading “Learning How to Safely Fly Drones”