Energy Storage Basics: Sean White’s New Book Instructor Sean White just published his latest book, “Energy Storage Basics” on Amazon. Sean has written other books, but it’s still a big deal and we want to congratulate him on this latest release. We asked Sean why he wrote… Continue reading “Energy Storage Basics: Sean White’s New Book”
Protecting Firefighters and Solar Homes with Rapid Shutdown During Wildfire Season When Sean White meets firefighters, he often asks what they do if they encounter solar homes during wildfires. Do they rush to protect the homes? In the past, the answer was no, says White, instructor of HeatSpring’s 40-Hour NABCEP Advanced… Continue reading “Protecting Firefighters and Solar Homes with Rapid Shutdown During Wildfire Season”
New Standards Aim to Ensure Storage is Safe But Fail to Distinguish Among Battery Chemistries A lithium-ion battery in a container near Phoenix owned by Arizona Public Service (APS) caught fire in April 2019, then other batteries in the container caught fire, releasing explosive gas and sparking an explosion that hurt several first responders. Such… Continue reading “New Standards Aim to Ensure Storage is Safe But Fail to Distinguish Among Battery Chemistries”
Load Modeling Tool Helps Users Decide How to Best Use Solar, Storage & Controls To make the most effective use of solar, it’s critical to know when and how a customer is using power–and see if there’s a match between load and solar availability. While this seems like a simple idea, using a load… Continue reading “Load Modeling Tool Helps Users Decide How to Best Use Solar, Storage & Controls”
The Quiet Revolution: Solar-Plus-Storage Gains Ground In some parts of the country, the costs of solar-plus-storage are beating grid prices, which is good news for the solar industry and the environment. For example, in Nevada, regulators in 2019 approved three solar-plus-storage power purchase agreements (PPA) for… Continue reading “The Quiet Revolution: Solar-Plus-Storage Gains Ground”
Energy Storage Could be a Gold Mine for Utility Customers. What’s Holding it Back? Solar-plus-storage can be a gold mine for residential, commercial and industrial utility customers, says Christopher LaForge, co-instructor of HeatSpring’s 35-Hour NABCEP Advanced Solar Plus Storage: Proposals and Planning course. But right now, the customers face obstruction from utilities that are… Continue reading “Energy Storage Could be a Gold Mine for Utility Customers. What’s Holding it Back?”
Now Open: Live Online Proctoring for all NABCEP Board Certification Exams NABCEP has just announced that all candidates may now schedule to take all NABCEP PV Board Certification and PV Associate credentialing exams through live online proctoring (LOP). You may now schedule to take an exam from your own home! The… Continue reading “Now Open: Live Online Proctoring for all NABCEP Board Certification Exams”
New Free Course: Why Solar Plus Storage? Why is everyone talking about solar-plus-storage as a business opportunity? Expert instructors Chris LaForge and Chris Brown discuss the importance of solar-plus-storage, why it makes sense as a business case and why it is needed NOW. In our new free… Continue reading “New Free Course: Why Solar Plus Storage?”
Help Choose the Solar District Cup 2020 Industry Choice Winner We are excited to invite all HeatSpring students, instructors, and members of our community to participate in the selection of the Industry Choice winner of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar District Cup 2020 Competition Event on Monday April 27th from… Continue reading “Help Choose the Solar District Cup 2020 Industry Choice Winner”
NABCEP to Offer Online Certification Exams Update 6/16/2020: Live Online Proctoring is now available for all NABCEP Board Certification and Associate credentialing exams. Due to concerns about the COVID-19 emergency, NABCEP has decided to offer all Board Certification and Associate level exams through live online proctoring (LOP).… Continue reading “NABCEP to Offer Online Certification Exams”
Not All Lithium Ion is the Same in Energy Storage Systems Not all lithium ion is the same in the batteries that make up energy storage systems, says Wes Kennedy, instructor of HeatSpring’s Comprehensive Solar Plus Storage course. “Chemistry matters,” he says. “Lithium ion is a huge catch-all term for about… Continue reading “Not All Lithium Ion is the Same in Energy Storage Systems”
Solar Plus Storage is Creating Islands of Resiliency in Communities and Businesses A large portion of Puerto Rico was blacked out after earthquakes in early January, but solar plus storage systems helped keep power flowing in many schools that served as community shelters. Wes Kennedy, instructor of HeatSpring’s Comprehensive Solar Plus Storage… Continue reading “Solar Plus Storage is Creating Islands of Resiliency in Communities and Businesses”
Coming Soon: Ordering Modular Energy Storage to Meet Electricity Demand When Guests Visit In the near future, energy storage will be modular, and you’ll be able to order or rent energy storage modules when your electricity needs increase, if you have guests, for example. You’ll likely pair the battery storage with solar PV… Continue reading “Coming Soon: Ordering Modular Energy Storage to Meet Electricity Demand When Guests Visit”
Adopting the “Minnesota Nice” Model to Collaborate with Utilities for a Win-Win Over Solar-Plus-Storage Utilities often try to stop or slow solar-plus-storage projects at the Public Utility Commissions, says Christopher LaForge, instructor of HeatSpring’s Comprehensive Solar Plus Storage course. In one such effort, We Energies, Wisconsin’s largest utility, increased its fee for connecting to… Continue reading “Adopting the “Minnesota Nice” Model to Collaborate with Utilities for a Win-Win Over Solar-Plus-Storage”
HeatSpring is the Official Training Platform Provider for DOE Solar District Cup 2020 HeatSpring for Groups is proud to announce we are working with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office to provide our industry leading professional training content and educational platform to the participants of the U.S. Department of… Continue reading “HeatSpring is the Official Training Platform Provider for DOE Solar District Cup 2020”
New NABCEP Recertification Requirements Now In Effect NABCEP’s new recertification requirements totaling 30 hours of CEU credits and updated industry involvement requirements have officially taken effect. NABCEP updated their requirements on January 1, 2019 but allowed for a 12 month transition period which has now expired. Visit… Continue reading “New NABCEP Recertification Requirements Now In Effect”
Interested in Offering Energy Storage? Demand is High, Prices Dropping California’s recent public safety power shutoffs have sparked a sometimes desperate demand for batteries from utility customers who want backup power. That has helped lower battery prices, making them more affordable for homeowners and businesses, says Sean White, instructor for… Continue reading “Interested in Offering Energy Storage? Demand is High, Prices Dropping”
3 Step Tool: Find your NABCEP CEU Requirements and Training Hours Are you a NABCEP Certified professional? I am excited to introduce a new tool to help you sort through NABCEP’s new requirements for recertification continuing education (CEU hours), then see your course options to fulfill those training requirements. 3 Step… Continue reading “3 Step Tool: Find your NABCEP CEU Requirements and Training Hours”
Maximum power from a little known micro-inverter company. If you’re like me, you have a tendency to pass over good information, because you become so busy. Everything becomes urgent and nothing becomes important. Crisis management is the trend, but what if that can change? As it relates to… Continue reading “Maximum power from a little known micro-inverter company.”
Free 2020 NEC Training for Solar PV The 2020 NEC has just been released and you should know all about it! Our new course Photovoltaics and the 2020 National Electric Code (NEC) will be FREE for the rest of the year. Bill Brooks and Sean White published the… Continue reading “Free 2020 NEC Training for Solar PV”