Businesses are Squeezing More Solar out of Their Property with These Two Trends More and more, businesses are looking for ways to squeeze more solar out of their available property, and have embraced two trends to do just that, says Ryan Mayfield, co-instructor of HeatSpring’s Megawatt Design course, which focuses on designing large… Continue reading “Businesses are Squeezing More Solar out of Their Property with These Two Trends”
PG&E’s Bankruptcy and Your Long-Term Business We all recently learned that the utility filed. This is because of the enormous liabilities it is going to incur, as a result of the fires that swept through California recently. From Warren Buffet’s Topaz solar farm (which went into… Continue reading “PG&E’s Bankruptcy and Your Long-Term Business”
Managing the Moving Targets of Getting a Solar Power Purchase Agreement Signed Getting a power purchase agreement (PPA) signed for a solar project requires juggling numerous tasks–all of them moving targets, says Chris Lord, instructor of HeatSpring’s Solar Executive MBA Training course. It’s not easy to maneuver through this process and rope… Continue reading “Managing the Moving Targets of Getting a Solar Power Purchase Agreement Signed”
Do Your Financial Modeling for Solar, and Keep Your Eye on What Qualifies for the ITC When you’re creating financial models for solar projects, it’s important to understand what qualifies for the solar investment tax credit (ITC), says Chris Lord, instructor of HeatSpring’s Financial Modeling for Solar PV course. And it’s also critical to begin your modeling… Continue reading “Do Your Financial Modeling for Solar, and Keep Your Eye on What Qualifies for the ITC”
Why 4 Out of 5 Solar Companies Don’t Advertise Often in the solar industry, the debate about advertising or not strikes a nerve. Many clients and people I know resist any sort of advertising as they believe it’s a waste of money and their time. They have good reason… Continue reading “Why 4 Out of 5 Solar Companies Don’t Advertise”
Why Did the Residential Solar-Plus-Storage Market Grow Tenfold Last Year? In some ways, homeowners’ romantic notions of being energy independent fueled the recent growth in residential solar-plus-storage, says Wes Kennedy, instructor of HeatSpring’s Comprehensive Solar-Plus-Storage course. The residential market was the fastest-moving market in solar-plus-storage, growing tenfold between 2017 and… Continue reading “Why Did the Residential Solar-Plus-Storage Market Grow Tenfold Last Year?”
Stacking, Microgrids, and Other Trends Moving the Solar-Plus-Storage Industry Early adopters of solar-plus-storage have their eye on “stacking” the benefits of storage, which would allow for storage owners to be compensated by utilities or regional transmission organizations for more than one benefit, says Wes Kennedy, instructor of HeatSpring’s Comprehensive… Continue reading “Stacking, Microgrids, and Other Trends Moving the Solar-Plus-Storage Industry”
The 7 Reasons Why Solar Projects Fail Solar development is hard today. 5 years ago, utilities were more interested in finding ways to get you interconnected. Building departments were less stringent on their requirements. Life was good in the solar space. Then it wasn’t. You’ve spent months… Continue reading “The 7 Reasons Why Solar Projects Fail”
3 Lessons I Learned From Collaboration It was early 2002 and the idea of a solar PPA was in its infancy. I got an email from a guy from BP Solar seeing if I was interested in buying some solar panels. His name was Jigar Shah.… Continue reading “3 Lessons I Learned From Collaboration”
The 3 Most Important Elements To The Solar MBA Course You want to take the Solar Executive MBA course. You want to learn more. You want to get ahead. But you’re unsure if this course is right for you. We understand and want to clarify a few things with you.… Continue reading “The 3 Most Important Elements To The Solar MBA Course”
How Google Quality Score Impacts Cost Per Lead in Solar Paid Search Campaigns In the last article, we did an in-depth analysis of 6 specific search ads for residential solar and we showed how the search engine ad itself can impact the eventual cost per lead, based on the click-through rate of the ad.… Continue reading “How Google Quality Score Impacts Cost Per Lead in Solar Paid Search Campaigns”
NABCEP PV Associate Course in Niagara Falls NY HeatSpring instructor Dr. Sean White will be teaching a NABCEP PV Associate Course at the upcoming NABCEP Continuing Education Conference in Niagara Falls, NY on March 19-22. This is a great opportunity to get your NABCEP PV Associate credential and… Continue reading “NABCEP PV Associate Course in Niagara Falls NY”
Studying for the Gold Standard NABCEP Exam with More Laughs, Less Caffeine and More Certification Options Sean White promises that studying for the NABCEP PV Installation Professional (PVIP) exam with his “40-hour Advanced Solar PV Training” course won’t be tedious or boring. “When I’m talking to the class, I try to make it like it’s in… Continue reading “Studying for the Gold Standard NABCEP Exam with More Laughs, Less Caffeine and More Certification Options”
Inspiring Others to Create Bigger, Impactful Solar Projects Randy Batchelor was inspired by a high school science teacher to follow a career path in engineering, and his passion for the environment led him to work in the solar industry. Now, as instructor of HeatSpring’s Megawatt Design course, along… Continue reading “Inspiring Others to Create Bigger, Impactful Solar Projects”
When, Where, and How Can I Take the NABCEP PV Installation Professional Certification Exam? As you may have heard, the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) has changed the options for taking their PV Installation Professional certification exam. In past years, the exam was offered twice a year (April and October) at… Continue reading “When, Where, and How Can I Take the NABCEP PV Installation Professional Certification Exam?”
Avoid These Mistakes When Developing Solar Projects It’s easy to make mistakes when developing solar projects—and just one goof can lead to other goofs, extra costs, and wasted time. That’s the word from Keith Cronin and Chris Lord, instructors for HeatSpring’s Solar Executive MBA Training course, which… Continue reading “Avoid These Mistakes When Developing Solar Projects”
Instructor Sean White: Solar Energy Author, Interpreter and Comedian Sean White, instructor of numerous HeatSpring courses, is a highly regarded expert who has worked with solar energy notables, authored popular books about solar PV and served on NAPCEP (North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners) exam committees. But what… Continue reading “Instructor Sean White: Solar Energy Author, Interpreter and Comedian”
Four Trends Shaping the Solar-Plus-Storage Market Until recently, consumers and businesses embraced solar-plus-storage because they either wanted a backup in the case of utility outages or desired to be off-grid, says Wes Kennedy, instructor of HeatSpring’s Comprehensive Solar-Plus-Storage course. But in recent years, all that has… Continue reading “Four Trends Shaping the Solar-Plus-Storage Market”
How to Design Solar-Plus-Storage Systems that are Cost-Effective and Safe When it comes to designing solar-plus-storage systems, small mistakes can be very costly, says Christopher LaForge, CEO of Great Northern Solar and an NABCEP-certified PV Installation Professional Emeritus. He should know. The instructor of HeatSpring’s “Designing PV Systems with Energy… Continue reading “How to Design Solar-Plus-Storage Systems that are Cost-Effective and Safe”
What Solar Installers Need to Know about the 2017 National Electric Code and its Big Changes for the Solar Industry An image of a solar PV system appears on the cover of the 2017 National Electrical Code (NEC)—and for good reason. “The 2017 NEC has more changes than any other version of the NEC since any of us have been… Continue reading “What Solar Installers Need to Know about the 2017 National Electric Code and its Big Changes for the Solar Industry”