What Commercial Solar Developers Need to Know about Yieldcos If you’d like to listen the interview, please scroll to the middle of the article. There’s been a huge amount of buzz about yieldcos and their potential impact on financing more commercial solar projects by providing cheaper capital. There have been… Continue reading “What Commercial Solar Developers Need to Know about Yieldcos”
How Massachusett’s Alternative Energy Credit Prices Will Impact Heat Pump and Biomass Operating Costs We passed the Massachusetts “Clean Heat Bill” in July 2014. The final bill number is S. 2214. The bill created a production-based incentive, similar to solar PV renewable energy credits (SRECs), for renewable thermal technologies including solar thermal, air source heat… Continue reading “How Massachusett’s Alternative Energy Credit Prices Will Impact Heat Pump and Biomass Operating Costs”
Community Solar 101 There’s been a lot of buzz about community solar lately. While the amount of investment in community solar projects is a fraction of the investment of the entire solar industry, there are a few leaders who recognize the incredible potential… Continue reading “Community Solar 101”
Understand the Key Grounding and Bonding Standards for Commercial Solar PV Projects in Less Than 30 Minutes What are the differences between grounding and bonding in solar design? What are the most recent codes? Where are the codes headed? What are some of the changes that have happened? What does it mean for you and your installations? In… Continue reading “Understand the Key Grounding and Bonding Standards for Commercial Solar PV Projects in Less Than 30 Minutes”
How to Handle Unknown Risk to Increase Solar Project Success Image: Universe of Issues, Risks, and Challenges This is a guest article from Chris Lord, Managing Director at CapIron, Inc. He’s a former lawyer with extensive banking experience who now consults with solar developers and investors. I’ve never met anyone… Continue reading “How to Handle Unknown Risk to Increase Solar Project Success”
Why Performance and Not Price Is the Most Important Factor In Finding an Investor or Buyer for Your Solar Projects Question or comments? If you’re a solar developer or investor and have a story to share that relates to this article or a question about the content, please leave it in the comment section below the article. This is a… Continue reading “Why Performance and Not Price Is the Most Important Factor In Finding an Investor or Buyer for Your Solar Projects”
AC Coupling – How to Cost Effectively Add Battery Back-up to Existing Grid-Tied Solar PV systems This is a guest article by Chris LaForge. Chris is teaching an in-depth 6-week technical training on designing battery based solar PV systems that starts in September. You can read the full description and get a limited-time discount here. If… Continue reading “AC Coupling – How to Cost Effectively Add Battery Back-up to Existing Grid-Tied Solar PV systems”
Three Keys to Developing Bankable Solar Projects – Lessons from Developing 150 MW+ of Solar Projects Thanks to Chris Lord and Keith Cronin for providing all of the insights in this article. Chris and Keith teach our Solar Executive MBA course (the next session starts on September 15th). Together, they have advised investors, owners, and other… Continue reading “Three Keys to Developing Bankable Solar Projects – Lessons from Developing 150 MW+ of Solar Projects”
Solar Technology Tour: Differentiating Solar Heating Technologies Across North America Take a solar heating technology tour of several different solar installations across North America and become better acquainted with solar technologies used in residential and commercial heating applications across the continent in this 40-minute free video lesson. Your tour guide? Vaughan… Continue reading “Solar Technology Tour: Differentiating Solar Heating Technologies Across North America”
Modeling Solar Production Risk 101 – An Introduction to P50 and P90 Production Levels This article is part of a series of interviews, tutorials, and definitions around commercial solar financing that is leading up to the start of our next Solar MBA that starts on Monday September 15th. In the Solar MBA students will… Continue reading “Modeling Solar Production Risk 101 – An Introduction to P50 and P90 Production Levels”
New Massachusetts Solar Bill H.4185 Would Destroy Community Solar Potential In the Commonwealth This is a guest post from Sam Rust from SRECTrade about new solar legislation in Massachusetts. (Editor Note: A note about the importance of community solar for lowering customer acquisition costs, something EVERYONE in the solar industry cares about. Everyone is… Continue reading “New Massachusetts Solar Bill H.4185 Would Destroy Community Solar Potential In the Commonwealth”
Designing Wood Gasification Boiler Protection Systems: T & ∆T Pumping: An application that leverage both strategies This is a guest article from John Siegenthaler. In the fall, John is teaching an advanced design course on Hydronic-Based Biomass Heating Systems. This is the most advanced and technically challenging biomass design course that you’ll find anywhere. The capstone… Continue reading “Designing Wood Gasification Boiler Protection Systems: T & ∆T Pumping: An application that leverage both strategies”
How to Normalize Energy Consumption For Weather Influences Using RETScreen ® Plus This is a guest post by Michael Ross from RER Energy Inc. Michael is teaching a 6-week, 30 hour class on Mastering RETScreen for Clean Energy Project Analysis. The class is capped at 50 students, and there are only 30… Continue reading “How to Normalize Energy Consumption For Weather Influences Using RETScreen ® Plus”
Free Floor Plan: 10 Ways Passive House Design is Different Than Normal Home Design If you want to download the floor plan, please scroll to the bottom of the article. This is a guest post by Mike Duclos. Mike is founder of The DEAP Energy Group, a firm providing a wide variety of deep energy… Continue reading “Free Floor Plan: 10 Ways Passive House Design is Different Than Normal Home Design”
How to Identify and Eliminate the 7 Forms of Waste in Residential Solar Installations This is a guest post by Pam Cargill. Pam is an expert at optimizing residential solar operations. She’s helped scale operations both at Alteris Renewables (now RGS Energy) and Sungevity. She knows all the secrets of the larger installers and… Continue reading “How to Identify and Eliminate the 7 Forms of Waste in Residential Solar Installations”
Robert Bean + HeatSpring = Integrated HVAC Engineering Training The way a building functions represents an incredibly complex intersection of numerous fields, including architecture, design, engineering, environmental and health sciences, and construction. As each field evolves, it becomes increasingly necessary, but also difficult, to understand how they are interrelated.… Continue reading “Robert Bean + HeatSpring = Integrated HVAC Engineering Training”
The Most Common Solar PPA Modeling Mistake, The Fix, and a Free Tool This article will address the most common error that developers and EPCs make when modeling commercial solar PPAs. The video below will discuss the problem, the solution, and provide a free tool you can download so you can work through… Continue reading “The Most Common Solar PPA Modeling Mistake, The Fix, and a Free Tool”
Interview with Cory Honeyman, GTM Research Solar Analyst, on Emerging Trends in Residential and Commercial Solar In this interview, GTM Research Solar Analyst Cory Honeyman provides some background on the U.S. Solar Market Insight Report and discusses trends in residential and commercial solar, including hard costs, important skills for salespeople, state incentives, common misconceptions, and financing.… Continue reading “Interview with Cory Honeyman, GTM Research Solar Analyst, on Emerging Trends in Residential and Commercial Solar”
How to Price the Risk of Cash Equity vs Tax Equity Positions in Solar Partnership Flips This article is part of a series common topics and questions that professionals have about financing commercial solar projects. Chris Lord of CapIron provided some insights into pricing certain types of investor risk in partnership flips. Chris is a co-teacher… Continue reading “How to Price the Risk of Cash Equity vs Tax Equity Positions in Solar Partnership Flips”
How to Calculate the Buyout Price for Commercial Solar PPAs This article is part of a series tutorials, interviews and definitions around commercial solar financing that is leading up to the start of our next Solar MBA that starts on Monday September 15th. In the Solar MBA students will complete financial… Continue reading “How to Calculate the Buyout Price for Commercial Solar PPAs”