Certified GeoExchange Desiger Certification – The CGD – What is it? Who needs it? How to get it? Certified GeoExchange Designer Certification is the most prestigious credential that exists within the geothermal heat pump industry because few people have it. It’s hard to get because you can’t sit for the exam without some combination of education and experience… Continue reading “Certified GeoExchange Desiger Certification – The CGD – What is it? Who needs it? How to get it?”
“If you can’t install solar at $3.45/watt, you’re going out of business.” Straight Talk on Solar with Jigar Shah at NESEA 2012 Jigar Shah was my favorite presenter at this year’s Building Energy Conference. Mr. Shah founded SunEdison in 2003 and sold it five years later for $200 million. Here are some quotes he offered up in the “Energy Subsidies and the… Continue reading ““If you can’t install solar at $3.45/watt, you’re going out of business.” Straight Talk on Solar with Jigar Shah at NESEA 2012″
[Free Tool] A Really Simple Solar PV Site Visit Checklist for Salespeople There are three areas that the most profitable and well run residential solar and geothermal companies do really well. Turn visitors into leads and know how qualified those leads are. The most profitable companies have an extremely clear process for… Continue reading “[Free Tool] A Really Simple Solar PV Site Visit Checklist for Salespeople”
Solar Hot Water Doesn’t Need R+D, IT NEEDS Promotion In the 2012 January/February issue of Solar Today, Bob Ramlow was featured discussing his thoughts on the future of the solar thermal industry. Bob entered the solar industry 40 years ago, designing and installing solar hot water systems and distributing… Continue reading “Solar Hot Water Doesn’t Need R+D, IT NEEDS Promotion”
How Do you Handle Your Customers’ Tough Questions About Solar Leases? This is the third video in a five part series that HeatSpring created with BrightGrid Renewable Energy Finance to help residential solar contractors learn more about solar financing and leases. The goal is simple, we want to help installers to… Continue reading “How Do you Handle Your Customers’ Tough Questions About Solar Leases?”
[Video] How to Select Solar Hot Water Components and System Types In this video, author and ISPQ Certified Master Trainer Bob Ramlow provides a detailed outline of common components found in solar thermal systems, and the four most common types of systems.
How Does a Solar Lease Work and How Do you Sell its Value The above video is part 2 in a 5 part series HeatSpring created with BrightGrid Renewable Energy Finance for solar installers about solar financing and solar leases. You can watch the full 5 part series “How to User Solar Leases… Continue reading “How Does a Solar Lease Work and How Do you Sell its Value”
What Residential Solar Companies Need to do to Successfully Offer a Solar Lease According to the State of California Energy Commission, in Q3 of 2011, the majority of residential systems were financed. What does this mean for solar installers? Simple. The solar lease is becoming the industry norm and you need to be… Continue reading “What Residential Solar Companies Need to do to Successfully Offer a Solar Lease”
The Top 7 Trends that Will Impact Renewable Energy Profits in 2012 The beginning of 2012 is here and the lookout is bright for renewable energy. There are some roadblocks ahead and some barriers we cannot yet see that will become clear. Overall, the renewable energy industries are becoming a force to… Continue reading “The Top 7 Trends that Will Impact Renewable Energy Profits in 2012”
Q+A with Solar Thermal Expert Bob Ramlow: Hard Water Issues, PV Powered Solar Thermal and Air Venting Bob Ramlow answers student questions about solar thermal. He tackles hard water, PV powered solar thermal systems, and best practices for air vent installations. Is hard water an issue with closed loop solar thermal systems? Are solar PV powered solar thermal… Continue reading “Q+A with Solar Thermal Expert Bob Ramlow: Hard Water Issues, PV Powered Solar Thermal and Air Venting”
3 Learnings from Last Week’s #Solarchat and What it Says about the Future of the Industry Last week a number of solar super stars on twitter decided to discuss how we can mainstream solar. The conversion happened on twitter. I’m not going to give a recap or discuss what we talked about, you can find great… Continue reading “3 Learnings from Last Week’s #Solarchat and What it Says about the Future of the Industry”
Lessons Learned from Inventing a Solar Installation Tool and How it Can Help you Sell More Projects Let me first start by saying that this article is indeed a piece of shameless promotion. It is about a solar installation tool that I invented while I was running a crew installing residential photovoltaic arrays in Massachusetts. At first, I was not… Continue reading “Lessons Learned from Inventing a Solar Installation Tool and How it Can Help you Sell More Projects”
David vs. Goliath: How Can Small Companies Win in the Solar Industry? In the last few years a small number of big companies have gotten heavily focused on the residential solar market. SunRun, SolarCity, Sungevity, and Real Goods Inc, have raised a ton of money from both private and public investors to… Continue reading “David vs. Goliath: How Can Small Companies Win in the Solar Industry?”
3 Reasons Massachusetts is a Great Place to Sell Solar Thermal and How to Start Doing it Why? A few reasons: I’d argue too many people are looking at solar pv and it’s becoming more competitive. Just look at how many solar pv installers there are in Massachusetts, there’s around 50. This number is increasing as more… Continue reading “3 Reasons Massachusetts is a Great Place to Sell Solar Thermal and How to Start Doing it”
How the Shift from Early Adopters to the Mass Market Impacts your Solar Marketing Efforts What strikes me most about renewable energy websites is how much companies tend to to talk about themselves and the technology and not about what the customer actually cares about. Actually, let me rephrase this, what “mainstream customers” care about.… Continue reading “How the Shift from Early Adopters to the Mass Market Impacts your Solar Marketing Efforts”
Answer 3 Questions to Make your Small Business a Solar Sales Machine The most important element of a profitable solar company is maximizing what I am referring to as “the sales equation”. In this article, I want to share specifically what the sales equation is, and what questions you can ask to… Continue reading “Answer 3 Questions to Make your Small Business a Solar Sales Machine”
Lessons Learned from Selling a Solar Company to SunEdison Now that hard installation costs are dropping rapidly in the solar pv industry, everyone’s looking at how to decrease soft costs. Across the board support for decreasing solar’s soft costs is the result of how well organized the industry is… Continue reading “Lessons Learned from Selling a Solar Company to SunEdison”
Solar Shingles Are Available – Does Anyone Care? I remember many years ago, there was a lot of emphasis and news around solar shingles. Why? Because 3 or 4 years ago many people thought that the look of solar photovoltaic modules would hinder adoption and the whole industry… Continue reading “Solar Shingles Are Available – Does Anyone Care?”
The Battle to Reduce Solar’s “Soft Costs” is Starting and How it Can Increase Your Solar Company’s Profits The solar industry is going through massive change. Module and balance and systems prices are dropping quickly, there has been an influx of new products, financing is becoming commoditized and the solar supply chain is shifting rapidly. The results of… Continue reading “The Battle to Reduce Solar’s “Soft Costs” is Starting and How it Can Increase Your Solar Company’s Profits”
Let’s be Honest, This is Not a Solar Trade War with China As recent news of a “solar trade war” has emerged, I’ve searched for words to convey my opinion on the situation. From the point of a solar installer and the whole industry for that matter, one thing is clear. Lower prices… Continue reading “Let’s be Honest, This is Not a Solar Trade War with China”