What Every Renewable Energy Trainer Needs to Do to Stay Relevant My #1 piece of advice to all trainers for the next five years: create a digital version of your content. Do it now. Create it in little packets so you can deliver them in an agile way across a variety… Continue reading “What Every Renewable Energy Trainer Needs to Do to Stay Relevant”
6 Reasons Why A Course is a Better Online Training Tool Than Webinar Training This post outlines why, when you’re teaching advanced material online and you need to verify that the students have learned and implemented your material, courses are a better online training tool than webinar training. This article is from HeatSpring’s Online… Continue reading “6 Reasons Why A Course is a Better Online Training Tool Than Webinar Training”
Why Get NABCEP Certified? Is getting NABCEP Certified worth it? It’s the only game in town in the solar industry, but it’s not really required – it’s not a license. People ask me whether it’s worth it all the time and I don’t really… Continue reading “Why Get NABCEP Certified?”
HeatSpring is Building the Largest Library of Free Clean Energy Product Training to Get Manufactures in Front of Contractors All Manufactures know that they need product training Everyone needs to get up to speed on how to use specific products. Every product is a little bit different and getting distributors and contractors to really understand a product makes them… Continue reading “HeatSpring is Building the Largest Library of Free Clean Energy Product Training to Get Manufactures in Front of Contractors”
Renewable Energy Lessons From Harvard Business School’s Study on U.S. Competitiveness On November 15th, Harvard Business School hosted a discussion on ways companies and other stakeholders can boost U.S. competitiveness. It took place at The Henry Ford in Detroit, and the case discussion was about the rise, fall, and rise of… Continue reading “Renewable Energy Lessons From Harvard Business School’s Study on U.S. Competitiveness”
Made in Detroit: Do you Have a Customer with a Thermal Problem? A hybrid solar panel made in Detroit using automotive components, with investment from an EPC contractor in Florida. Interesting. Interesting enough that I spent two hours this week along with other members of the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association touring… Continue reading “Made in Detroit: Do you Have a Customer with a Thermal Problem?”
HS TV Ep 4: Renewable Energy Politics. A Conversation with Stephen Lacey Politics is hugely important to the renewable energy industry. Above all else, our industry needs stable policy. Being a small businesses, it’s hard to keep up on the very industry-specific policies, even though these policies are very important for your… Continue reading “HS TV Ep 4: Renewable Energy Politics. A Conversation with Stephen Lacey”
How to Use Lean Startup Methods in Renewable Energy to Increase Profits In the last few posts I’ve written about the process of expanding an existing construction company into renewable energy business and the single thing our marketing planwill focus on. If you’re new to the solar industry, go to the Solar 101… Continue reading “How to Use Lean Startup Methods in Renewable Energy to Increase Profits”
HS TV Ep 3. How to Study for the NABCEP Certification HeatSpring TV is coming along nicely. We’re planning on having a combination of interviews and conversations with other industry experts, myself presenting news stories and how it affect contractors, or Brian and I discussing a specific topic. In this episode,… Continue reading “HS TV Ep 3. How to Study for the NABCEP Certification”
What is an SREC? [HS TV Ep. 2] In the past, we’ve written on the basics of SRECs but I wanted to get a more in-depth perspective on what an SREC is, how the markets are developed and are different from each other and how the SREC market… Continue reading “What is an SREC? [HS TV Ep. 2]”
Geothermal Powers the Statue of Liberty, President Bush’s Ranch, and the Greenest Hotel in the World Solar guys have been good at show-casing their best solar installations to the public and politicians – the geothermal industry needs to step up and begin to showcase our best installations as well. PR and customer awarnress are key; a recent report… Continue reading “Geothermal Powers the Statue of Liberty, President Bush’s Ranch, and the Greenest Hotel in the World”
How to Build a Renewable Energy Division in an Existing Building Company – PART 1 A lot of residential and light commercial renewable energy work is starting to be picked up by general contractors, like Jamie Leef of S+H Construction in Cambridge. Why? General contractors are in a unique position to pick up this work because they’re used… Continue reading “How to Build a Renewable Energy Division in an Existing Building Company – PART 1”
What is on the NABCEP? What and How Should you Study? The NABCEP exam is becoming more and more standard for professionals who are looking to work within the industry at small, medium and large size solar EPC contractors. Even salespeople are seeing pressure to have the NABCEP. A quick glance… Continue reading “What is on the NABCEP? What and How Should you Study?”
HeatSpring TV Episode 1: General Contractors Getting into Renewables The first episode of HeatSprint TV, known as HS TV from now on, is live! In the first episode of HS TV, I discuss 5 current new stories of importance and welcomed our first guest, Jamie from S+H Construction. We discuss… Continue reading “HeatSpring TV Episode 1: General Contractors Getting into Renewables”
Geothermal Designer Tax Credit: Don’t Leave Money on the Table “Your database of completed geothermal projects is a goldmine.” That was the message at tonight’s New England Geothermal Professional Association member’s meeting. Charles Goulding, from Energy Tax Savers, gave a compelling presentation about some underutilized government programs that directly benefit… Continue reading “Geothermal Designer Tax Credit: Don’t Leave Money on the Table”
Enphase and Micro-Inverter Benefits Are Becoming Clear Over Traditional String Inverters If you’re new to the solar industry, go to the Solar 101 Reading list. It has free tools and articles on solar design and installation, sales and marketing, policy, finance and best practices. According to the Solar Energy Industry Association, the residential market… Continue reading “Enphase and Micro-Inverter Benefits Are Becoming Clear Over Traditional String Inverters”
What the Heck is Home Performance? Seriously. One Contractor to Another. Paul Eldrenkamp has been a residential remodeling contractor for 26 years. Energy efficiency work has been the competitive advantage that has gotten his business through the current recession. He has a knack for breaking a very complex topic down into… Continue reading “What the Heck is Home Performance? Seriously. One Contractor to Another.”
Increasing Focus on Building Efficiency Will Have Consumers Talking “A house needs to breathe,” but how much does it need to breathe? Recently developed standards and increasingly affordable measurement tools have made it easier to answer that question with precision, and we’re now able to target one of the… Continue reading “Increasing Focus on Building Efficiency Will Have Consumers Talking”
HeatingHelp.com – A Vibrant Online Community for Heating Professionals Have you ever heard of HeatingHelp.com? Last year I had several people I really respect, longtime contractors in the HVAC business, tell me about it. I figured I better check it out… HeatingHelp.com is filled with technical information about… Continue reading “HeatingHelp.com – A Vibrant Online Community for Heating Professionals”