The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your HAZWOPER Training Working with hazardous materials requires specialized knowledge and skills to ensure safety on the job and for the surrounding environment. If you work on jobsites where hazardous materials may be present, HAZWOPER training is likely required for your position. Let’s… Continue reading “The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your HAZWOPER Training”
New Course: 3-Hour Energy Storage Building and Fire Codes with Sean White and Bill Brooks Navigate the complex world of energy storage codes with industry veterans Bill Brooks and Sean White in the new 3-Hour Energy Storage Building and Fire Codes course. This engaging class cuts through the complexity of the 2024 International Code Council… Continue reading “New Course: 3-Hour Energy Storage Building and Fire Codes with Sean White and Bill Brooks”
Why Adopt NFPA 70B: A Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance? Maintaining electrical equipment on our solar and storage sites is about maximizing uptime while keeping maintenance costs down, ultimately optimizing the entire lifecycle of our projects. A well-structured Electrical Maintenance Program (EMP) based on NFPA 70B offers a systematic approach… Continue reading “Why Adopt NFPA 70B: A Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance?”
New Course Announcement: NFPA 70B: A New Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance If you work with solar PV or energy storage assets, you’ve probably considered these questions: How do we keep everything running smoothly while managing maintenance costs? When should we perform maintenance? What exactly needs to be checked? How do we… Continue reading “New Course Announcement: NFPA 70B: A New Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance”
The Texas Battery Boom: A Look at the Growth of BESS and How to Get Involved The energy landscape of Texas is changing rapidly. While still a major oil producer, the state is seeing a surge in renewable energy, especially wind and solar. This shift brings challenges, primarily the intermittent nature of these resources. This Financial… Continue reading “The Texas Battery Boom: A Look at the Growth of BESS and How to Get Involved”
Breaking Down Berkeley Lab’s Annual Utility-Scale Solar Report – Part 1 Berkeley Lab’s annual Utility-Scale Solar Report has become one of the industry’s go-to resources for tracking the evolution of large-scale solar (and storage) deployment across the United States. The 2024 Edition analyzes ground-mounted PV projects above 5 MW ac, offering… Continue reading “Breaking Down Berkeley Lab’s Annual Utility-Scale Solar Report – Part 1”
Inside AC Block Architecture: A Technical Walkthrough of Utility-Scale BESS Design The rapid deployment of utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) demands a comprehensive understanding of system architecture, electrical engineering principles, and operational considerations. In this excerpt from the Foundations of BESS course, industry expert Drew Lebowitz examines the critical design… Continue reading “Inside AC Block Architecture: A Technical Walkthrough of Utility-Scale BESS Design”
The Science Behind Battery Fires: Thermal Runaway Explained What happens when a battery cell reaches its ignition temperature and triggers an unstoppable chain reaction? In this segment from the Foundations of Battery Energy Storage Systems course, instructor Drew Lebowitz explains the phenomenon of thermal runaway in battery systems… Continue reading “The Science Behind Battery Fires: Thermal Runaway Explained”
New Course Announcement: Foundations of Battery Energy Storage Systems The clean energy transition is accelerating, and battery energy storage systems (BESS) are becoming more and more central to this transformation. That’s why we’re excited to announce our new course: Foundations of Battery Energy Storage Systems. Read on to learn… Continue reading “New Course Announcement: Foundations of Battery Energy Storage Systems”
2023 Energy Storage Code Course – Now Free for HeatSpring Members We need more professionals designing and installing energy storage systems safely. So starting today, for a limited time, 2023 NFPA 855 & Fire Codes for Energy Storage Systems is free for HeatSpring members. Ryan and the Mayfield Renewables team teach… Continue reading “2023 Energy Storage Code Course – Now Free for HeatSpring Members”
Grading the States: Clean Energy Adoption and Access to the Grid One difficulty that solar PV and other clean-tech companies face when looking to expand their business into other states is that every state is different – different in their goals, policies, interconnection processes, technical standards, data availability, and other factors.… Continue reading “Grading the States: Clean Energy Adoption and Access to the Grid”
How Much Solar PV Can a Feeder Host? As increasing amounts of solar PV connect to electric distribution systems, in the forms of utility-scale solar PV and behind-the-meter solar PV, a critical question that many in the industry have is “How Much Solar PV Can a Feeder Host?” The… Continue reading “How Much Solar PV Can a Feeder Host?”
Standards for Distributed Energy Resources Interconnecting to Utility Systems Interconnection standards for Distributed Energy Resources (DER) connecting to utility transmission and distribution systems have evolved and will continue to change in the coming decades. DER includes inverter-based resources (IBR), such as solar PV, battery energy storage, and vehicle-to-grid (V2G),… Continue reading “Standards for Distributed Energy Resources Interconnecting to Utility Systems”
New Course: Understanding IEEE 1547-2018 – The Interconnection Standard for DER on Distribution HeatSpring is pleased to announce a new course focusing on IEEE 1547-2018, the interconnection standard for Distributed Energy Resources (DER) on utility distribution systems. Understanding IEEE 1547-2018 – The Interconnection Standard for DER on Distribution, will launch in February 2023,… Continue reading “New Course: Understanding IEEE 1547-2018 – The Interconnection Standard for DER on Distribution”
Looking at North Carolina Outages and Distributed Energy Resources An incident occurred in central North Carolina on the evening of December 3, 2022, about 45 minutes from where I live, in which equipment in two substations was made inoperable by gunfire. The result was approximately 40,000 customers without power. … Continue reading “Looking at North Carolina Outages and Distributed Energy Resources”
New Free Course: Inflation Reduction Act: Energy Storage and Solar Tax Credits The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 was signed into law on August 16th, 2022, providing a historic $369 billion of clean energy and climate investments over the next 10 years. The expert team at Energy Toolbase has been diving… Continue reading “New Free Course: Inflation Reduction Act: Energy Storage and Solar Tax Credits”
E2 Clean Jobs America 2022 Summary E2 is a national, nonpartisan group of business leaders, investors, and others who advocate for smart policies that are good for the economy and good for the environment. E2 believes that a good economy and good environment should be good… Continue reading “E2 Clean Jobs America 2022 Summary”
What the Inflation Reduction Act Could Mean for the HeatSpring Community UPDATE: The Inflation Reduction Act has passed Congress and has signed by President Biden. For many of us working in clean energy and environmental stewardship, hearing that the Inflation Reduction Act passed through the Senate filled us with hope for… Continue reading “What the Inflation Reduction Act Could Mean for the HeatSpring Community”
Simulating a Power Outage to Test Battery Health Batteries that are used strictly for resiliency are oftentimes rarely discharged, as these storage applications only get used when the utility has an outage. That has a lot of implications for the storage equipment. Join HeatSpring instructor Chris LaForge as… Continue reading “Simulating a Power Outage to Test Battery Health”
How can end users truly get the most out of their solar + storage investment? – Ask an Expert Session In the Ask an Expert series, HeatSpring instructors and industry thought leaders answer a question on the minds of the HeatSpring community. We are joined by Chris LaForge, instructor of the Designing Small Scale PV Systems with Energy Storage. While… Continue reading “How can end users truly get the most out of their solar + storage investment? – Ask an Expert Session”