Protecting Firefighters and Solar Homes with Rapid Shutdown During Wildfire Season When Sean White meets firefighters, he often asks what they do if they encounter solar homes during wildfires. Do they rush to protect the homes? In the past, the answer was no, says White, instructor of HeatSpring’s 40-Hour NABCEP Advanced… Continue reading “Protecting Firefighters and Solar Homes with Rapid Shutdown During Wildfire Season”
New Standards Aim to Ensure Storage is Safe But Fail to Distinguish Among Battery Chemistries A lithium-ion battery in a container near Phoenix owned by Arizona Public Service (APS) caught fire in April 2019, then other batteries in the container caught fire, releasing explosive gas and sparking an explosion that hurt several first responders. Such… Continue reading “New Standards Aim to Ensure Storage is Safe But Fail to Distinguish Among Battery Chemistries”
Democratizing Solar Energy with an ITC Refund The solar industry is lobbying for measures to move solar energy forward during the ongoing pandemic and financial crisis–measures that could help bring solar to more people in the U.S., boost the economy and help meet greenhouse gas reduction goals.… Continue reading “Democratizing Solar Energy with an ITC Refund”
Comfortable, Resilient Net-Zero Buildings Aren’t Just Residential Hampshire College’s R.W. Kern Center achieved zero net energy building status due to its passive solar orientation, high levels of insulation, airtight envelope and triple glazed windows. The building also includes air source heat pumps, and a 118-kW rooftop solar… Continue reading “Comfortable, Resilient Net-Zero Buildings Aren’t Just Residential”
Load Modeling Tool Helps Users Decide How to Best Use Solar, Storage & Controls To make the most effective use of solar, it’s critical to know when and how a customer is using power–and see if there’s a match between load and solar availability. While this seems like a simple idea, using a load… Continue reading “Load Modeling Tool Helps Users Decide How to Best Use Solar, Storage & Controls”
Utility Distribution Systems & Equipment: A Grid Professional’s Masterclass “Utility Distribution Systems & Equipment” is a new masterclass developed in partnership with Distributech, POWERGRID, and Utilicast. Instructor Tim Taylor developed the course to help utility and and distributed energy professionals level-up in their careers. Here’s a week-by-week breakdown of… Continue reading “Utility Distribution Systems & Equipment: A Grid Professional’s Masterclass”
How to Take Better Solar Pictures With Your Drone This is a guest post from Keith Perry, founder of Hudson Valley Drones. Keith is an instructor in the free course, “Solar + Drones: Managing Lighting, Exposure, and Glare in Your Imagery“. In a previous post, Keith offered up a… Continue reading “How to Take Better Solar Pictures With Your Drone”
Re-Thinking Wire Sizing Rules of Thumb for Solar PV For many years, the solar industry has followed rules of thumb about oversizing wires to reduce energy losses in solar PV systems. The rules of thumb call for the PV industry to oversize wires to ensure no more than a… Continue reading “Re-Thinking Wire Sizing Rules of Thumb for Solar PV”
The Quiet Revolution: Solar-Plus-Storage Gains Ground In some parts of the country, the costs of solar-plus-storage are beating grid prices, which is good news for the solar industry and the environment. For example, in Nevada, regulators in 2019 approved three solar-plus-storage power purchase agreements (PPA) for… Continue reading “The Quiet Revolution: Solar-Plus-Storage Gains Ground”
New Solar + Drones Course – Managing Lighting, Exposure, and Glare in Your Imagery Creating awesome drone-based 3D models (i.e. photogrammetry) relies on images having similar key points and coloring. This is particularly crucial for accurately designing and analyzing solar projects. A foundational component of this is capturing data with good “exposure”. Join us… Continue reading “New Solar + Drones Course – Managing Lighting, Exposure, and Glare in Your Imagery”
How to Streamline the Design Process for Large-Scale Solar Projects When designing a large-scale solar project, it’s critical to tackle classic hang-ups as early as possible to avoid slowing a project and encountering cost overruns, says Ryan Mayfield, instructor, along with Randy Batchelor, of HeatSpring’s Megawatt Design course. Designers need… Continue reading “How to Streamline the Design Process for Large-Scale Solar Projects”
“Drone Pilot Boot Camp” Approved for NABCEP Credit This week our “Drone Pilot Boot Camp” was approved for NABCEP Credit by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP). The course is a comprehensive commercial drone operators course with an emphasis on solar PV and renewable energy.… Continue reading ““Drone Pilot Boot Camp” Approved for NABCEP Credit”
New Course: Utility Scale Solar Construction & Project Management Are you just getting started in the large scale solar construction industry, or have you been in it for a while but unable to take the next step in your career and move up as quickly as you’d like? If… Continue reading “New Course: Utility Scale Solar Construction & Project Management”
The Benefits of Standardized Solar Contracts Students in HeatSpring’s newly updated Solar Executive MBA Training Course learn about how to take advantage of a standardized solar contract, one of the course’s important new features. “If you use your own agreement, you need to find an investor… Continue reading “The Benefits of Standardized Solar Contracts”
Zero Net Energy Buildings with Marc Rosenbaum is Back! I am so excited to announce that renowned Zero Net Energy (ZNE) expert Marc Rosenbaum is back with a newly updated version of his best selling Zero Net Energy Buildings course. It has been a long hiatus since our last… Continue reading “Zero Net Energy Buildings with Marc Rosenbaum is Back!”
Solar + Drones: What To Do When You Crash Your Drone This is a guest post from Keith Perry, founder of Hudson Valley Drones. Keith is an instructor in the free course, “Solar + Drones: Site Surveying and 3D Mapping Around Trees“. In his previous post, Keith offered up a Solar… Continue reading “Solar + Drones: What To Do When You Crash Your Drone”
Solar Company Guide to Drone Hardware This is a guest post from Keith Perry, founder of Hudson Valley Drones. Keith is an instructor in the free course, “Solar + Drones: Site Surveying and 3D Mapping Around Trees“. Before we go into this in more detail, it’s… Continue reading “Solar Company Guide to Drone Hardware”
Deciduous vs. Evergreen: Solutions for Flying Drones in Every Season This is the third guest post from David Williams, founder of Northwest Drone Pros, in a series on best practices for flying drones around trees. The last post covered “in-flight tips“. David is an instructor in the free course, “Solar… Continue reading “Deciduous vs. Evergreen: Solutions for Flying Drones in Every Season”
Part 2 Solar + Drones: During Flight Tips for Flying Around Trees This is the second guest post from David Williams, founder of Northwest Drone Pros, in a series of posts on best practices for flying drones around trees. The first post covered “pre-flight tips“. David is an instructor in the free… Continue reading “Part 2 Solar + Drones: During Flight Tips for Flying Around Trees”
Solar + Drones: Pre-Flight Tips for Flying Around Trees This is a guest post from David Williams, founder of Northwest Drone Pros. David is an instructor in the free course, “Solar + Drones: Site Surveying and 3D Mapping Around Trees“. Washington is a unique area because we have such… Continue reading “Solar + Drones: Pre-Flight Tips for Flying Around Trees”