Home Energy Audits: The 411 What are home energy audits, and how much do they usually cost? A variety of approaches, price points and follow-up actions may be chosen. Here is an overview of what to expect when choosing the right audit for your needs. This… Continue reading “Home Energy Audits: The 411”
Blowing Emissions Away: Building a 6MW Wind Farm The Kingston Wind Project, a 6MW farm, has produced 48,360,370 kWh to-date, eliminating 35 metric tons of CO2 that would have been produced by a coal mine and equivalent to planting 33,263 acres of forest or taking 7,422 cars off the… Continue reading “Blowing Emissions Away: Building a 6MW Wind Farm”
Crowd Funding Meets Carbon Reduction CarbonCrowd is a crowd funding platform for individuals who want to take part in climate change reversal. We spoke to Co-founder and CEO Henry Sims about it… How does it work? People too often feel powerless when it comes to… Continue reading “Crowd Funding Meets Carbon Reduction”
Eradicating Energy Poverty: 80 Microgrids by 2020 The EarthSpark team spent 5 years developing their first microgrid in Haiti. Inaugurated in June 2015, it is currently serving 449 homes and businesses with affordable, reliable electricity 24/7. The grid contains 93 kW of PV panels, a 30 kVa… Continue reading “Eradicating Energy Poverty: 80 Microgrids by 2020”
Heat Recovery Ventilation Considerations in Zero Net Energy Homes Marc Rosenbaum discusses heat recovery ventilation considerations for zero net energy homes on the Zero Net Energy Homes course discussion board… Exhaust-only ventilation home health concerns Student 1: Do you know of any potential health impacts from living in a depressurized space–… Continue reading “Heat Recovery Ventilation Considerations in Zero Net Energy Homes”
How to Build a 75% Net Zero Community What does it take to build a 75% net zero community and the “largest Emerald-rated community” in the world? Tabitha Crawford explains how her team combined solar, HVAC, and sustainable building practices to build 250 net zero homes while keeping construction… Continue reading “How to Build a 75% Net Zero Community”
Explaining the Value of Solar to Customers With such a long list of benefits, you’d think solar panels would sell themselves. But many potential customers still need convincing before they can make the jump to green living. As beneficial as solar panels are for reducing a household’s… Continue reading “Explaining the Value of Solar to Customers”
Venting About Ventilation There is much debate within the building science community about how much ventilation is enough. Building science as a discipline has to deal with a lot of messy, noisy data, entrenched mythologies, and strong tendencies towards confirmation bias. On the… Continue reading “Venting About Ventilation”
When Cities Go Solar: 5 Ways to Make the Case Getting Your City’s Buy-In on Solar After years of dancing around the idea of sustainability, some select cities have begun to make it a reality with ground-breaking solar industry partnerships. Jackie Biskupski, mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, recently announced… Continue reading “When Cities Go Solar: 5 Ways to Make the Case”
Solar Partnership Flip: Alive and Well in 2016 Chris Lord discusses partnership flips under the IRC As Mark Twain once said, “News of the recent death of the partnership flip for solar transactions is greatly exaggerated.” Okay, he didn’t exactly refer to partnership flips; he was talking about… Continue reading “Solar Partnership Flip: Alive and Well in 2016”
Megawatt Design: 3 Obstacles You Might Face (…and 3 Solutions!) Megawatt Design expert Ryan Mayfield addresses 3 obstacles that professionals in the field might experience. STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS Student 1: The most common obstacle we run in to is the structural requirement during the initial budgeting phase. Typically the potential customer does… Continue reading “Megawatt Design: 3 Obstacles You Might Face (…and 3 Solutions!)”
Women-Backed Sustainability Projects Changing the World Starting June 2016, HeatSpring and RenewableEnergyWorld.com will be launching the Sustainable Women Series, an online campaign to spread awareness about innovative sustainability projects changing the built environment. The Sustainable Women Series will feature technical case studies and overviews of women-backed… Continue reading “Women-Backed Sustainability Projects Changing the World”
Are you ready to teach with HeatSpring? Are you a renewables or sustainability expert? Want to grow your network, make money and share your expertise? Teach with HeatSpring today! Who are we? HeatSpring is an online training company offering free and paid courses in residential and commercial… Continue reading “Are you ready to teach with HeatSpring?”
Introduction to Solar PV Markets + The 2016 Solar Startup Guide Want to learn more about PV markets and the business of solar? Enroll in Introduction to Solar PV Markets + The 2016 Solar Startup Guide! You’ll receive the 2016 Solar Startup Guide and expert instruction from Dr. Sean White on the features,… Continue reading “Introduction to Solar PV Markets + The 2016 Solar Startup Guide”
Talking Energy Policy with Industry Leaders Join GRID Alternatives for the Women in Energy Policy webcast Leading women in the field of clean energy policy will discuss their career paths, projects they’re currently working on and the growing role of women in traditionally male-dominated fields. This lecture… Continue reading “Talking Energy Policy with Industry Leaders”
Radiant Heating Case Studies: Ceiling Panels & Injection Piping Expert instructor Dave Yates answers student questions with customer anecdotes on the Fundamentals of Radiant Heating discussion board Student 1: I’ve seen two references in the course to “high temperature” ceiling panels needing to be at least 8 feet above the… Continue reading “Radiant Heating Case Studies: Ceiling Panels & Injection Piping”
Tour Solar Technologies Without Leaving Your Home We’ll tour solar technologies used in both commercial and residential applications across North America in this free, 42-minute lecture. Learning Objectives: 1. Describe the visual appearance of specific solar technologies 2. Differentiate between solar technologies 3. Identify specific applications for solar… Continue reading “Tour Solar Technologies Without Leaving Your Home”
Protection Considerations for Wood Gasification Boilers Enroll in this free, 58-minute lecture and learn about the protection of wood gasification boilers. Enroll today and learn more about the protection of boilers against low entering water temperature and against overheating during power failures. I will discuss the dewpoint… Continue reading “Protection Considerations for Wood Gasification Boilers”
Site Assessment for Solar Hot Water Heating Systems Without a proper site assessment, you may be putting your solar thermal system at risk for poor performance… This piece originally appeared in Home Power Magazine | Vaughan Woodruff, 2/2014 It is a fairly common occurrence for a solar professional to hear… Continue reading “Site Assessment for Solar Hot Water Heating Systems”
Monetizing the Federal ITC For Your Business If you are taking your business solar, it’s important to understand the Federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC). Wunder Capital has designed this guide to help answer your questions about the Federal ITC and walk you through the process of how… Continue reading “Monetizing the Federal ITC For Your Business”