A New Energy Calculator for Roofing Professionals For the roofing professional seeking to compare the energy-savings potential of different roofing systems, many well-designed calculators are available to help. Currently, you can find a wide variety of (mostly free) web-based calculators to evaluate almost every element of roof-related… Continue reading “A New Energy Calculator for Roofing Professionals”
How Wall Street Capital Is Standardizing Commercial Solar Due Diligence NOTE: If you’re coming from HeatSpring’s newsletter and you want to watch the video presentation, please scroll down near the bottom of the article. One of the largest trends happening in solar right now is Wall Street capital flooding into… Continue reading “How Wall Street Capital Is Standardizing Commercial Solar Due Diligence”
Step-by-Step Guide on How to Sell Your Commercial Solar Projects to Investors In this video, Noel Lafayette from SHR Energy discusses in step-by-step detail what a commercial solar developer needs do to sell a project to a solar fund. If you’re curious, I interviewed Noel in the beginning of 2014. The article… Continue reading “Step-by-Step Guide on How to Sell Your Commercial Solar Projects to Investors”
How Commercial Real Estate Owners Deal with Solar PPA Pricing Risk In the 10-minute video above, Darien Crimmin, VP of Energy and Sustainability for WinnDevelopment, describes how he looks at the pricing risk of signing solar PPAs from the perspective of a large property owner. WinnDevelopment has a $2.5 billion real-estate… Continue reading “How Commercial Real Estate Owners Deal with Solar PPA Pricing Risk”
[Free Tool] How to Calculate Boiler Efficiency Gains Roy Collver’s “Condensing Boilers in Hydronic Systems” is the most underutilized course we offer (OK, tied with Robert Bean’s HVAC Engineering). Roy has built this exhaustive educational experience that only a handful of folks have benefited from so far. We hope… Continue reading “[Free Tool] How to Calculate Boiler Efficiency Gains”
Heating with Biomass: It’s Not Just About the Boiler… This article is a guest post by John Siegenthaler, Principal at Appropriate Designs and expert instructor with HeatSpring. John’s 10-week online course, Hydronic-Based Biomass Heating Systems, teaches engineers, heating contractors, and installers how to design and install highly-efficient biomass heating systems.… Continue reading “Heating with Biomass: It’s Not Just About the Boiler…”
Apply for HeatSpring’s Online Solar Startup Alley* Competition – Deadline: December 12th *Startups include small businesses and new ventures with revenues of less than $1 million. I’m really excited to announce our online solar startup competition. We created the competition because we noticed within our 6-week Solar Startup Accelerator that the single largest… Continue reading “Apply for HeatSpring’s Online Solar Startup Alley* Competition – Deadline: December 12th”
2015 Entrepreneur’s Guide to Employee Health Coverage Q: “What does your small business do about employee health insurance?” I surveyed twenty businesses with fewer than twenty-five employees because we’re trying to figure out what to do at HeatSpring. The U.S. health insurance market is in the throes… Continue reading “2015 Entrepreneur’s Guide to Employee Health Coverage”
Win a $10,000 Zero Net Energy Building Award! Think your house is the best Zero Net Energy building in the Northeast? You could win $10,000! The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA), a membership organization with a mission to advance the adoption of sustainable energy practices in the Built Environment,… Continue reading “Win a $10,000 Zero Net Energy Building Award!”
“Cover of the Solar Pro” = Amazing Solar Marketing Video If you’re in the solar industry, or a fan of renewable energy and small business, it’s impossible to watch this video and not smile: I don’t have any deep insights or tips to share on this, I just wanted more… Continue reading ““Cover of the Solar Pro” = Amazing Solar Marketing Video”
Get All the Tools and Advice You Need to Start a Solar Business We’re launching the first online solar startup accelerator in the winter of 2015 so you can get all of the tools and advice you need to start your solar business. Here’s why: The solar industry grew 36% in 2014, creating tons… Continue reading “Get All the Tools and Advice You Need to Start a Solar Business”
New Course: Data Center Essentials for Executives This week we’ve launched our first data center course, offered through Datacenter Dynamics. Jon Koomey is the instructor, and we’re all really excited to have him teaching. I asked Jon to talk about his inspiration for the course. Here’s what… Continue reading “New Course: Data Center Essentials for Executives”
New Course: Land Boundary Master Class We recently launched the “Land Boundary Master Class” in partnership with BNP Media and Jeff Lucas. I’ve come to learn that Jeff is highly regarded for his honesty, humor, and vision for where the industry of land surveying is going… Continue reading “New Course: Land Boundary Master Class”
Building Microgrids? Four Economic Factors to Consider Microgrids are poised to alter the economics and topology of the electricity grid, ultimately transforming the electricity industry as we know it. In this article, we discuss the four economic factors to consider before and during microgrid development and provide… Continue reading “Building Microgrids? Four Economic Factors to Consider”
What Commercial Solar Developers Need to Know about Yieldcos If you’d like to listen the interview, please scroll to the middle of the article. There’s been a huge amount of buzz about yieldcos and their potential impact on financing more commercial solar projects by providing cheaper capital. There have been… Continue reading “What Commercial Solar Developers Need to Know about Yieldcos”
How Massachusett’s Alternative Energy Credit Prices Will Impact Heat Pump and Biomass Operating Costs We passed the Massachusetts “Clean Heat Bill” in July 2014. The final bill number is S. 2214. The bill created a production-based incentive, similar to solar PV renewable energy credits (SRECs), for renewable thermal technologies including solar thermal, air source heat… Continue reading “How Massachusett’s Alternative Energy Credit Prices Will Impact Heat Pump and Biomass Operating Costs”
Community Solar 101 There’s been a lot of buzz about community solar lately. While the amount of investment in community solar projects is a fraction of the investment of the entire solar industry, there are a few leaders who recognize the incredible potential… Continue reading “Community Solar 101”
Air Barriers vs. Vapor Retarders vs. Drainage Planes: Learn Essential Building Science Specifics in 60-Minutes Building science is complex. It takes time and experience to understand and integrate physics, chemistry, climatology, and ecology into building enclosures. Understanding the complex interplay of heat, air, and moisture flows within and across building enclosures— while paying attention to the… Continue reading “Air Barriers vs. Vapor Retarders vs. Drainage Planes: Learn Essential Building Science Specifics in 60-Minutes”
AIAA Launches Free Course on the Business of Commercial Space October 6, 2014 – Reston, Va. – American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has partnered with Dr. Daniel Rasky, Bruce Pittman, and HeatSpring to offer a free course on the business opportunities in the emerging commercial space industry. The… Continue reading “AIAA Launches Free Course on the Business of Commercial Space”
Understand the Key Grounding and Bonding Standards for Commercial Solar PV Projects in Less Than 30 Minutes What are the differences between grounding and bonding in solar design? What are the most recent codes? Where are the codes headed? What are some of the changes that have happened? What does it mean for you and your installations? In… Continue reading “Understand the Key Grounding and Bonding Standards for Commercial Solar PV Projects in Less Than 30 Minutes”