Guide to Bridge Financing For Solar EPC Contractors Over the past month, I’ve seen a pick up in the amount of companies that are offering ‘bridge financing’ to small and middle size solar PV contractors. So, I thought I would put together a short post and a free… Continue reading “Guide to Bridge Financing For Solar EPC Contractors”
Reminder: Aug 3rd Meeting to Determine Details of Thermal RECs in NH For those of doing geothermal business in New Hampshire. You NEED to go to this. This is a huge step forward for the geothermal industry. Thanks to NEGPA for spear heading this. See below, you must RSVP to attend. Here’s… Continue reading “Reminder: Aug 3rd Meeting to Determine Details of Thermal RECs in NH”
Part 3: How to Design Grid-Connected Solar PV Inverters, Strings, and Conductors This is a the third installment in a three-part series on residential solar PV design. The goal is to provide a solid foundation for new system designers and installers. This section is dedicated to the basics of inverter sizing, string… Continue reading “Part 3: How to Design Grid-Connected Solar PV Inverters, Strings, and Conductors”
The Coolest, Most Bad%ss, Great Geothermal Marketing Video Ever Made Thanks to Energy Smart Alternatives for creating this video and posting it on twitter, where I found it, while I was stalking you. To give credit where credit is due, Love’s Geothermal down in Maryland also has an amazing “story… Continue reading “The Coolest, Most Bad%ss, Great Geothermal Marketing Video Ever Made”
Betting on the Decline of Residential Solar PV Financing Here is a crazy thought: we will know that solar pv has become mainstream when 3rd party financiers are no longer needed. I’m very bullish on the ability of 3rd financiers to be able to compete with the general trend of the… Continue reading “Betting on the Decline of Residential Solar PV Financing”
The Future of Comfort. How the World Cup Might Help Your Help Your HVAC Business. How did Qatar win their bid to host the 2022 World Cup? In this video, Wolfgang Kessling explains how his team designed a comfort strategy that helped make it happen. Yes, comfort. Here’s why I wanted to share this video with… Continue reading “The Future of Comfort. How the World Cup Might Help Your Help Your HVAC Business.”
“What’s the Most Efficient?” Geo VS Solar Thermal VS Solar PV I’m doing some sales consulting work in NYC, and there’s one question I’m getting a lot from property owners: “What is the most efficient renewable energy technology?” In the city, they are mainly speaking of solar PV vs solar thermal,… Continue reading ““What’s the Most Efficient?” Geo VS Solar Thermal VS Solar PV”
Finance 101 for Solar Thermal Pros In this article, I’ll go through the basic step-by-step process of how to evaluate, understand and communicate the financial benefits of investing in a solar thermal system. The analysis will be on the client side, but obviously it’s critical for… Continue reading “Finance 101 for Solar Thermal Pros”
Finance 101 For Geothermal Pros (Image using LoopLink Geothermal Design Software) The only thing that the geothermal industry needs to worry about is sales. We need more sales. For the most part, we have talented enough engineers and tradespeople to install any project that we… Continue reading “Finance 101 For Geothermal Pros”
Geothermal Performance Case Study: Closed Loop vs. DX vs. Kelix Thermocouple (This post has received a lot of feedback as expected, I’ve posted some update information at the bottom of the post from Sam Johnson’s team and from Kelix themselves) Last month, I published an interview about the Kelix ground coupling… Continue reading “Geothermal Performance Case Study: Closed Loop vs. DX vs. Kelix Thermocouple”
[Interview] 5 Key Lessons Learned about a Homeowner’s Solar Buying Process I’ve been doing a lot of interviews with companies that are selling renewable energy services, but what I’m really interested in learning about is how property owners are making their purchasing decisions. If we can better understand the customer, it will… Continue reading “[Interview] 5 Key Lessons Learned about a Homeowner’s Solar Buying Process”
Lessons Learned from Selling Community Scale Geothermal in New England I’ve heard a lot of pitches to about community geothermal, using a single loop field for many different households. The main benefit is simple, a reduction in drilling costs due to economies of scale. The roadblack, as always, is actually… Continue reading “Lessons Learned from Selling Community Scale Geothermal in New England”
Jigar Shah’s Call to Arms For Small Solar Companies Everywhere This week I flew to Chicago for the Illinois Solar Energy Association fund raiser. Jigar Shah delivered the keynote to 70 registrants, packed into Emmett’s Place in Palatine. I left at 9:30pm with an excited sense that Solar PV in… Continue reading “Jigar Shah’s Call to Arms For Small Solar Companies Everywhere”
Large Installers and Financiers DOMINATE the MASS Residential Solar Market, with 76% and 74% Market Share Respectively, and Other Interesting Data The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center has made data on the number of project funded through the Commonwealth solar grant available public. Find the on MA CEC’s website or download it here in excel format. The data is very detailed and… Continue reading “Large Installers and Financiers DOMINATE the MASS Residential Solar Market, with 76% and 74% Market Share Respectively, and Other Interesting Data”
Finance 101 for Solar PV Professionals In order to sell solar PV projects, especially commercial projects, you need to understand finance. Understanding finance will allow you to calculate and communicate the financial benefit of a system to your client. Download the Commercial Solar Finance Model Read… Continue reading “Finance 101 for Solar PV Professionals”
Part 2: How to Design PV – A Walkthrough of How to Size a Solar Array and Estimate Power Production This is the 2nd article in a series about how to design solar PV projects. We started with solar 101, the basics. If you’re brand new or need to brush up on the basics, please read it first. It discusses… Continue reading “Part 2: How to Design PV – A Walkthrough of How to Size a Solar Array and Estimate Power Production”
How to Design a Solar PV System 101: The Basic Terms Want a basic technical understanding of solar PV project terminology? Read on… If you’re an experienced installer, none of this information will be new to you. If you’re new to solar, it will be helpful. But keep in mind, we’ll… Continue reading “How to Design a Solar PV System 101: The Basic Terms”
What is the Difference Between a Solar Lease and Cash Customer? This is the last interview in the 5 part series we did with BrightGrid Renewable Energy Finance on residential solar leases and it’s one of the best. We focused most of the interview on specifics of what solar sales and… Continue reading “What is the Difference Between a Solar Lease and Cash Customer?”
Detailed 2012 SREC Market Update: NJ, MA, PA, CT, IL, DC, MD 7 Months ago we did an SREC 101 Episode for HeatSpring TV. The goal of the first interview was simple: to provide basic information on what SRECs are, the state of the current market, and what installers should know about… Continue reading “Detailed 2012 SREC Market Update: NJ, MA, PA, CT, IL, DC, MD”
Can We Eliminate Residential Solar Financing? A Conversation About Driving Down PV Costs with Barry Cinnamon from Westinghouse Solar This is a great thought experiment. Can we make solar PV so simple and cheap that we’ll no longer need residential solar financing? Jigar Shah thinks so. Shouldn’t the goal of the PV industry be to NOT need financing? Or,… Continue reading “Can We Eliminate Residential Solar Financing? A Conversation About Driving Down PV Costs with Barry Cinnamon from Westinghouse Solar”