Finance 101 for Renewable Energy Professionals Understanding finance is required to sell renewable energy projects. It’s needed to communicate the value of both residential and commercial projects, and for all types of technologies: solar PV, solar hot water, and geothermal heat pumps. The reason financial metrics are… Continue reading “Finance 101 for Renewable Energy Professionals”
How to Select a Top Solar Manufacturer To Work With For the fourth part of my interview series with BrightGrid Renewable Energy Finace, I spoke with Tim Slavin, VP of Credit and Operations at BrightGrid. We talked about a solar installer should be asking from their manufacturing partners and how… Continue reading “How to Select a Top Solar Manufacturer To Work With”
Certified GeoExchange Desiger Certification – The CGD – What is it? Who needs it? How to get it? Certified GeoExchange Designer Certification is the most prestigious credential that exists within the geothermal heat pump industry because few people have it. It’s hard to get because you can’t sit for the exam without some combination of education and experience… Continue reading “Certified GeoExchange Desiger Certification – The CGD – What is it? Who needs it? How to get it?”
“If you can’t install solar at $3.45/watt, you’re going out of business.” Straight Talk on Solar with Jigar Shah at NESEA 2012 Jigar Shah was my favorite presenter at this year’s Building Energy Conference. Mr. Shah founded SunEdison in 2003 and sold it five years later for $200 million. Here are some quotes he offered up in the “Energy Subsidies and the… Continue reading ““If you can’t install solar at $3.45/watt, you’re going out of business.” Straight Talk on Solar with Jigar Shah at NESEA 2012″
Selling Geothermal as a Hedge Against Rising Energy Prices Those of us in the ground source heat pump (GSHP) industry already know of the many benefits that these systems hold over conventional heating and cooling systems (and have probably explained them a hundred times over). But as the appeal… Continue reading “Selling Geothermal as a Hedge Against Rising Energy Prices”
[Free Tool] A Really Simple Solar PV Site Visit Checklist for Salespeople There are three areas that the most profitable and well run residential solar and geothermal companies do really well. Turn visitors into leads and know how qualified those leads are. The most profitable companies have an extremely clear process for… Continue reading “[Free Tool] A Really Simple Solar PV Site Visit Checklist for Salespeople”
Solar Hot Water Doesn’t Need R+D, IT NEEDS Promotion In the 2012 January/February issue of Solar Today, Bob Ramlow was featured discussing his thoughts on the future of the solar thermal industry. Bob entered the solar industry 40 years ago, designing and installing solar hot water systems and distributing… Continue reading “Solar Hot Water Doesn’t Need R+D, IT NEEDS Promotion”
5 Tips on Designing Vertical or Slinky Geothermal Loop Fields We’ve found it useful to focus on both articles that will help companies with their sales and marketing AND design and installation. A few weeks ago, I shared a piece – thanks to Ryan Carda – on geothermal flow path analysis for ground… Continue reading “5 Tips on Designing Vertical or Slinky Geothermal Loop Fields”
How Do you Handle Your Customers’ Tough Questions About Solar Leases? This is the third video in a five part series that HeatSpring created with BrightGrid Renewable Energy Finance to help residential solar contractors learn more about solar financing and leases. The goal is simple, we want to help installers to… Continue reading “How Do you Handle Your Customers’ Tough Questions About Solar Leases?”
HS TV Ep 9: How to Attract Top Talent or Find a Job in the Renewable Energy Industry Here is something I did not know. It has been as difficult for renewable energy companies to find amazing talent, as it has been for professionals to find a job in the renewable energy industry. Last week, I had an… Continue reading “HS TV Ep 9: How to Attract Top Talent or Find a Job in the Renewable Energy Industry”
HS TV Ep 8: 1/2 the Drilling Depth, 1/3 the Footprint, SCW vs. Closed Loop Geothermal Systems Standing column well geothermal projects have significant advantages over closed geothermal projects in certain circumstances. Standing column wells typically need half the amount of drilling then traditional closed systems, because they can transfer heat so much faster. Also, they be… Continue reading “HS TV Ep 8: 1/2 the Drilling Depth, 1/3 the Footprint, SCW vs. Closed Loop Geothermal Systems”
[Video] How to Select Solar Hot Water Components and System Types In this video, author and ISPQ Certified Master Trainer Bob Ramlow provides a detailed outline of common components found in solar thermal systems, and the four most common types of systems.
How Does a Solar Lease Work and How Do you Sell its Value The above video is part 2 in a 5 part series HeatSpring created with BrightGrid Renewable Energy Finance for solar installers about solar financing and solar leases. You can watch the full 5 part series “How to User Solar Leases… Continue reading “How Does a Solar Lease Work and How Do you Sell its Value”
The 4 Differences Between Geothermal Standing Column Well and Closed Loop Systems There are four major differences between standing column well (SCW) and closed loop geothermal systems. The use of exchange fluid Loop materials and characteristics Use of heat exchangers Applications of the technology To learn more about standing column well design, download… Continue reading “The 4 Differences Between Geothermal Standing Column Well and Closed Loop Systems”
What Residential Solar Companies Need to do to Successfully Offer a Solar Lease According to the State of California Energy Commission, in Q3 of 2011, the majority of residential systems were financed. What does this mean for solar installers? Simple. The solar lease is becoming the industry norm and you need to be… Continue reading “What Residential Solar Companies Need to do to Successfully Offer a Solar Lease”
Geothermal Loop Design: Series vs Parallel Flow Path Analysis When designing geothermal ground loops, this is an issue that a lot of people get hung up on. Because of the advantages of, we use parallel circuits in ground loops almost exclusively in our industry. Read more to hear why. When loops are tied… Continue reading “Geothermal Loop Design: Series vs Parallel Flow Path Analysis”
What You Need to know About Quoting and Selling Standing Column Well Systems It’s much easier to answer this question for residential applications. The price is composed of three pieces: the drilling cost, the loop field installation including underground piping to/from the building, and the HVAC system installation. Many times the driller is… Continue reading “What You Need to know About Quoting and Selling Standing Column Well Systems”
“Best Practices for Selling Geothermal” on Wednesday’s #GeoChat On 11am on Wednesday, January 18th, HeatSpring will be hosting a #geochat with guest expert Martin Orio, VP at Water Energy Distributors on twitter. Read more about the #geochat here. The topic for the first #geochat is “Best Practices for… Continue reading ““Best Practices for Selling Geothermal” on Wednesday’s #GeoChat”
HS TV Ep. 7: “Geothermal Will Give you Better Returns than the Stock Market” One of our goals in 2012 is to explore what can be done to make geothermal a mainstream technology. To get some more insights into what we need to do as an industry, I had a conversion with Harold, the… Continue reading “HS TV Ep. 7: “Geothermal Will Give you Better Returns than the Stock Market””
13 Steps to Basic Geothermal Standing Column Well Design HeatSpring Instructor Albert Koenig discusses the 13 steps to basic Geothermal Standing Column Well (SCW) Design… Unlike closed loop geothermal installations, open loop systems, in particular, standing column well (SCW), require more diligence from the designer than just the well… Continue reading “13 Steps to Basic Geothermal Standing Column Well Design”