Top Alternative Energy Articles of 2011: Companies Love Technology but want Sales 2011 was an amazing year for renewable energy. All industries had impressive growth, product innovation, and business model innovation. Here are the top 10 posts from HeatSpring Magazine in 2011, based on the number of reads each post received, and… Continue reading “Top Alternative Energy Articles of 2011: Companies Love Technology but want Sales”
The Top 7 Trends that Will Impact Renewable Energy Profits in 2012 The beginning of 2012 is here and the lookout is bright for renewable energy. There are some roadblocks ahead and some barriers we cannot yet see that will become clear. Overall, the renewable energy industries are becoming a force to… Continue reading “The Top 7 Trends that Will Impact Renewable Energy Profits in 2012”
Q+A with Solar Thermal Expert Bob Ramlow: Hard Water Issues, PV Powered Solar Thermal and Air Venting Bob Ramlow answers student questions about solar thermal. He tackles hard water, PV powered solar thermal systems, and best practices for air vent installations. Is hard water an issue with closed loop solar thermal systems? Are solar PV powered solar thermal… Continue reading “Q+A with Solar Thermal Expert Bob Ramlow: Hard Water Issues, PV Powered Solar Thermal and Air Venting”
3 Learnings from Last Week’s #Solarchat and What it Says about the Future of the Industry Last week a number of solar super stars on twitter decided to discuss how we can mainstream solar. The conversion happened on twitter. I’m not going to give a recap or discuss what we talked about, you can find great… Continue reading “3 Learnings from Last Week’s #Solarchat and What it Says about the Future of the Industry”
Lessons Learned from Inventing a Solar Installation Tool and How it Can Help you Sell More Projects Let me first start by saying that this article is indeed a piece of shameless promotion. It is about a solar installation tool that I invented while I was running a crew installing residential photovoltaic arrays in Massachusetts. At first, I was not… Continue reading “Lessons Learned from Inventing a Solar Installation Tool and How it Can Help you Sell More Projects”
David vs. Goliath: How Can Small Companies Win in the Solar Industry? In the last few years a small number of big companies have gotten heavily focused on the residential solar market. SunRun, SolarCity, Sungevity, and Real Goods Inc, have raised a ton of money from both private and public investors to… Continue reading “David vs. Goliath: How Can Small Companies Win in the Solar Industry?”
3 Reasons Massachusetts is a Great Place to Sell Solar Thermal and How to Start Doing it Why? A few reasons: I’d argue too many people are looking at solar pv and it’s becoming more competitive. Just look at how many solar pv installers there are in Massachusetts, there’s around 50. This number is increasing as more… Continue reading “3 Reasons Massachusetts is a Great Place to Sell Solar Thermal and How to Start Doing it”
How the Shift from Early Adopters to the Mass Market Impacts your Solar Marketing Efforts What strikes me most about renewable energy websites is how much companies tend to to talk about themselves and the technology and not about what the customer actually cares about. Actually, let me rephrase this, what “mainstream customers” care about.… Continue reading “How the Shift from Early Adopters to the Mass Market Impacts your Solar Marketing Efforts”
[Photos] How to Frame a Super Insulated Home There has been a lot of hoop-la and craziness around passive homes, net zero energy homes, and super energy efficient homes. I’ve been amazed at how easy it can actually be. My friend is building a house that will burn… Continue reading “[Photos] How to Frame a Super Insulated Home”
How to Select the Most Profitable Projects (and clients) for Your Business In the last post, we discussed “the sales equation” that every solar company should maximize. As a reminder, here is the equation (Note, for this article the questions are applicable to both solar and geothermal companies): “The Sales Equation” =… Continue reading “How to Select the Most Profitable Projects (and clients) for Your Business”
Answer 3 Questions to Make your Small Business a Solar Sales Machine The most important element of a profitable solar company is maximizing what I am referring to as “the sales equation”. In this article, I want to share specifically what the sales equation is, and what questions you can ask to… Continue reading “Answer 3 Questions to Make your Small Business a Solar Sales Machine”
Lessons Learned from Selling a Solar Company to SunEdison Now that hard installation costs are dropping rapidly in the solar pv industry, everyone’s looking at how to decrease soft costs. Across the board support for decreasing solar’s soft costs is the result of how well organized the industry is… Continue reading “Lessons Learned from Selling a Solar Company to SunEdison”
Solar Shingles Are Available – Does Anyone Care? I remember many years ago, there was a lot of emphasis and news around solar shingles. Why? Because 3 or 4 years ago many people thought that the look of solar photovoltaic modules would hinder adoption and the whole industry… Continue reading “Solar Shingles Are Available – Does Anyone Care?”
The Battle to Reduce Solar’s “Soft Costs” is Starting and How it Can Increase Your Solar Company’s Profits The solar industry is going through massive change. Module and balance and systems prices are dropping quickly, there has been an influx of new products, financing is becoming commoditized and the solar supply chain is shifting rapidly. The results of… Continue reading “The Battle to Reduce Solar’s “Soft Costs” is Starting and How it Can Increase Your Solar Company’s Profits”
Let’s be Honest, This is Not a Solar Trade War with China As recent news of a “solar trade war” has emerged, I’ve searched for words to convey my opinion on the situation. From the point of a solar installer and the whole industry for that matter, one thing is clear. Lower prices… Continue reading “Let’s be Honest, This is Not a Solar Trade War with China”
IGSHPA Installer Accreditation Versus Vertical Loop Installer (Driller) Accreditation In the past, we’ve written a few articles about what exactly the IGSHPA accreditation is, if it’s worthwhile, and when contractors should get it. The International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) now has a separate program for drillers, called “Vertical… Continue reading “IGSHPA Installer Accreditation Versus Vertical Loop Installer (Driller) Accreditation”
Renewable Energy is Making the Trades Sexy Again Although I went to Babson College, a relatively conservative business school, I grew up in rural Maine working on farms and doing carpentry. I find huge value in craftsmanship and hard work and its why guys like Gerry Wagner are… Continue reading “Renewable Energy is Making the Trades Sexy Again”
A Couple DIY Solar Thermal Ideas For You I didn’t go to engineering school, but I love engineering and prototyping. I love thinking about systems, how to maximize output (or whatever your goal is) depending on the constraints whether it be space, time, or money. From concept, to design,… Continue reading “A Couple DIY Solar Thermal Ideas For You”
The Best Sales Tool For Small Renewable Energy Companies I’m in the search for the best sales tool to sell solar pv, solar thermal and geothermal. I am building a renewable energy company, and I’m focused on building the most profitable company I can. We’re a small company, we haven’t… Continue reading “The Best Sales Tool For Small Renewable Energy Companies”
HS TV Ep 4: Renewable Energy Politics. A Conversation with Stephen Lacey Politics is hugely important to the renewable energy industry. Above all else, our industry needs stable policy. Being a small businesses, it’s hard to keep up on the very industry-specific policies, even though these policies are very important for your… Continue reading “HS TV Ep 4: Renewable Energy Politics. A Conversation with Stephen Lacey”