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”
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”