Vermont Has the Most Progressive Solar Permitting Process in the Nation Until recently, Rachel Tronstein served as the Deputy Director of the SunShot Initiative at the U.S. Department of Energy. SunShot is a presidential level initiative focused on making R&D investments that will drive down the installed cost of solar so… Continue reading “Vermont Has the Most Progressive Solar Permitting Process in the Nation”
Two Things I Learned at the 2012 IGSHPA Conference On Tuesday October 2nd we hosted an evening program titled, “How to Make Money in Renewable Energy” for 45 brave souls who traveled to Indianapolis for the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) Conference. These were the panelists: Allan… Continue reading “Two Things I Learned at the 2012 IGSHPA Conference”
Made in Detroit: Do you Have a Customer with a Thermal Problem? A hybrid solar panel made in Detroit using automotive components, with investment from an EPC contractor in Florida. Interesting. Interesting enough that I spent two hours this week along with other members of the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association touring… Continue reading “Made in Detroit: Do you Have a Customer with a Thermal Problem?”
“How To Make Money in Renewable Energy” Meet-Up at the 2012 IGSHPA Conference Going to the IGSHPA conference in Indy? If so, let us buy you a drink. HeatSpring Learning Institute, GeoConnections, and ClimateMaster are hosting a meet-up for business owners in town for the IGSHPA Conference. Tuesday October 2nd – 7-9pm – Cost: Free… Continue reading ““How To Make Money in Renewable Energy” Meet-Up at the 2012 IGSHPA Conference”
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”
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”
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”
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”
The Entrepreneur vs General Contractor. Who Will Win the Clean Energy Race? There’s an interesting split in the residential and light commercial clean energy space lately. As consumer demand is surging and some “old” solar pv players are moving to bigger projects (Nexamp no longer does residential and is installing 4.5 MW… Continue reading “The Entrepreneur vs General Contractor. Who Will Win the Clean Energy Race?”
How to Use Lean Startup Methods in Renewable Energy to Increase Profits In the last few posts I’ve written about the process of expanding an existing construction company into renewable energy business and the single thing our marketing planwill focus on. If you’re new to the solar industry, go to the Solar 101… Continue reading “How to Use Lean Startup Methods in Renewable Energy to Increase Profits”
Lessons For Succeeding in a Family Business Did you know that 50% of US GDP is generated from family business? Or that 35% of the Fortune 500 are family companies? Chances are very high that you have worked with your parents, children, siblings, or spouse at some… Continue reading “Lessons For Succeeding in a Family Business”
How to Measure Demand for Geothermal Heating and Cooling in Your Area Your organization might want to break into the renewable energy fields — you may be considering geothermal and solar installation or energy auditing, but you might not know if you should take the plunge. You must determine: is there demand? The truth is, most times it… Continue reading “How to Measure Demand for Geothermal Heating and Cooling in Your Area”
Three Things You May Not Know About Solar PV Sales Is it really that difficult to sell solar PV, or do some professionals just make it seem that way? If you consider the financial incentives for investing (and that’s definitely the right word for it) in clean energy, coupled with… Continue reading “Three Things You May Not Know About Solar PV Sales”