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 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”
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”
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”
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”
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?”
Solar Financing Options and the Benefits of Each The residential, commercial and utility scale solar financing markets are different and have their own dynamics. If you’re really interested in learn more about financing commercial solar PV projects, I have three resources for you. Click here to sign up… Continue reading “Solar Financing Options and the Benefits of Each”
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”
[Photo Guide] How to Install A Solar Thermal System You’ve held a solar thermal workshop and generated some leads, prepared a solid sales presentation, sold your first job, designed the system and now you’re curious about the installation process. While the installation process may not take a long time compared… Continue reading “[Photo Guide] How to Install A Solar Thermal System”
Designing a “Sellable” Solar (or Geothermal) Company – Part 2 In my last post, I wrote about my marketing plan for starting a renewable energy company that will be an offshoot of an existing construction company in the great state of Maine. Now, I’m going to discuss how we’ll be setting up… Continue reading “Designing a “Sellable” Solar (or Geothermal) Company – Part 2″
Solar Thermal Is Finally Gaining Traction For the past 5 years solar photovoltaics (pv) has been capturing more than its fare share of media attention, government attention and, I would argue, market growth. But there seems to be signs that this trend is reversing. It’s not… Continue reading “Solar Thermal Is Finally Gaining Traction”
How to Build a Renewable Energy Division in an Existing Building Company – PART 1 A lot of residential and light commercial renewable energy work is starting to be picked up by general contractors, like Jamie Leef of S+H Construction in Cambridge. Why? General contractors are in a unique position to pick up this work because they’re used… Continue reading “How to Build a Renewable Energy Division in an Existing Building Company – PART 1”
HeatSpring TV Episode 1: General Contractors Getting into Renewables The first episode of HeatSprint TV, known as HS TV from now on, is live! In the first episode of HS TV, I discuss 5 current new stories of importance and welcomed our first guest, Jamie from S+H Construction. We discuss… Continue reading “HeatSpring TV Episode 1: General Contractors Getting into Renewables”
Five Key Items for Writing a Solid Renewable Energy Sales Proposal If you’re currently a contractor and interested in entering or expanding your business into the renewable energy industry, there are four main hurdles you will face. Understanding the technology. See this free course to learn more about the technology basics.… Continue reading “Five Key Items for Writing a Solid Renewable Energy Sales Proposal”
6 Ways to Not Waste Your Money on Solar Training BUYER BEWARE; when purchasing training, there are a lot of training providers coming into the market. Some are good, but some are bad. You’re smart–just do your homework. Everyone looking to get into solar industry should take some quality technical… Continue reading “6 Ways to Not Waste Your Money on Solar Training”
The 9 Best Geothermal and Solar Resources on the Internet This is a simple post. Here are our favorite solar and geothermal resources we’ve run into (or created!) over the past couple years that are really useful resources for understanding the technology, basic design, policy and sales of solar and… Continue reading “The 9 Best Geothermal and Solar Resources on the Internet”