How do I get started in the solar industry?

Published on August 28, 2008 by Dan Hahn.
Categories: Solar Employment.

Since we get requests from plenty of you that want to make the jump into the solar industry each week, we figured it’s about time to address how that may be achieved. In this article, I’ll review steps you need to take if you wish to become a solar salesperson. Understandably, others of you will be interested to learn how you can become a solar installer or perhaps form your own solar contracting business. If that’s the case, hang tight, we’ll get to that in a subsequent post.

1.  Be informed. Perhaps the most pressing concern of any solar hiring manager is that you, as a prospective sales employee, don’t know the ins and outs of solar. Meaning, you don’t know what net-metering is, how energy usage relates to system sizing, why shading considerations are so important, what the purpose of an inverter is, or measures installation crews take to prevent roof leakage. From their perspective, they want to spend as little time training new employees as possible, especially if you are unproven and may soon quit.

Currently, there’s a push to get deals approved before federal tax credits expire at the end of the year. Therefore, free time to train new solar reps is at a premium. It’s up to you to gain as much knowledge and experience on your own, before you contact any installers for a job. Simply reading about all of this will not suffice. Why? Because when you are reading about the basics of solar from any other source, content is being delivered to you regardless of your curiosity about the interplay between different solar system components. You need to actively learn for any of this stuff to really sync in.

For me, I didn’t know an inverter from an invertebrate. So, I wrote about this stuff for over a year and learned a whole lot that way. A similar suggestion will follow for you in a bit, but I first recommend calling a solar installer in your area, asking to speak with a salesperson, then offering to buy them a really nice lunch or two for letting you ride along for a half day. That way, you can ask very basic questions without being judged as a peer. Your basic questions should lead to more complex questions. If not, you haven’t been asking the right questions.

While solar energy technology is relatively elegant and simple, there’s a lot to learn. Even seasoned professionals are learning heaps of new information at conferences, networking sessions, and classes. Once your most simple questions have been addressed, read through blogs and use google as your friend to get answers to the rest of your questions. Better yet, post them as a comment here and we’ll answer them for you.

2. Be persistent. Solar power installers get reams of resumes each week. Really, they do. I’ve seen them. It’s a little depressing. Clearly, you aren’t alone when thinking that solar is a good career move. Even if you’ve got a great looking font, some sales experience, and your paper smells like lemon squares, your resume most likely will not generate a phone call on its own.

Once you are somewhat solar knowlegable, have demonstrated you know concerns customers have when faced with an investment decision like this one, it’s time to pick up the phone and set some interview appointments so you can show what you know, and suggest ways in which you can help out. That’s right, ask for an interview up front. Your persistence and follow-through in this process can demonstrate a lot to your potential employer about how you will handle communications with stalwart customers in your sales funnel. Now, you need not only to be persistent but you need to…

3. Be professional. The days of hippy, weed toking, earth hugging solar fly by night installation outfits are over. Clean-tech is now one of the few well capitalized Wall Street investment sectors. While a lot of cash is flowing into solar, suppliers expect their installation partners to handle themselves with integrity, conscientiousness, and accountability. Otherwise, they will simply restrict their access to panels which are already in short supply and cultivate steadier relationships with other installation crews. Expectations for professionalism trickle all the way down to the point of contact with each prospective client, also known as, you. Therefore, dress sharp, be organized, prepare to be a consultative friend, and be alert (perhaps well caffeinated) before you speak with anyone about solar.

4. Sell your character. Investing in a solar energy system is not like buying a car. They are fundamentally different purchases, and you will not build a solid referral base without treating your customers with the utmost dignity, respect, and honor. Proof of outstanding customer service builds loyalty not just to you, but to the organization you chose to affiliate yourself with. 85% or more of your business will derive from referrals. They are gold. If it isn’t clear to any customer or business that you aren’t a stand up person with their best interests in tow, I don’t care if you’ve had experience and are facile with high pressure closes, you aren’t going to build a solid referral base, period. And you will flounder.

People do business with people they like, people they trust. In any interview, you need to be able to demonstrate through past behaviors ways in which you went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure your customers had positive experience with any service you were delivering. Doesn’t even matter if it is food-service. While solar hiring managers may not ask you these types of behavioral interview questions, make it a point to communicate how your past actions resulted in remarkable outstanding experiences that clients felt compelled to share with others.

5. Be in the industry. Hiring managers look for candidates that “get it”. Meaning, you understand the financials as well as the environmentals behind an investment in solar energy, have a handle on “net present value”, can speak carefully and accurately about depreciation expenses, tax credits, and renewable energy portfolio standards.

Here’s where I am going to make an offer to anyone who wants it. If you’re really smart, if you can write, and have the burning desire to land that solar sales job, send me an email. Attached to this email, add a writing sample of at least two paragraphs. I will use my network to put you on an assignment in your state to get some hands on experience. While that position will not pay, it isn’t that time intensive, you will be published, and your experience writing about how homes and businesses in your area went solar will be able to set you apart from 99% other candidates for any solar sales position you are after. However, I’m expecting a solid effort from you and want some more ammunition to fire when colleagues at dinner suggest that our educational system is in shambles.

Microinverters: A major advancement in solar energy technology

Published on August 23, 2008 by Dan Hahn.
Categories: Solar Technology.

While it may appear as though Dave has fallen asleep recharging himself, he’s actually got a sexy new piece of solar equipment in his arms. The slim metal box is called an Enphase “micro-inverter”. No, a micro-inverter is not akin to a kickflip, ollie, or other skateboard trick.

If you’re just getting familiar with solar electric technology, you probably know at this point that there are two major components necessary to produce usable electricity from the sun. Simply slapping panels up on your roof and running wire down to your home won’t do a whole lot of good unless you plan on vaporizing your spouse.

To convert that direct current from the panels into usable electricity, what is required is a pretty bulky box called an inverter. So, you might imagine that a “micro-inverter” would simply be a smaller version of this box, right? Kinda like a “micro-chip” or a “micro-machine” or “micro-economics” (ugh)? The short answer is, “uh-huh”. In sum, this micro-technology is a hell of a lot better for many reasons. To understand why though, let’s get a little more familiar with “regular” inverters and how they work with solar panels.

Pretend for a minute or two that you are newly named foreman of a very unique Peruvian diamond mine. Diamonds from this mine sparkle with a luminescence unlike any other diamonds. However, to create these special gems, the raw diamond material must be polished minutes after it is extracted from the earth to attain this luster.

The previous foreman (let’s call him Hector), only trusted one person (let’s call him Jose) to polish the rough unfinished diamonds into highly desirable, glittery diamonds. Of note, Jose has recently called off work with illness more than usual, is nearing retirement age, and you sense he’s becoming a little disgruntled. The rest of Hector’s miners (Juan, Domingo, and Maria) extract raw diamond material from the mine but are highly interdependent on one another to get their rough diamonds to Jose before they lose their ability to be special and glittery. Meaning, if Domingo decides to take a break, Juan and Maria have to stop what they are doing to wait for him to get back to work before they can pass more diamond material along the line for Jose to polish.

Consequently, a lot of valuable diamond material gets wasted. Hector was fired because the daily yields from his mines were, well… lackluster. To alleviate this problem and get more special sparkly diamonds out of the mine, what do you do? Hold that thought.

In a conventional solar power system, interdependent strings of panels are placed on roofs and operate in much the same fashion as Hector’s miners. Panel A, Panel B, and Panel C are a lot like Juan, Domingo, and Maria. If one panel gets obstructed even by just a little bit by a big leaf, bird poop, or lovely tree shade, the entire string of solar panels suffers, sending significantly less or even no raw power down the line.

Each panel needs to work with other panels in the string to get raw power to the inverter. The regular inverter is a lot like Jose, taking the direct, rough, unfinished current from the combined panels and converting it into sparkly, glittery alternating current you can use in your home. So, when shading or obstructions impact one of the panels (a lot like Juan, Domingo, or Maria taking a breather), the inverter (Jose) has a lot less raw material or current to work with. Let’s go back to the mine.

What if you placed small robots alongside Juan, Domingo, and Maria to monitor their performance and carefully polish raw diamond material into finished diamonds? Then, even if Domingo is unable to find any raw diamond material to extract, Maria can still be extracting, polishing, and producing.

In addition to teaching your employees new skills (which by the way has been related to lower turnover), you are now a lot less reliant on a disgruntled employee (Jose), you can increase your diamond harvest, and you are able to eliminate a point of failure along your production line. Your only concern is that your workers get along well with their new micromanaging robot companions.

This is precisely the reasoning which led Enphase Energy engineers to create micro-inverters. Micro-inverters are attached to every single solar panel in the system and each one is capable of converting direct current from its solar panel into usable electricity – independent of other panels on the string. This means that even if one panel gets shaded a little bit by dust, bird poop, or a tree, the other panels are still capable of feeding usable electricity into your home or business.

Moreover, you are no longer reliant on the regular inverter, a bulky eyesore of a box that has a lifespan of 10-20 years. Currently, if you have a massive solar installation on your commercial plant, when your inverter fails, you need to purchase all of your electricity from the grid until it gets replaced. That can represent a sizable chunk of unplanned cash out of pocket.

In addition to more uptime, micro-inverters allow system owners to monitor the energy output of each individual panel, alerting them if one is underperforming (Each micro-inverter can send a signal through your internet connection so that you can see how well each one is doing).

What’s more, you can now combine different types of panels together and place them at different orientations to the sun and still expect good production out of them – unheard of before. 

Finally, micro-inverters allow your solar system to be scalable – meaning you can purchase a few panels to start out with, then add onto your system without additional engineering outlays. Lab tests indicate these micro-inverters will have a lifespan of about 120 years.

Test out our new solar energy calculator!

Published on August 22, 2008 by Dan Hahn.
Categories: Solar Financing, Solar Pricing, san francisco.

So, I have spent 14 straight hours designing this residential solar power calculator for San Francisco homeowners. I think it’s a lot better tool than many other calculators out there right now and I hope you all get some use out of it whether you live in San Francisco or not. The plan is to create a calculator and a case study from each state in our nation so you can better understand the financials of solar in your area! Notice you need to take a look at your power bills for your average monthly kwh usage, then click to include your installed cost per watt for your system (usually between $8-$10/watt), and finally input the wattage of the panels you plan on putting up there (175-210 is pretty standard). Once you fill those yellow cells in, the output is automatic and will give you out of pocket, net costs, and payback period for a system that will eliminate your entire power bill! In addition to estimating your immediate property value increase, I also calculate the number of panels you’ll need and the square footage of roof space that’ll be required.

Basic assumptions I made were that your roof is flat or southerly facing, you don’t have any shading issues, and the price of electricity will rise at an average rate of 6% per year (which is a relatively conservative estimate). Have fun and I hope this helps! Remember, if this tool gives you some sticker shock, relax. You can finance the remaining cost of your system after tax credits and subsidies. Often the cost of your monthly payments are at parity or even lower than your existing power bill.

I Almost Died

Published on August 18, 2008 by Dave Llorens.
Categories: Solar Trends.

This happened when I was still working for my old solar company, NextEnergy Solar. Not a joke.  let’s just say it was miller time when I got home.

“Ma’am, what’s the best way to get to your roof? We need to see where we’d put the solar panels and we don’t have a four story ladder.”

“I think this door goes out on to the roof, but I’ve never been out there.”

“OK… wait, it doesn’t seem to open… I think it’s just painted shut though, you mind if I…”

*motions of shoulder nudging it*

“Sure, go ahead.”

*Nudge* Nothing. *Harder Nudge* Nothing.

*Three more violent shoulder rammings*

“Let’s go try the window.”

*One last goodbye give-it-my-best ramming attempt.*

(It gives a about a milimeter)

“Hey! I think I can get it, it’s moving!”

*Ultra violent running shoulder ramming*

It gives more, about 3 MM now.

“Hey, that door looks like it may fall off its hinges if you keep ramming it. Do you think you will be able to close it if you get it open?”

“….. hmm… You’re right” *Disappointed look*

“OK, let’s try the window.”

Thoughts about starting a solar non-profit

Published on August 15, 2008 by Dan Hahn.
Categories: Solar Trends.

Students just out of college or other altruistic career changers who really want to make a difference contact us every week, asking for our thoughts regarding new ways they can inform others about solar. Check out an email I received just a few short hours ago:

My goal in life is to start a Non-Profit organization that reaches out
towards high school students, but welcomes anyone interested into a
renewable energy training program. I’m an Electrician, so basically all I
can contribute at the moment is Solar, but I would like to eventually expand
to all aspects of renewable energy. Students would learn theory, and get
hands on experience, ideally installing solar panels for the community using
donations, and possibly tuition money.. I could go on forever ranting and
raving about what I’d like to do with it, I don’t want to waste your time
because it’s really all a fantasy right now, but I think it’s a pretty good
idea. If I had the opportunity to do this out of high school I definitely
would have, and so would have a number of my friends. The whole idea that I
have is that the organization would eventually act as a company, it would
get solar jobs, the students would be charged out at a reasonable rate, and
paid a reasonable wage!
, all profits after overhead would be donated to the advancement of
renewable fuels and education.

I’m almost 25, I’d like to see it happening before I’m 30, but I really have
no idea where to start. I want your honest opinion on the idea. Do you have
any suggestions? How could I go about getting some sort of funding for a
project like this?

- Dave Dugan

First off, this is a damn good idea Dave Dugan. If others of you think generation Y is full of a bunch of ringtone searching, videogame obsessed, gossiping malevolents, check your head and consider how much passion really came from Dave there. If more people shared his sentiments and fervor across the country, we’d be in a lot better place fiscally and environmentally. Regarding ideas for him, I immediately thought of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, simply because it has been drilled into my head over and over again by everyone from Terry Gross to Garrison Keillor of NPR. Their mission is to create a more just, peaceful, and verdant world. Sounds like there would be some synergy with that last bit, no? I’d begin by picking up the phone and calling them and describing your ideas. They should be able to steer you in the right direction. Dave (the co-editor here at SPR) also suggested the following:

“Research nolo.com for becoming a non profit, and research possible grants
for beginning.I’m a fan of trade schools, which is what this is essentially although a
non-profit trade school.In San Francisco, there are city workforce development programs. Talking to someone at your city hall about this may also be a route to take. Search for
city workforce programs such as this and get in touch with the people who started
them. Use the phone. These are the best off-the-top-of-my-head things I can think of.”

Solar Panel Shortage

Published on August 1, 2008 by Dan Hahn.
Categories: Solar Trends.

There’s a solar panel shortage worldwide, but the solar industry is getting hit especially hard here in the US.

In California, the state rebate makes incremental drops as more and more people install solar. When the rebate is close to a drop point, solar salespeople make a large push for their fence-sitting customers get panels now, as it’s a very powerful selling point… that works.

Well that’s exactly what’s happening in Germany right now, but it’s a much bigger deal. Germany will pay you for your energy production for TWENTY YEARS with what’s called a “feed-in tariff.” Well, you can imagine that if you’re thinking of building a solar farm in Germany, you’d like to lock in the current twenty year payment price before it drops, right? So that’s one hell of a selling point.

This massive last minute push for solar in Germany before the drop is causing many distributors of photovoltaic panels to ship overseas, adding to the problem of an already painful shortage of solar panels in the US. Couple that with exploding demand in the US due to powerful new subsidies in places like New Jersey, Maryland, Hawaii, Colorado, (along with others states and municipalities), and we’re in trouble.

I don’t blame the distributors. With a strong Euro and the ability to get 125% – 150% as much money for their panels there, why wouldn’t they? It’s business.

What can we do? Not much. Supply will converge with demand at some point, though the problem will likely worsen before it gets better.

What can YOU do? Make sure to ask your installer what their fulfillment issues are with the shortage and if they can get panels… and try to get an honest answer. Get a few bids for solar. Bigger players may have more sway with their distributors or carry a more diversified product line. Most importantly, get solar now and stop thinking about it. There’s never been a better time than right now.