Become a PV Solar Retailer / Installer
As I mentioned in my Intersolar post earlier this week, attending the Intersolar conference and tradeshow is a good opportunity to experience the growth and employment potential of the PV (photovoltaic) solar industry. Specifically, I was looking for tips to pass on to Ecopreneurist readers, and I found that this show (and possibly others) is/are a great way to get free information about starting a solar business.
On the last day of the show (yesterday), Jeff Spies, Director of Training & Tradeshows of AEE Solar gave a half-day workshop called “Launch and Grow Your Solar Business”. Free to attendees of the Intersolar exhibits, the workshop covered everything from the qualifications needed to become a solar dealer to common configurations of residential and small commercial solar power installations to business strategies. And, if you would have signed up before early June, registration to the exhibit portion of the show would have been free (and after that point it was $100).
- » See also: Interview with Jamie Wimberly, CEO EcoAlign, publisher of “Green Gap Redux: Green Words Gone Wrong”
- » Get Ecopreneurist by RSS or sign up by email.
Spies was joined by David Katz (AEE Solar CEO and founder), who seemed to know everything about different solar products and technologies. It was an informative talk even for those of us just looking to round out our solar knowledge.
But if you are seriously considering going into the solar sales and installation business, you may want to check out AEE Solar’s website, which includes free training Webinars.
As for the question about whether it is a good time to launch a solar business, Spies pointed to the fact that there has been a 40% reduction of solar panel production costs in less than a year. In addition, the federal incentive now has no cap (for rebating 30% of a system cost), which is often supplemented by state and local incentives. Systems should become more affordable, and we can all hope that demand will increase significantly as credit markets loosen up.
