get started learning the installer trade
BRAISIN’ IN THE SUN:
PRO
in Paonia
Turning
Solar Energy International’s renewable energy lab in Paonia, Colo., has four silicon photovoltaic
systems plus a tall wind turbine, with a thin-film system coming on line in 2010.
Story and photos by SETH MASIA
Want a solar job?
There’s no substitute
for hands-on rooftop
experience. Get it
in a world-class
training course.
Seth;Masia;is;managing;editor;of;SOLAR TODA Y.
Contact;him;at;smasia@solartoday.org.
After years of fussing around with do-it-yourself energy projects, I knew it was time to learn some professional- level skills. So I signed up for a 10-day course in photovoltaic (PV) design and installation at Solar Energy International
(SEI). The course prepares students for the
North American Board of Certified Energy
Practitioners (NABCEP) entry-level exam
and is given, during summer months, over a
two-week period at SEI’s renewable energy lab
in Paonia, Colo. In colder weather, the course
moves to warmer, mostly sea-level locations.
SEI grew out of the small renewable energy
community in Carbondale, Colo. During the
energy crisis of the early 1970s, Johnny Weiss,
Ken Olson, Steve McCarney and a few other
forward-thinking contractors began putting up
solar houses, partly paid for with Carter-era
incentives. By 1980, Colorado Mountain Col-
lege (CMC), the local community college, had
launched a solar energy training program. Over
the next decade, Weiss, Olson and McCarney
designed and taught courses at CMC.
By 1990, after 10 years of Reagan-era policies, support for community college clean energy courses had just about dried up. McCarney
went into the solar business (today he runs
Kyocera Solar in the United States; kyocera
solar.com). Weiss and Olson, in discussions
with CMC, determined that the training program would do better as a stand-alone nonprofit institution, and in 1991, SEI was born. The
pair taught about 200 students that first year,
most of them do-it-yourselfers who wanted to
put solar, wind and microhydro projects on
their own land.
In 2009, about 3,000 students went
through the wide variety of courses at SEI,
taught by 20 full-time and 30 part-time staffers. All the instructors have real-world experience as installers and solar business owners;
about half got their start in solar by taking an
entry-level course at SEI. Weiss notes that the
majority of today’s students want new careers
in renewable energy.
