It is important to point out this is an industrial, not residential, construction job.  Being a residential Solar Fabrication Technician (usually referred to as Solar Installer-Roofers) requires a slightly different skill set.  Residential solar fabrication involves a lot of retrofitting solar power systems into existing buildings.  This most commonly involves setting up solar panels on the roof and wiring them into the building’s electrical power grid.  Consequently, residential Solar Fabrication Technicians are a combination of carpenter, roofer, and electrician.  Industrial Solar Fabrication Technicians, in contrast, work more with metal, concrete, and heavy construction equipment.

Being an industrial Solar Fabrication Technician involves a slightly different set of trade skills than residential technicians.  It involves less carpentry and more metalworking.  Furthermore, on an industrial scale, construction positions are more specialized.  Industrial Solar Fabrication Technicians build and erect freestanding solar collectors and can leave the wiring to the electricians.

Solar Fabrication Technicians need to be proficient in working with metal sheeting and tubing, usually steel and copper.  You must be able to cut, bend, file, drill, rivet, weld, and paint metal, using machine shop equipment such as jigsaws and band saws, drill presses, power brakes, pneumatic drills, and rivet guns.

Requirements for Becoming a Solar Fabrication Technician

A Solar Fabrication Technician is one of the careers in the green power segment that doesn’t necessarily require a college degree.  Work experience and training in construction and the trades are more that sufficient.  You’ll need to complete either a vocational school program, or a trade apprenticeship program in an area such as metalworking or pipefitting.  Even if you haven’t completed such a program, enough years of work experience in the trades may be enough to qualify you for a position as a Solar Fabrication Technician.

That being said, an academic degree certainly doesn’t hurt.  In some sun farms, the solar panels are mobile, designed to be able to tilt and rotate to follow the sun across the sky to collect the most direct sunlight.  In such cases, Solar Fabrication Technician positions might require varying degrees of mechanical aptitude as well and trade skills. An Associate’s or even Bachelor’s degree in engineering or material science would certainly increase your chances of landing a Solar Fabrication Technician position at such a sun farm.  It would also help you get promoted to foreman or other supervisory positions.

If you are looking for a job in the green economy, keep in mind that a Solar Fabrication Technician job is mostly a construction position.  If you take pride in your craft, are willing and able to perform sometimes strenuous manual labor, and don’t mind working outdoors in potentially very hot weather (most sun farms are located in California and the Southwestern deserts for obvious reasons), then you’d be a good fit for the Solar Fabrication Technician job.

Boots on the Roof, a leading Renewable energy training institute, is enrolling students into its Alternative Energy Training classes. For more information on qualifications, Training Dates and Locations, click here.

Solar Installer-Roofers are the people who install solar panels and solar cells in the roofs of residential and commercial buildings.  Currently, trained, qualified Solar Roofers are hard to come by these days, even in our quickly growing “green” economy.  Why?  Because a Solar Roofer must not only possess the trade skills and construction experience of a roofer, but must also be a competent solar electrician.

Solar Roofs

There are basically two different types of solar roofing jobs being done today: retrofitting and integrated.  Retrofitting is installing a solar panel on an existing roof.  Integrating is incorporating solar cells and panels into a new roof being built.

Solar electrician skills are less important for retrofitting solar roofing.  This is a relatively easy job.  It basically consists of mounting one or more solar panels on an existing roof, and feeding the wiring though the roof to the battery banks.  A regular roofer could do this, and leave the wiring to an electrician.

Retrofitted solar roofs, however, have many drawbacks.  Solar panels are bulky, more exposed to the elements of wind, rain, and snow, and many consider them to be an eyesore that drags down property values.  Consequently, integrated solar roofing has become increasingly popular.  The solar panels are actually built into the roof, the sides more or less flush with the rest of the roof.  Such solar panels are less exposed to harsh weather and more aesthetically pleasing.  It’s still obvious, however, that you have solar panels on your roof.

To compensate for this problem, solar cell manufactures have started producing “solar shingles.”  These are specialized roofing shingles that have photovoltaic solar cells built into them, but otherwise appear to be the same shape, size, and color as regular asphalt shingles.  Solar shingles can provide an entire building roof that is essentially one big solar panel, but (from a distance, at least) looks like any other roof.  Although solar shingle roofs are increasingly popular, they have also increased the demand for Solar Installer-Roofers.

Unlike solar panels in which all the solar cells are already wired together, solar shingles must be wired together into a solar array as they are applied to the roof.  Furthermore, the solar shingles need to be installed and wired together before the rest of the roof is installed with regular shingles, so that the wires from the solar shingles can be run along the ridge cap of the roof, where they are hidden from sight and protected from harsh weather.

Requirements for Becoming a Solar Installer-Roofer

Solar Installer-Roofers are usually made rather than found.  Unfortunately, few people today possess both roofing trade skills and solar electronics training.  Therefore, solar roofing companies either hire roofers and train them to be solar electricians or hire solar electricians and train them to install roofs.

If you are already a roofer, enter a two-year program in electrical engineering at a community college or vocational school.  Another option is an electrician apprenticeship trade program.  Either way, this should give you the electrical knowledge and experience necessary to qualify for a Solar Installer-Roofer position.  For there, your employer should train you on the specifics of their methods and equipment.

On the other hand, if you are already have an Associates or Bachelors in electrical engineering, or are a certified electrician, you’ll need to train to become a roofer as well.  Vocational schools should at least offer a few classes in this construction skill, and some might even offer full programs.  Another route is to enter a roofing apprenticeship trade program.

Boots on the Roof, a leading Renewable energy training institute, is enrolling students into its Alternative Energy Training classes. For more information on qualifications, Training Dates and Locations, click here.

Most all systems that are installed today will have batteries to store solar power. This allows users to not only get power during the hours the sun is not up but on cloudy days as well. Solar energy systems are increasing in popularity. They are extremely efficient in saving energy as well as better for the environment then other energy sources. Here are some basic solar energy facts:

• Solar energy is one of the best energy sources for our environment
• It can be used to produce electricity through the photovoltaic solar panels to heat water, power heating & air conditioning units and any other electrical needs
• As the used of solar energy panels increases the demand all over the world increases
• Solar energy power is measured with 1 kilowatt equaling 1000 watts
• A 100 watt light bulb utilizes 1 kilowatt per hour
• In 1999 it was estimated that the average American household will use about 866-kilowatt hours per month in 1999 costing them $70.68 with this number being much higher now
• 30% of this usage being to simply heat their homes

There are a variety of solar panel installation courses and training programs available throughout the country.

Boots on the Roof, a leading Renewable energy training institute, is enrolling students into its Solar Thermal Training classes. For more information on qualifications, Training Dates and Locations, click here.

Solar panel install training is becoming more and more valuable as incentives are being offered as local and state or regional governments pass legislation to foster the increase in the number of smaller, individual solar generation systems. Like was accomplished in Hawaii, this legislation is designed to let individual systems reach parity with the local utility grid in terms of how much electricity is generated by the individual systems as versus the bigger utilities.

Grid parity is defined as being the point at which electricity generated through photovoltaic means is equal to or cheaper in price per kilowatt hour than that of grid power generated by the regional utility. This parity is expected to be achieved first in areas that have both abundant sunlight, yet has high costs for electricity as is found in California or Japan. Industry experts have predicted that the majority of the US will reach grid parity by the year 2015, although some report that this parity could be achieved by as soon as 2011.

The point of a solar energy education is to allow the installation of littler, systems that are placed on structures where no photosynthetic plants will be growing normally, making this form of electricity generated designated as a completely renewable resource since it has no CO2 emissions, nor will it impact on any renewable resources in the form of biomass (i.e. the production of corn which is used in the manufacture of biofuels).

Solar panel install training, usually offered for the use of smaller, individual systems, can sometimes extend to larger systems able to track the movement of the sun. The smaller systems have the solar panels set in a stationary, fixed position which allows the maximum amount of sunlight to hit them. They are usually combined with a net meter which allows the accurate measurement of power bought off the grid as well as any excess wattage generated by the solar panels, and which must be purchased from the homeowner by law.

The larger systems, sometimes referred to as “solar farms” are usually used by utilities because they can produce such large amounts of electricity. These systems have the solar collectors mounted on a mobile arrangement that can track the sun’s movement across the sky and move the panels accordingly so they can obtain a maximum exposure to sunlight during daylight hours.

A solar energy education in the form of classes which impart solar panel install training and/or solar power installation training will prove to be the doorway to the availability of a whole new range of jobs that will prove to be viable well into the future.