With your education, you can earn anywhere from $31,200-$60,000 per year with solar engineers earning as much as $80,000. Now, that’s a good living any way you look at it while you are doing good things for the environment! However, to maximize your education, there are three things you must do.

Get Busy!

The solar sector of the renewable energy industry is one of its fastest growing areas. In fact, the Department of Energy’s Solar America Initiative predicts that solar power shall be a competitive energy source for commercial electricity by 2015! As such, many job opportunities are available for professionals who possess the right kind of qualifications. Therefore, professionals must get busy with acquiring more knowledge and more experience either from getting a solar school education or from the field.

If you cannot secure a job within the solar sector, volunteering in establishments that are solar-friendly can boost your résumé. If you have spare time, learn all you can about the industry through trade journals. If you must, take the low-paying job being offered just because it provides for entry into the solar sector. The point is to get busy expanding your network, your knowledge and your experience. Eventually, you will get noticed by the top honchos of the company and the sector you want to work in.

Get Noticed!

Even when you have attained good performance marks in your solar school education, you still need to get noticed by the solar industry. There are many ways to achieve this goal although you have to put your personal twist on them.

• First, you must attend industry conventions. These are venues where professionals converge to discuss the concerns and directions of the solar industry, which are also often excellent sources for employers to source out prospective employees. At the very least, you can distribute business cards and résumés to the people who matter in the industry.
• Second, you must build a good reputation within the industry. At present, the solar sector is sufficiently small to allow for an atmosphere of almost-everybody-knows-almost-everybody to pervade. As such, good word of mouth advertising as well as official recommendations from former employers and co-workers will provide for more job opportunities.

Again, the point is to get noticed in a positive way. It will not just be your education from a prestigious solar school that matters, but your personal and professional track record will matter, too!

Get Updated!

As usually happens, fast growth means fast obsolescence and fast turnover. As such, the solar industry is always on the lookout for newer, bigger and better technologies and applications.

In turn, the professionals must be constantly updated on these new technologies. It is a challenge that creates new business opportunities. It is fast growth that requires new knowledge. In short, the more you know of the latest in solar technologies and events, the more opportunities you have to maximize your solar school education!

Truly, solar education must be maximized not only for the sake of financial stability and career advancement but because it paves the way for a brighter and cleaner future.
Boots on the Roof is currently enrolling students into its upcoming Solar PV training boot camp. To learn more about dates, locations, and course details,  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.

One thing to consider is the reputation of the solar school.

• How long as the school been open and what type of certification do they offer?
• What is included in that certification?
• Who is the program recommended by or accredited by?

These are all questions that should be asked prior to signing up for any program.

Most of the time you will find that solar school certification programs travel and many of them are given as conferences. This allows many solar school programs to travel around and help to meet the demand that is growing in the market today. The industry has an amazing demand for qualified technicians and a limited supply. This is why many of the schools have chosen to go this route. It allows for maximum exposure and means that if an area does not yet have a program available but has a demand for certificated solar energy technicians the demand can be met within that area. This saves time and money allowing the industry to expand without stagnating.

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.

A solar hot water system can come in one of several forms. One particular style consists of a tankless hot water system that runs off the electricity generated by solar panels installed on the structure. Whenever hot water is needed, just the hot water that will be used is heated, offering a savings in energy costs to the homeowner because water does not need to be kept heated and circulated in a tank as is done with the older water tank technology.

The other system has specialty plumbing which runs under solar panels and is heated by the radiant heat that is collected by the solar panels. When it also is part of a system that provides heat to the structure, it runs through piping placed in the floors or walls, sending the cooled water back up to be reheated when the sun strikes the solar panels again. This particular configuration might require specialized solar panels installation training to insure that the panels and plumbing cause no damage to the structure in the event of a malfunction.

Even solar hot water systems that are gas fired might have to have electrical circuitry installed to fire the starter or ignition system, so it is still quite possible to gain a saving in energy costs by making use of the electrical energy generated by solar panels, rather than having to buy power from the local utility grid.

Ideally, solar hot water training or solar panels installation training will help someone who is already in the contracting business to integrate this new, green technology into new construction. In addition, the contractor can make this technology available to those who are looking to do remodeling and who want to upgrade from older, less energy-efficient systems. Through these solar training classes, the resulting replacement of the old technology will prove to be a savings both in reduced power usage by the consumer, and will draw less on vanishing resources like the coal now used to generate a significant portion of the electricity consumed today.

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.