In response to the Colorado Solar Energy Industry Association’s recent release of their Million Solar Roofs Campaign Solar Energy International (SEI) has expanded the amount of Colorado based training opportunities for 2013.
Christopher Turek, Director of Online and Student Services for SEI said, “The increase of residential solar installations across the state is going to increase the need to a highly trained workforce here in the state of Colorado. SEI stands ready to be the preferred training provider for the thousands of solar professionals it will take to reach this goal of a Million Solar Roofs.”
“As an initial response to this campaign from COSEIA, SEI has expanded our Colorado based solar training opportunities and are offering over 50 workshops, online courses, and hands-on lab opportunities in Paonia, Boulder and Online in 2013. All of these courses and workshops qualify for credit towards graduating from SEI’s Solar Professionals Certificate Program.”
2013 Training Opportunities in Colorado Include:
SEI has been the solar industry’s leading technical solar training provider for solar installers and other related solar professionals for over 20 years. Many SEI students go on to achieve the required amount of real world experience to sit for leading industry certifications. In a recent study it was revealed that SEI has trained over a 1/3 of all North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, the nation’s leading certification entity.
NABCEP is the nation’s most established certification body for solar industry professionals; in 2010, its program was adopted as a standard benchmark in Colorado House Bill 10-1001. The intention was to require that appropriately trained professionals supervise solar PV project installations in order for the projects to qualify for ratepayer-funded incentives.
Blake Jones, CEO of Namaste Solar in Boulder Colorado said, “SEI is, of course, very well respected by Namaste Solar and the rest of the Solar Industry. This is taken into account when reviewing employment applicants’ resumes and where they received their training. Establishment of the SEI Solar Professionals Certificate Program will help formalize proof of a rigorous training program completion and make it easier to distinguish training certificate holders from other employment applicants.”
The goal of COSEIA’s campaign is to drastically increase the amount of solar applications across the state, both in Photovoltaic applications for generation of electricity as well as Solar Thermal applications for heating and cooling applications of solar energy technology.
From the COSEIA website, “You can help make this vision a reality by joining the Million Solar Roofs campaign. The goal is provide about 3 Gigawatts of solar energy in Colorado by 2030 through a combination of photovoltaic electric systems and solar thermal heating and cooling systems. We want to encourage and enable solar energy of all kinds and all sizes—from small arrays on homes to large utility-scale projects, and from community solar gardens to industrial rooftop projects.”
“When we envision generating enough energy to power a million solar roofs in Colorado by 2030, we are talking about a ten-fold increase in the amount of solar already installed in our state.”
“Currently, Colorado has nearly 300 megawatts of solar thermal and solar electric systems installed on more than 10,000 homes and businesses. We want to set the stage to scale up our use of the sun’s energy from niche market to mainstream source. A ten-fold increase would represent about 3 Gigawatts of solar and if we can generate more- so much the better.”
Solar Energy International (SEI) was founded in 1991 as a nonprofit educational organization to help others to use renewable energy resources and sustainable building technologies through education and technical assistance.
Our vision is focused on helping create a more sustainable future for our planet and its inhabitants. Through our work, we see clear opportunities to influence people’s thinking and behaviors towards energy efficiency and the use of natural, sustainable methods of energy production and utilization.
