Sean White‘s Solar and Energy Storage Podcast

Brian Hayden Co-founder HeatSpring Renewable Energy Online Training Platform Part 4

In this part of my interview with Brian Hayden, we discuss drones, space, making online class content, how COVID effects the solar industry, a view of the solar industry stepping back and blurring out the ups and downs and what does good online training look like.

To find out more about this podcast or HeatSpring online training, where Sean has now had 15k students sign up for his online classes, go to solarsean.com

Radio Station 705: 2020 NEC 705 Interconnected Power Production Sources

This is a reading from the 2020 NEC of Article 705 Interconnected Power Production Sources, which features 705.11 Supply-Side Source Connections, 705.12 Load-Side Source Connections and the new in 2020 705.13 Power Control Systems (PCS). 705.13 is new and will be very useful for making interconnections, so that we are not limited by the options in 705.11 and 705.12. When we have very smart electronics coordinating the currents, such as with smart load centers, CTs and smart inverters, PCSs can make sure our busbars do not melt. Artificial Intelligence anyone?

For someone who is just learning about PV or energy storage and has no idea about the NEC, this might be overwhelming, or at least a way to get familiar with the terminology while falling to sleep. For those of you that are familiar with the NEC, dive into island mode!

For more information about Sean White, Solar and Energy Storage, such as online classes or hiring Sean to teach at your company for NABCEP credit, go to solarsean.com.

Greg Smith of Sonnen Battery Part 2

This week, we discuss the importance of software, artificial intelligence, controllable breakers, 2020 NEC 690.13 Power Control Systems, home automation platforms, blockchain, benefits to ac coupling, a 10,000 cycle warranty, Shell’s purchase of Sonnen and Shell’s renewable energy history.

To find out more about Sean White’s, online classes or to hire Sean for live trainings for NABCEP credit go to www.solarsean.com.

Greg Smith of Sonnen Battery and formerly of SMA, Part 1

Greg Smith is a micro-Celebrity in the Solar and Storage industry. He has been the top US technical training manager at two of the top German renewable energy companies. Sonnen is perhaps the most mature lithium ion company in the world that has just celebrated its 10^th birthday. If you have been to a big solar show in the US in the last 10 years, you have passed Greg, probably with a crowd around him, as he is excited about the technology he espouses.

This is part 1 of a series of podcasts with Greg. In this episode we cover Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) Lithium-ion batteries, UL 9540 listing of complete Energy Storage Systems and what the inspectors sometimes look for.

To find out more about Sean White, go to solarsean.com

HeatSpring Online Renewable Energy Training Platform Co-founder Brian Hayden week 3

This week we learn how HeatSpring came to be by two MBA candidates from Boston based Babson College’s entrepreneur program. Their recipe is to find the best instructors, who are SMEs that like to teach and many often write books. HeatSpring has been a success story.

We also discuss Grid Alternatives, which is an organization that compliments online solar training very well and is often described as the Habitat for Humanity for solar, where people, including our students get free hands-on experience installing solar on real houses, and at the same time getting that feel good feeling for helping people in need get away from under their monthly electricity bills.

To learn more about Sean White or his classes, go to solarsean.com

Brian Hayden Co-founder of HeatSpring Part 2:

Brian Hayden discusses how HeatSpring started as an offshoot of two HS co-founders trying to get educated in renewable energy with the idea of becoming integrators. They were unsuccessful at finding the education they wanted, so they started HeatSpring, with the idea that they would get the best instructors in the world who are often authors. They would let the instructors use their own material and split the revenue rather than getting cheap instructors to make curriculum, teach classes and taking most of the profits for their organizations, google add-words and high pressure sales people, which is what they found in the industry.

Sean learns in this podcast how HeatSpring started out with live trainings in Boston and evolved to go at your own pace 100% online education.

Find out more about the “most excellent” free and not free HeatSpring classes at solarsean.com

Brian Hayden Part 1: Sean White Reverse Interviews Brian Hayden, Co-Founder of the Heatspring Online Renewable Energy Training Platform

Sean White gets interviewed as he was getting ready to interview Brian Hayden. They were having a conversation which fortunately was recorded where Brian Hayden, a podcaster himself seemed to be interviewing the interviewer. This part 1 of a multiple part series of conversations with Brian Hayden. Brian has a podcast of his own, which goes well with his Entrepreneurship course at the world renowned University of Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship.

 

Brian's podcast is called Finding Your Venture and can be found at FindingYourVenture.com.

 

To find out more about Sean, to sign up for his courses or to hire him, go to solarsean.com. Stay safe!

More Bidirectional EV with Bill Brooks

In this podcast, we go off on the EV manufacturers for not having a good enough excuse to let us connect our cars up for bidirectional purposes. Rather than blaming it on the warranty only being for 100,000 miles or 10 years, why not add 33,000kWh to the mix and then if you overused your battery powering your house, that could be another way for your battery warranty to expire. Bill picked 33MWh and if it is good enough for Bill, it is good enough for the EV industry.

 

Let's start a movement and agree to buy the first EV that offers this technology. We know they can all easily do it and it is not an engineering problem. Perhaps the battery industry is more interested in selling batteries for your car and your home separately. EV to grid is also known as V2G.

 

This podcast is part of a free class titled "Solar Building Codes, Fire Codes, EVs, Rapid Shutdown and Energy Storage Systems", which you can find the link to by going to www.solarsean.com

EV to Grid: Bill Brooks talks about NEC Article 625 EV Power Transfer System

In this episode, we talk about 2020 NEC Article 625 Electric Vehicle Power Transfer System. It is ok with the NEC that we can use our cars to feed the grid and power our homes, so what is the hold up with the EV manufacturers? We will cover more of this answer in our next episode, but this time we will get into the details, and focus on 625.42 Rating, which will allow us to 4000A of EV chargers (and bidirectional EV Power Transfer Systems) on a 1000A feeder as long as we have the load management to make everything safe. 625.42 was the inspiration for 2020 NEC 705.13 Power Control Systems!

You can also learn more about these topics in our online Heatspring classes, some of them free. Find your way there and to many good places at the address of solarsean.com!

Bill Brooks on Solar PV Rooftop Setbacks and Pathways

The 2018 International Residential Code (IRC) now allows for 18 inches from the ridge instead of 3 feet. Bill was involved in the process of making these rules and explains how the 2018 IRC works. This is very important for those of you involved in rooftop solar markets in the US. In some states you can go all the way up to the ridge, other states you can go up to 18 inches from the ridge and yet in others it is 3 feet. With the price of solar PV so low, people are wanting to put as much PV as they can on their roofs, including on the north side. This podcast contains material from a recently released Heatspring free online class entitled: Solar Building Codes, Fire Codes, EVs, Rapid Shutdown and Energy Storage Systems.

 

This free online course counts for 2 hours of NABCEP continuing education credits and prerequisites. You can find out more by going to www.solarsean.com.