MUM courses:
- Energy Use by Man and Nature
- Hands On Course In Sustainable Technologies
- Permaculture Design Certification
- Sustainability Forest Academy
- Artisan Foods and the Slow Food Movement
- Local Economy
Grinnell College courses:
Resource Center
Week 1
- The Basics Of Solar
- How solar panels work/the different parts of a solar panel
- The different components of a solar system (solar panels, inverters, mounts, racks)
- The different producers of PV systems (SunPower, Sanyo, Evergreen,…)
- Researched Competition in the Boulder/Denver area (Lighthouse, Namaste, SunEdison)
- Learned about the federal tax incentives and the rebates for solar
- Created a marketing book after researching the benefits of solar
This week was myself getting acquainted to the company and the solar industry as a whole. Through this week I learned about the different styles of installing solar panels and how to get the highest efficiency out of stringing and aligning the arrays of solar panels. I also learned which were the best solar panels in terms of size, price, efficiency, and aesthetic look. Leading the bunch is SunPower solar panels, however they are hard to come by since they cater to mainly the European market. In m research of tax incentives however I came upon some unfortunate news. The tax incentives are set to expire after this year unless they are renewed 30% of the total money back for the incentives will be lost. On a political note Obama has commented that on his first list of things to do is address the energy crisis, while McCain’s first priority is to address Islamic extremists. All in all what I have learned about solar is that it is a environmentally low-carbon and financially valuable solution.