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The Business of Solar PV - Growing Your Solar PV Business.

Jun 29

Mon 7:00 PM

Location: This location is shown only to members

Estimated attendance: 118 people attended.
4.5014
Who organized?
Geoff Sutton

The AZ Solar Center is pleased to have Jeff Spies come out and talk, this event is geared mainly to people in the industry or want to enter the industry, but all are welcome.

Learn the basic steps to launching a successful solar business. This popular two-hour training program covers the following topics:

Qualifications for becoming a solar dealer
Commonly used renewable energy systems
Solar industry players & markets
Review four PV configurations
Review solar product groups
Key factors to succeeding in solar
Training and certification
Site analysis and system design
Incentives and system financing
Dealer cost and profitability
The four key partners for a successful solar installation business
Sales strategies
Marketing hints and tips
Informational resources
And much more!

Jeff Spies is the Director of Training & Trade shows for AEE Solar, one of the oldest and largest distributors for solar PV in the world.

Jeff earned his degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1987 from Michigan State University. He then embarked upon a 20 year career in technical sales and marketing of electro-mechanical motion control systems for industrial automation. Specializing in training and education, Jeff traveled throughout the US and abroad conducting technical training seminars for thousands of engineers, technicians, and business managers.

After 20 years in the industrial automation field, he decided to move into the renewable energy field to help make a positive contribution to our energy future. Shortly after completing the beginner and advanced PV training through Solar Energy International, Jeff joined AEE Solar to develop training programs for new and existing dealers.

Jeff has traveled extensively since joining AEE Solar in 2007, training thousands of existing and new solar pv dealers. He organized the first and second annual AEE Solar dealer conferences which were ranked among the biggest and best training events in the industry and help established AEE Solar as one of the leaders in solar training in North America. His “Launch & Grow Your Solar Business” training program is widely considered one of the best entry level training programs in the industry. AEE Solar’s training web page has been the number one ranked “solar training” hit on Google for over 18 months, and the AEE Solar training program is regarded as the most comprehensive in the industry.

Space at this venue is limited to 200 people.

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Talk about this Meetup

Posted Jun 30, 2009 12:00 AM

Richard Reid

Jeff Spies did a wonderful presentation, thanks Jeff. Geoff and the rest of the staff involved, you are the bomb(that's means great)---R.J.Reid,M.D.
Pre-Meetup comments below
Posted Jun 29, 2009 3:56 PM

Paul Genereux

Hi: We are in Kingman Az. it's to hot . however we would like to participate on-line or an event in Las Vegas Thank's Paul
Posted Jun 15, 2009 4:36 PM

Geoff Sutton

Organizer

The bottom line is price when you compare a silicon module for electric and a copper tube for heating water the pricing is lower on a kW/ h basis. This is two different technologies of converting sunlight to electricity and converting sunlight to heat. 1,000 Watts of energy hits every square meter of the earth, we convert it to electricity with the end result of around 75 kW per hour. When converting the suns energy to heat (water) we are able to capture more of that energy at a lower cost.
Posted Jun 15, 2009 3:44 PM

Joshua Nerat

This is going to be very exciting as this is the field that I am looking for pursue. I've heard many things about hot water heaters and that thermal solar hot water heater systems are 5 times efficient as using a PV system for hot water. Does anyone know anymore as to why this is?

Who attended?

118 attendees
- robert morgan (+1 guest)
  
  “ Very informative. Thank you. ”
- Lane Garrett (+1 guest)
  
  “ Good information ”
- Vincent M Ramella
  
  “ Great introductory information! ”
- MikeO
  
  “ Fantastic presentation and presentor. Very informative and a bit eye-opening. ”
- Warner
  
  “ The presenter was very polished and knew his subject. He transferred a lot of knowledge in a short period of time. He also gave information to pursue more facts on the business and how to get started. ”
- Scott Hohl
  
  “ It was quite educational. The powerpoint on the screen was almost unreadable from the back of the room. The majority of people left immediately when the presentation was over. The few who were left made a good little networking group; the 15% interested in learning from others, no matter how experienced they might be. I would go again. ”
- Jeff Spies
  
  “ Thanks for the time Geoff. I think that the AZ Solar Center is a great resource for Arizona solar customers and dealers. ”
- Richard Reid
  
  “ Very informative with lots of good questions and shared information from the crowd. Good networking. ”
- Kevin L. Pugh
  
  “ I don't know the date of the next meeting to complete this series. The room was nice although a little dim lighting. Jeff Spies is a great speaker and the material was useful and full of great references. Geoff Sutton made a good introduction and cleared up a technical issue before the presentation. Everything was very pleasant and moved along with good speed and answered questions. Very professional but not stuffy. ”
- Randy Bauder
  
  “ The information shared in the time alloted was too general and not really about the business of solar. The 2nd half which I believe will be scheduled later in July will cover that topic. Presenter and facility were both good. ”
- Tim Hartmann
- David Pool
- Steve Nelson
- jane a
- Duncan Chang
- Geoff Sutton
- Norm A
- Alexander
- Brian Fabig Econolight Inc. (+1 guest)
- Mo
- Alan Fischer
- Bill Osmun
- Marilizabeth
- Karl Nichols
- Craig Hanson (+1 guest)
- Thomas Carter III
- Craig Patterson
- Chris Ray
- John Wurm
- Kevin Jones
- Dev (+1 guest)
- shawn lustig
- Peter
- Mike Baum
- Richard Monahan
- Andy Pickering
- David Bergay
- Stephanie Weigold (+1 guest)
- Azadeh (+1 guest)
- Jerry
- Chris Larkin
- Jeff Luth
- Jerry Burns (+1 guest)
- Ben Greene
- Frank & Barbara Welsh (+1 guest)
- Julia
- David Sims
- Michael Alexander
- Daniel Cronin
- Joshua Nerat