SEI Blog

Candidate Selection Underway for SEI's Solar Professionals Certificate Program

With the 2014 SEI training schedule soon to be released, many students are wanting to know what prerequisite online or classroom courses they should be taking now in order to be ready for in-person labs in the Fall of 2013 or the Spring of 2014.   

As we draw closer to the end of the summer and the end of the SEI Lab training season, we are getting more and more applicants for the SEI Solar Professionals Certificate Program (SPCP).   This selective admissions program admits only the most qualified candidates for SEI's most rigorous training path.

Christopher ...
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Solar Energy International (SEI) Solar Training October 20-25 at Solar Power International '13

Join Solar Energy International in October 20-25 at Solar Power International 13 in Chicago, IL. SEI is excited for another powerful conference. Solar Power International is the solar industry’s most comprehensive educational conference and product exhibition. This year SEI will have a booth (#252) right across the PV Technical Training area. We hope to see SEI alumni and friends in October.

 If you are attending this year’s conference or giving it some thought, here are some of the ways SEI will be participating.

Exhibiting at booth #252 Providing FREE PV ...
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PV351L Lab Class Gets Hands-on with the Fancy Tools of the Solar Trade

Blog by Brian Mehalic - SEI PV Team



SEI just wrapped up an amazing week, with 14 students attending the PV351 lab class “Tools and Techniques for Operations and Maintenance,” also known as “Hands on with the Fancy Tools”.


The course is a week-long combination of classroom theory, best practices, and analysis, along with hands-on time in SEI’s world class lab - commissioning, troubleshooting, and learning to safely use the latest tools in the PV industry.  Open to experienced industry veterans, this class is the cream of the crop ...
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Solar Energy International (SEI) Helps Accelerate the Future of PV in Latin America

This week marks the midway point in Solar Energy International’s online course, Diseño e Instalación de Sistemas Fotovoltaicos (FV). This is the first course that is part of the Academia de Profesionales Solares de las Américas (APSA) program which will also include a second online course on battery-based PV systems and a 6 day hands-on photovoltaics workshop at the Earth University-La Flor in Liberia, Costa Rica.

The APSA program features 50 students from Central America and Mexico. SEI is happy to have participating, six students from El Salvador, ten from Costa Rica, ...
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Solar Energy International (SEI) Hosts the Kuwait Ministry of Water & Electricity

Blog by Paul Gibb, SEI Financial Director

SEI was honored to host a group of 15 participants from the Kuwait Ministry of Water & Electricity for a symposium entitled The Path to Leadership in Renewable Energy. Kris Sutton and Paul Gibb led the group through a 5 day workshop based out of the Vail Cascade Resort in beautiful Vail CO.

The group started with a full day classroom session with Kris on technical issues for utility scale pv systems. The following day saw the group make the two hour journey to SEI’s world headquarters in Paonia for a hands-on ...
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Solar Training for Solar Professionals from Solar Energy International (SEI) Reaches New Enrollment Highs

Students seeking solar training through Solar Energy International's (SEI) Solar Professionals Certificate Program has reached an all time high.   The relatively new technical certificate program was launched a little over a year ago.  This program was created in response to a growing demand from employers and the industry as a whole by offering a training program format that went beyond certification test prep or "boot camp" short duration formats that had become pervasive in the solar industry.   To date there have been over 100 students graduate from SEI's Solar ...
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Solar Rollers RC Car Program Launches Movie Before Race

The Solar Rollers program has launched an 8-minute movie featuring high school students and their solar-powered RC cars as they competed at a National Renewable Energy Laboratory event in May - the first U.S. race for this type of car. The movie depicts some of the challenges faced as these dedicated students designed, built and tested their lightweight, energy-efficient solar cars. 



Click Here to Play Video >>Each team of students cut their own carbon-fiber chassis, soldered together a custom solar array, solved engineering and electrical issues and ...
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Solar Energy International (SEI) Receives IREC-ISPQ Accreditation Renewal

SEI is proud to announce our IREC-ISPQ accreditation has been renewed for our Solar PV courses and workshops! Join us to experience our quality training first hand: http://www.solarenergy.org/workshop-schedule

Did you know SEI was one of the FIRST IREC-ISPQ accredited renewable energy training programs in the world? March 14, 2002 was when we first received our accreditation.

Every five years we are required to do a full application (completely start over) and are also required to renew annually. The full application is reviewed by an independent ...
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Solar Energy International (SEI) Remembers Randy Udall

Solar Energy International (SEI) and the rest of the world has recently lost a good friend and strong advocate for SEI's mission of renewable energy education for a more sustainable future - Randy Udall.   Randy was a Carbondale, Colorado resident and environmental steward.  His body was discovered earlier this month in Wyoming's Wind River Range. SEI Board President, Ed Marston, knew Udall over three decades and offers this tribute. 

Listen to the audio version >>

I am sure it was hard being a Udall – here a Secretary of Interior; there a well-known ...
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Living Off-grid - The Decade Update - Part II

Rebekah Hren - SEI PV Curriculum Team Member - Nearly a year ago I started upgrading my decade-old off-grid PV system, and wrote about it for SEI's blog. The first half of the upgrade included a new 2,000 watt pure sine wave inverter, a 3,000 VA generator, and an upgrade to the AC electrical system in my cob house [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cob_(material).] The second phase of the upgrade happened this past weekend, and included replacing the two old 155 watt modules with four 235 watt modules, and installing a charge controller that can handle the increase in current and ...
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