Solar Training - Solar Electric Design and Installation (Grid-Direct) - Online - Solar Training - Solar Installer Training - Solar PV Installation Training - Solar Energy Courses - Renewable Energy Education - NABCEP

Nov 04
duration 6 Weeks
tuition $845.00 USD

PVOL101: Solar Training - Solar Electric Design and Installation (Grid-Direct) - Online

PVOL101 is your gateway to a career in the solar industry. It all starts with the fundamentals, and a solid understanding of various components, system architectures, and applications for PV systems. Other topics include site analysis, system sizing, array configuration, and performance estimation; electrical design characteristics such as wiring, overcurrent protection, and grounding; a detailed look at module and inverter specifications and characteristics; mounting methods for various roof structures and ground-mounts; and an introduction to safely and effectively commissioning grid-direct PV systems. This course focuses on grid-direct PV systems, the largest and fastest growing segment of the PV industry, but covers material critical to understanding all types of PV systems. These core concepts are expanded on in SEI’s upper level PV courses, which focus more specifically on particular system types, applications and design methodologies.

what you will learn

Students who complete the PVOL101 online course will be able to perform the following:

Differentiate between various renewable energy sources and types of systems
Perform power and energy calculations
Evaluate utility bills and rate plans, perform a load analysis for a grid-direct system, and compare system production to energy consumption
Describe energy efficiency measures that can be implemented to reduce electricity usage and PV system size
Analyze different net metering rules, rebates, and incentives that affect the final cost of a PV system
Diagram and list the features, applications, and components of the following PV system types: DC direct, stand-alone, grid-direct, and grid-tied with battery back-up
Obtain and apply specifications for PV modules and determine their performance given various environmental and operating conditions
Identify various types of digital multimeters and explain how to use them safely
Diagram and determine the power, current, and voltage characteristics of PV modules in different series and parallel configurations
Determine the magnetic declination, define azimuth and altitude angle and evaluate the shade potential for a given site
Estimate energy production of a PV system based on location specifics including orientation and tilt angle
List the pros and cons of different mounting systems (ground, pole, roof, and trackers) and determine the number of modules that can fit in a given roof space
Given specific site criteria, evaluate what type of inverter is appropriate
Decipher balance-of-system equipment specification sheets to determine the critical information needed for system design
Design a residential grid-direct system including the array, inverter, circuit conductors, and overcurrent protection
Define equipment grounding, system grounding, and components and conductors used for grounding
Identify the following wires and components on schematics of residential grid-direct systems: disconnects, inverter, equipment grounding conductors, ungrounded conductors, grounded conductors, the grounding electrode(s), and the AC and DC system grounds
Identify potential safety hazards and the proper personal protective equipment for working on grid-direct PV systems
List the order of installation, commissioning, and decommissioning of a grid-direct PV system

Both our in-person and online PV101 Courses cover the same curriculum with varying levels of hands-on experience offered in our in-person sessions. To view in-person sessions of this workshop, click PV101.

helpful information

Click here for Computer & Software Requirements for online courses.

Prerequisites: Completion of our free online RE100 Introduction to Renewable Energy, is highly recommended.

The online version of PV 101 is a comprehensive six-week course that covers all of the material presented in the in-person workshop and listed in the description, without the hands-on experience. The course is co-taught by two instructors, ensuring prompt attention and encouraging interaction between students and the instructors.

THE SOLAR ELECTRIC HANDBOOK IS INCLUDED IN THE TUITION PRICE OF THIS COURSE! *

*For international shipping addresses, course materials will be mailed out by USPS International First Class. SEI is not responsible for confirming international delivery. If materials do not arrive and need to be reshipped, student will be responsible for additional shipping cost.

nabcep certification information

After successfully completing this course and PV203, PVOL203, or PV203 PREP, you are eligible to sit for the NABCEP PV Associate Exam
. The NABCEP PV Associate Exam
includes questions on grid-direct and battery-based PV systems. For information on NABCEP and signing up for the PV Associate Exam please click here. Also visit www.nabcep.org for more on their recommendations.

NABCEP Hours for Certification (per NABCEP)

PV Installer Certification Requirements: If one takes the NABCEP PV Associate Exam and passes, this course will count for 18 hours of “non-advanced training hours” towards taking the NABCEP Installer Certification requirements. If one does not take or doesn’t pass the PV Associate Exam, then this course does not count for NABCEP hours. For information on the PV Associate Exam and to sign up to take the PV Associate Exam through SEI, please visithttps://www.solarenergy.org/nabcep-certification.

PV Technical Sales Certification Requirements: This course counts for 20 hours, which covers the PV Technical Sales JTA.
PV Associate Recertification: 12 training hours

Solar Heating Installer Recertification: This course counts for 6 Non-Technical continuing education hours.

NEW! NABCEP PV Associate Exam
PREP PACKAGE $1395 – Includes PVOL101, PVOL203 and the NABCEP PV Associate Exam
(Computer Based Testing)! Please CLICK HERE or call 970-527-7657 option 1 to register today!

SEI Contact Training hours: 60 credit hours

more on nabcep certification > sei's solar professionals certificate program info >

course snapshot

Online
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE LOCATION DETAILS >

SEI online courses cover the same topics as the face-to-face workshops of the similar name, but do not include a hands-on component. You can log on at any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the full duration of the specified course. You will generally need between 10-20 hrs/week to complete the lesson materials and graded activities. The earlier lessons generally take less time than the later lessons. Students can access the course anytime, from any computer with an internet connection (see computer requirements below). There are no specific times that you need to log on, the course is self paced but you must finish all graded materials by the end date of the course. The live instructors are there to give feedback, grade your work and you can contact them with questions on the forum discussion boards, or by email.

These courses include interactive activities, power points, readings and quizzes, and exercises and homework to test student comprehension. There is also a forum where students can post questions to the instructors and network between each other. Online courses last six (6) weeks and will end on the Sunday night of the last week. All graded course activities (e.g., quizzes, forum discussion assignments, any other assignments with a score) need to be completed within these 6 weeks, with a 70% or better cumulative grade, to pass and receive a Record of Completion. After the course end-date, you will have two additional weeks for instructorless review-only time. During this time you will not be able to complete any graded activities. However, this is an ideal time to finish saving and reviewing any course materials of particular interest.

All required reading for the course is fully downloadable from within the course, so there is no need to wait for your course materials to arrive in the mail. You can also download/save the PDF files that make up the “Digital Course Notebook” for future reference.

The following are the computer and software requirements for taking SEI’s online courses.

Computer and Internet Requirements

Laptop and Desktop Platforms

PC (Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10)

Mac (Intel-based only, OSX 10.5 or later)

Mobile Devices are only supported for viewing Podcast versions of the presentations

Hardware/Internet Requirements

1.8 Ghz or faster processor

2 Gb of RAM, 10 Gb of free disk space

Minimum screen / monitor resolution is 1280 x 800

Built in sound or sound card

Computer microphone or regular telephone for Webinar or Live Office Hours participation

High-speed Internet connection (at least 5 Mb download speed — click here to check your speed)

Latest version of Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, or Apple Safari

Enabled cookies, javascript, Java, pop-ups

Special Considerations

1) Satellite, cellular 3G/4G cards, mesh wide area networks, and other similar “non-copper” or non WI-FI connections, while appearing to be high speed, will likely experience performance issues in this course. We do not recommend this type of Internet connection.

2) There are subtle differences among all browsers based on whether using a Windows or Mac computer.

3) The version of your computer’s operating system and your browser version can also have an affect on operation.

4) Video buffering problems have been reported in some cases on slow connections.

5) The video/audio Playback Rate speed control dropdown menu is not available/functional using the Chrome browser.

Video and Audio Presentations

The lecture capture presentations are streaming video (just like Netflix® or Hulu® or Amazon®). To adequately view these lecture presentations, a high speed network connection is preferred. We suggest at least 5 Mb/sec. If your connection speed is slow, is unreliable, or if the connection is shared with other active computers or mobile devices (phones or tablets), you may experience less than optimal playback. If this happens, there are a three options: obtain a faster network connection, turn off all active devices other than the device used to view the presentations, download the presentations from Apple iTunes and view from a mobile device or the iTunes app on your computer.

Smart Phone and Tablet Platforms: Apple iOS Devices (iPod touch, iPhone, iPad) and Android Phones & Tablets.

For the best experience with our online course content we recommend using a PC or Mac computer with a wired or WiFi Internet connection. It is possible to do all of the following with smart phones and tablets, however, we strongly recommend taking the quizzes on a non touch screen device to avoid unintentional changes to your selected answers:

Take quizzes

Read your textbook ebook version

Download PDFs

Participate in online forum discussions

Check your grade book

Complete questionnaires and surveys

View video and audio presentations

Some performance or access may vary

Required Software

Microsoft Silverlight (video/audio//PowerPoint presentations)

Adobe Flash (latest version for presentations & interactive exercises in some courses)

Oracle Java plugin (latest version)

Adobe Acrobat Reader (viewing & printing PDF files)

Optional Software

Microsoft Office Viewers (viewing & printing Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio files)

Open Source Office Suite (viewing & printing Word, PowerPoint, Excel files)

Apple QuickTime (viewing QuickTime video in some courses)

Apple iTunes (podcast subscription)
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6 Weeks
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course materials

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PVOL101: Solar Training - Solar Electric Design and Installation (Grid-Direct) - Online

Additional Details

what you will learn

helpful information

nabcep certification information

available sessions

course snapshot

course materials

Instructors

PVOL101: Solar Training - Solar Electric Design and Installation (Grid-Direct) - Online

Additional Details

what you will learn

helpful information

nabcep certification information

available sessions

course snapshot

course materials

Instructors

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