SEI’s First Spanish Hands-on Solar Training Lab in Paonia, Colorado a HUGE Success

Helping Accelerate the future of Photovoltaics in Latin America!

This month marks a historic time for Solar Energy International and our Spanish Program. On May 18 we began a solar electric (PV) workshop taught entirely in Spanish, at our Solar Training Facility in Paonia, Colorado. This is the first PV workshop taught in Spanish to be offered at our Colorado campus in SEI’s 24-year history.

The student body consisted of engineers, architects, solar PV professionals, agriculturalists, and other renewable energy professionals all of whom participated in SEI’s 6-week FV101 online course before coming to Colorado. Trainees in this landmark event traveled from Colombia, Dominican Republic, Chile, Nicaragua, Mexico, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica and the USA.

This month’s training, FV201L: Laboratorio Fotovoltaico de Sistemas Conectados a la Red [Solar Electric Lab Week (Grid-Direct)] was the ultimate hands-on experience available offering five days of hands-on installation practice with grid-direct systems at SEI’s world-class PV Lab training facility in Paonia, Colorado. In this workshop, students practiced site analysis and solar resourcing, learned about the common tools and components necessary to install a grid-direct PV system, practiced maintenance techniques, and physically performed the installation of three live PV systems.

Already many of the trainees are actively engaged in communicating with each other, and learning more about how they can work together in the future to be successful in the solar industry in the Americas. The interesting and thought provoking dialog among SEI instructors and students has proven both positive and enlightening.

In addition to SEI’s Programa Hispano offering solar PV workshops throughout the America’s, we will continue to provide trainings at our campus in Colorado.

Kathy Swartz, SEI Director said, “Today is truly a historic day at Solar Energy International! For the first time in our 24 years as a renewable energy training institution, we are offering our world-renown, PV hands-on training in Spanish at our campus in Paonia, Colorado. We are honored to be able to provide the participants the solar skills necessary as they grow their businesses and expand their careers. We are deeply committed to providing the highest quality of training that we possibly can, regardless of the language that a program is taught in. From fluent instructors who have worked extensively in the region, to materials that have been translated into Spanish, to the industry-leading equipment, our goal is to meet the needs of the Latin America region, which is experiencing unprecedented growth in solar.”

The next opportunity to participate in a Spanish training with SEI begins on August 17 with our online course, FVOL101: Diseño e Instalación de Sistemas Fotovoltaicos Conectados a la Red – En Línea
We will wrap up the Colorado training season this October with back-to-back Spanish workshops, FV101 & FV201L.

Words cannot express how happy we feel to be the host of so many intelligent and ambitious individuals throughout all of the Americas. This week’s workshop has fueled our desire to continue to offer workshops in Spanish here in Paonia and across the globe.