| in Viewpoint |
| comments: 4 |
| The North American Board of Energy Practitioners' (NABCEP) PV Installer (PVI) certification is becoming an unattainable goal, and therefore, the solar sector is suffering. |
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 | Blake Jones | Reply |
| 27 Nov : 16:21 | ||
A 'Blue-Collar' Solar Workforce From my perspective, NABCEP may not be perfect, but it still has a lot of positives to offer to the solar industry, to solar companies, and to folks seeking a long-term solar career. I, too, would prefer for there to be more transparent test result data, a higher test frequency than 2x per year, and more test sites (although I would also imagine that NABCEP needs to balance the latter two with actual demand and cost practicalities), and we, too, have lobbied NABCEP to improve in these categories. But on the positive side, I think that NABCEP has put together a good job task analysis and has gathered industry input via advisory boards on how to improve this over time (btw, I particularly like that it includes a safety section). I disagree that NABECP is "becoming an unattainable goal" as the author suggests. Our company, Namaste Solar, may just be one example, but we had 14 of our staff pass the PV Install exam this Fall, bringing our total number of NABCEP certificants to 41 out of 100 employees. NABCEP has inspired to provide better training, encouragement, support, and overall work force development to our staff - which, by the way, consists of a large majority installer/technician/electrician/blue collar demographic. Also, the author states that "there is no single training institution that offers all of the requirements of NABCEP PVI certification" but here in Colorado we have many of such institutions (e.g. Red Rocks Community College, Arapahoe Community College, Solar Energy International, IBEW local 68, and Independent Electrical Contractors Rocky Mountain Chapter). All of that being said, out of principle, I do agree with the author that the industry could indeed benefit from more certification alternatives besides NABCEP. However, until then, I personally think that NABCEP has done a great job of proactively seeing a need for professional solar certification and making it happen, and it has gotten lots of support from a wide variety of stakeholders within the solar industry and without (e.g. electrical contractors and the IBEW, etc). Again, they may not have everything perfectly dialed in yet, but they've done a lot of things well so far. Thanks, Blake Jones (NABCEP certified PV installer) Namaste Solar Colorado | ||
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| Bill | Reply |
| 26 Dec : 15:20 | ||
A 'Blue-Collar' Solar Workforce The biggest problem with NABCEP PVI Certification is not the training requirement. As Mr. Jones notes, there are several choices for this in Colorado, and he even missed a couple. NABCEP's "hands-on" experience requirement remains a bigger obstacle, since it limits even sitting for their exam to those who's got a year or more in experience at a supervision level. I am a solar power instructor. I developed the first two courses in the Colorado Mountain College solar program using NABCEP PVI - not entry level, but PV Installer - learning objectives. I've taught all over the country, and 80% of my students pass the NABCEP EL test upon first attempt. But I can't take the PVI test, since I've been teaching since 2009 and don't have the required installations over the past two years. Johnny Weiss (recently retired founder of SEI) and I were laughing about this a couple of years ago - since he doesn't qualify, either, and he's trained thousands of people who DO have the NABCEP PVI ticket. I would tend to agree that NABCEP's real foundation was more limitation of new entrants into the business, especially when their membership lobbies local government bodies to require NABCEP certification to pull a solar PV permit, in some cases, limiting that capability to a single contractor in an entire county. NEC2011's new "Qualified Personnel" requirement for solar power installations personnel is also restrictive, since many solar installers do not carry current arc-flash certification cards, nor know where to get that training. The era of "two guys and a truck" solar dealerships is over, though the new paradigm of utility-scale installations hasn't passed the test of time (and tax code changes) either. NABCEP certification requirements didn't help the small business model survive, and haven't been proven in the utility-sized world. Most of the PV on the planet has been installed far outside NABCEP's jurisdiction (North America) and seems to be doing fine. As a teacher, I appreciate the focus NABCEP's learning objectives give me in developing courses, but I think the jury's still out on the realistic value its certification brings to the customer/end user. | ||
| curreysolar | Reply |
| 25 Jan : 22:13 | ||
A 'Blue-Collar' Solar Workforce I am NABCEP Pre-Certified. have no electrical or roofing experience. I cant get a job or even a good look at. The test was very difficult, with many contractors , electricians and other construction personnel failing at a very high rate. | ||
