Solar and Wind Installation Course, Sponsored by SEEDS

SEEDS, Sustainable Energy Education & Development Support, in northern Wayne, is offering an extensive course in installing and maintaining solar electric and wind turbine systems in January 2009

A full day session in introduction to renewable energy, and two three day courses on wind and solar PV installation will be offered at low cost at the Conservation Center and Northampton Community College computer lab in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. The introduction on January 10 is open to the general public and will run from 9 am to 4 pm with an hour for lunch. The charge is $15. The 3-day course on wind, January 14 to 16, and a 3-day course on solar photovoltaic specifics, January 21 to 23, are aimed at electricians, contractors, builders and trades people and limited to 15 attendees. Each 3 day course runs from 9 am to 4 pm with an hour for lunch and costs $150.

Roy Butler, owner of Four Winds Renewable Energy in Arkport, NY, who holds a PV certification by NABCEP, the North American Board of Certified Energy Professionals, will teach the course. He has more than 12 years of design and installation experience, which covers grid-tie, and off -grid wind electric, solar electric and solar water pumping systems. He has installed over 200 renewable energy systems for home, farm and industry.

Butler has been a presenter for the American Wind Energy Association and Windustry. He is a NABCEP Certified PV installer and NYSERDA eligible installer of wind and PV grid tie electric systems in NY State. Roy is also on the NABCEP Technical Review Committees for PV and wind installer certification, a board member of the Small
Wind Certification Council and a technical editor for Home Power Magazine. Locally he has installed a Bergey wind turbine in Scott and a solar pumping system in Milanville and comes highly recommended by both farmers. When he is not out designing and installing renewable energy systems for Four Winds, he is teaching at Ulster County Community College, Alfred State, and many workshops in the north east.

The course will include siting, sizing, installation techniques, codes, NABCEP certification requirements, use of the Solar Pathfinder and its accompanying software, grid-tie and off-grid systems, and much more.

SEEDS is an organization in Northeastern Pennsylvania committed to developing a local renewable energy infrastructure and promoting more sustainable living; the group is currently applying for Federal non-profit 501c3 incorporation. To further its aims, SEEDS is working with Penn State Pike and Wayne extension offices, the Wayne Conservation District, the Pocono Northeast Resource Conservation and Development Council of the USDA, the Pike Wayne Conservation Partnership and the local Northeast Pennsylvania Audubon Society.

Since July of this year, SEEDS has sponsored a series of forums held at the Damascus Community Center on Wind, Water Power & Conservation, Forest Fuels, and Energy
Auditing for Home and Farm. Solar and Geothermal are upcoming forum topics. Speakers have included a dairy farmer’s not so great experience with a wind turbine, a County Commissioner, an owner/operator of a hydro-electric power station in Jeffersonville, and others working on the local cutting edge of sustainable energy.

SEEDS chair Michele Sands says, “We are sponsoring this training to ensure local jobs for local people in the renewable energy industry. An unstable economy along with unstable energy costs and availability make renewable energy a no-brainer for our community. To have reliable wind and solar here, we need local people to install and maintain the systems.”

For more specific information about each workshop, please download the workshop descriptions and objectives by clicking the following links:
PV Installation Workshop
Small Wind Installation Workshop

To register, call 570-224-0052 or send contact information to SEEDSGroup@gmail.