It is amazing to see our colleges reshaping their curriculum to add solar installation training classes. What’s even more amazing is the number of students who sign up for these courses. There are waiting lists. This is phenomenal.

Solar has grown at a snail’s pace for so many years. I remember when a neighbor installed solar panels on his roof in the mid-70’s; we thought our neighbors were aliens (or hippies.) They were neither; they were just 30 years ahead of their time.

Over the last ten years, I’ve heard more and more solar talk and now, seems like overnight, solar is here in a big way. And when colleges start offering courses in solar, you know there’s a big demand now, and in the future.

The Bay Area green classes are part of the Silicon Valley Solar Industry-Driven Regional Collaborative, which is funded by a two-year, $650K grant by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s office. The colleges that are involved in this great opportunity are De Anza, San Jose City, Cabrillo (my old school), Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s SolarTech organization, and North Valley Job Training Consortium in Sunnyvale.

Local solar-driven companies are very happy to have such a fine pool of graduates to hire on as interns. The downside is there are too many graduates and not enough internships available.

Evidently solar companies are booked solid and their future looks very promising and prosperous, but….and there’s always a but, tightening credit and falling home prices are keeping some potential solar-ites from obtaining credit or tapping into their home equity. Even with the extended 30% tax credit incentive, if they can’t get credit, they can’t go solar.

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Posted on December 3rd in Solar News by Beth.