Solar Photovoltaic Systems Workshop

North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) has launched their certification program for PV installers. Future exam locations will be determined based upon geographical distribution of candidates to minimize travel time to exam sites. Farmingdale State College will be one of the exam sites. Applications for the exam can be found at NABCEP’s web site at nabcep.org External link. The goal of the workshop is to introduce the fundamental concepts in Photovoltaic technology. It provides training in the design, installation and maintenance of grid connected residential photovoltaic systems. The students will be well prepared and eligible for the NABCEP Associate Level PV Exam. To meet the goal, this workshop is developed based on the Job Task Analysis of NABCEP. Topics covered include: Overview of PV Systems, Sunshine basics, How PV works, Components of a PV system, Setup, configuration and sizing, Wiring and controls, Relevant sections of NEC, Zoning laws and building codes pertaining to PV systems, Interconnection requirements in New York State, Concerns of utilities with grid connected systems, Practical experiments and demonstrations of different aspects of PV, Site visit with detailed explanation of maintenance and troubleshooting, Actual hands on set-up of a small scale grid connected system.