Part 1.
I’ve just finished the first part of the bootcamp at Boots on the Roof ( http://www.bootsontheroof.com/). It was the wind section and it was taught by a last minute instructor named Roy Butler, the previous instructor quit apparently. However this was a good thing because Roy is a pro in the wind section with many years of experience. His website is http://www.four-winds-energy.com/ and he is NABCEP PV certified and is deeply into the renewable energy world. Anyway the course curriculum limited Roy in what he could teach and it was mostly lecture. We had a few hours to play with some wind turbines taking them apart and putting them together and learning about the parts. We also got a little experience practicing the siting of wind and looking at wind maps. Overall, we basically covered what was in the books “Power from the Wind” by Dan Chiras and “Wind Power” by Paul Gipe with a little bit of added real life experience from Roy when he could fit it in. Bottom line with some hands on experience through an externship offered through Boots on the Roof one can be valuable it seems to intern at a company or at least get into sales first to gain some experience. Next week . . . solar pv, I’ll update you when its over.
-Chris Lim