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Advice provided by: Rob Freeman Jr, LEED AP, Green-Buildings.com

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Brad asks: I have a years worth of educational benefits left on my GI bill. I have an MBA and a BS in Industrial Engineering. I have looked at your web site and at the education you offer. In your opinion would a person be able to take some amount of your offered courses, and having no experience other than remodeling several houses including electrical and heating, and be viable for employment or starting a business in geothermal and photo voltaic (PV)? I am in New Hampshire now and could go to Florida. Do you folks offer any job placement or have an idea what kind of success your students have had? Thank you for any info.

Answer: Hi Brad, thank you for your question. From your email, it seems like you are in an excellent position to accomplish whatever you want in life... if that's becoming a solar and/or geothermal installer, you would probably excel. Having a good business sense with the discipline of your military background and an understanding of engineering principles could be the perfect mix for success in this field! No doubt you could do the work.

If you are interested in solar, Florida is an excellent location to set up shop. Demand is growing there and the technology is improving rapidly with a lot of new innovations being developed on a regular basis.

There are a range of courses available that will give you day(s) of training installing geothermal or solar. It's a good idea to get your hands dirty as every installation will be a little different. While Arizona is a great place to install free standing solar panels in a desert, in most installations, however, you'll be dealing with some sort of structure on which the solar array must be installed.

There is a video here on YouTube of a rooftop solar installation (it's not the best quality, but it has a Gershwin soundtrack to compensate). Another installation video of a solar collector for hot water is here. If you haven't already done so and you are looking to play around with some kits, there are a range of kits available for all budgets available at Amazon.com. There is a good video here of a low/mid priced 60-Watt Solar Charging Kit, which shows how straightforward it is to install a panel in a freestanding location in the middle of a desert. Probably not if you're in New Hampshire, but if you're in Florida something like this may be more realistic.

In terms of geothermal, there is an excellent free geothermal installation video here.

Make sure you work with a trainer who has performed many installations in whichever area you pursue. Many training companies are offering green tech training, however, in some cases these trainers are not experienced installers or have no experience in the field.

While we do not have a formal job placement program at this time, if you let us know what you are looking for specifically, we can try to connect you with companies that may be looking for help. Hope this is useful,