NABCEP Call for comments [RE-wrenches]

[Bruce Gardiner]

> As a side, I'd like to know how many wrenches on this list are licensed?
Am
> I in the extreme minority?

Jeff,
I have a C-10 license here in CA, and I think that my many years in the
trenches of the electrical industry help me install safe,code compliant PV
systems. I am all in favor of licensing and certification, but it seems to
me that here in California we have gotten stuck with a very low standard of
license testing. I believe that our license testing system should be
overhauled and made more rigorous. Also, there should be a classification
for "Solar Electric Contractor", which would not demand knowledge of exotic
electrical installations,unlikely to be encountered in a PV installation.
However, the test for this classification would demand a thorough knowledge
of current PV installation practices.  To train people who could pass a test
like this and do professional PV installations, we will need an
apperenticeship program. This is where the RE industry needs to go.
I am opposed the IBEW's recent heavy handed attemps to corner the
apprenticeship market , (and also to their tactics in breaking into the PV
market).  Just who will undertake,fund,and oversee this new aprenticeship
program, I don't know.  But as PV goes mainstream,it will be necessary
Just so our solar thermal brothers don't feel left out, there should be a
classification for "Solar Thermal Contractor" too!  Why the plumbing and
electrical trades have been lumped together in the C-46 license has never
made sense to me.

Just my 2 cents.

Bruce Gardiner
Acme Electric Solar Systems

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