“I’ve been in solar for 15 years. As far as I’m aware, the NC State Solar Training Yard provides one of the only training roofs in North Carolina where we can get our crews up on the roof training and learning.” – Karl Stupke, President, NC Solar Now

In our training needs discussions with solar contractors, we consistently hear about the need for rooftop safety training.

The NC State Solar Training Yard offers a unique environment where solar installation crews can safely practice and experience working at heights. 

A defining feature of the training yard is our ground level, walk-up, pitched residential training roof.

The residential training roof features:

• 28’ x 48’ roof with 4/12 pitch, wrapped by guard rails
• Residential roof shingles and 3 permanent harness anchors
• Easy walk-up from the ground
• Will support weight of 25 adults plus a 5KW PV system
• 3 electrical work stations under the roof hook up to grid power
• Each station has mounting stations to accommodate inverters, AC and DC disconnects, combiner boxes, main panel and utility meters  

Other assets at the training yard include:

• Small roof with permanent system for performing testing on an active system
• Mobile electric vehicle (EV) charging training unit
• A ground level commercial training roof
• Indoor classroom space available at the adjacent NC State Solar House and the NC Clean Energy Technology Center 

 

The training yard can be reserved for your training needs. Click here to submit your request. Rates depend upon: number of training participants, facilities needed; and duration of training.  NC Solar Now brought two crews to the training yard in November.  They used the Center’s large residential training roof to conduct training in rooftop safety and best practices in personal protective equipment – including fall arrest and prevention, harnessing, rope management and ladder protocols.  They also used the adjacent classroom at the NC State Solar House to conduct business operations training.

“NC State’s Solar Training Yard is an excellent location for us to do this kind of training,” says Karl. “The facility is a safe environment where we can work and experience a real-life roof situation without the perils of being on an actual roof to make sure our crews know what they’re doing and that they’re doing it safely.”

Also in November, the Center partnered with NC State’s Department of Animal Science and Nevados to launch the NC State Agrivoltaics Training Site.  The site is the first of its kind in the Southeast, where solar professionals and students can learn best practices in agrivoltaics and the installation of cutting-edge solar technology that enables solar installation on steep terrain.

The training site includes three rows of Nevados’ TRACE All Terrain Tracker system and three types of solar modules.  It’s available for tours this winter and spring.  Our first full Agrivoltaics in Action course will be offered at the site in June.

You can see our full schedule of courses here including everything from renewable energy project development to solar storage, and operations and maintenance.

The Center is proud to offer these unique training sites that cater to the needs of solar professionals. 

Contact the Training Team today for more information on tours of the agrivoltaics site, open houses at the site, and rental of the solar training yard.