The skyrocketing demand for clean, abundant energy has resulted in a need for comprehensive information that can be used by builders, technicians, energy industry professionals, and anyone else wanting to learn about alternative forms of energy and their everyday uses. With a vast array of information available on the subject, this course stands out from other courses because it bridges the gap between overly simplistic information and high-level engineering materials. Instead, this course explores solar, wind, and other sources, and the technology available to harness them. Learners will gain a better understanding of how these systems work as well as how they are put together.

This course gives the background for renewable energy sources and describes their occurrence, devices for using them, and the role of renewable energy in current and future energy systems, depending on social values and the economic rules used to judge the viability of competing solutions.

This course covers solar fundamentals, site assessment, system design and sizing, the installation and service of system components, system startup and maintenance, and worker safety. Solar Water addresses residential and light commercial solar water heating systems for domestic hot water and swimming pool applications.