Yash
As we all know fossil fuels are limited and will exhaust in near future.
Therefore, the need for alternative clean energy is always there.
And solar energy is one of the feasible options because its energy is available free of cost and is also pollution-free.
Here in this post, I will discuss the 5 best solar energy career which is scalable and requires less investment.
What are the best solar energy careers for newbies
- Become a Solar Power Installer
- Solar Power System Servicing
- Career in Solar Energy Research
- Create a platform for Solar Installers and Buyers
- Start a Solar Blog
1. Solar Power Installation
If you are a person who likes playing dirty with electrical hardware then solar power installation is a line for you.
This business is scalable and requires less investment.
Knowledge required
First, you should have technical knowledge about the working of the overall system.
For your information, a basic solar power system consists of the following main components:
- Solar Panels
- Solar Inverter
- Battery
- Solar charge controller
- And connecting wires
Team required
A team of at least 3-4 people along with the basic electrical kit can do wonders in this field.
Try tapping that area where the grid supply is costly and irregular.
People will listen to you seriously when you talk about alternative energy options.
Assess the energy need of the people and offer the best possible solar solution.
This business starts with assessing the energy requirements of the interested people.
And then designing the system according to it.
Even if you know nothing about installation, you can still collect leads and pass them on to good solar companies.
Accompany with their team and learn the installation process.
Learn the functioning, working, and testing of the various equipment on the site.
Solar Feasibility Spreadsheet: An amazing tool to size, design, and find the return from the solar power system
Marketing strategy
- Do your homework by inquiring the good solar panels, inverter, solar batteries in the market.
- Meet with companies and make an understanding of offering solar panels in short notice and at a lower price than the market. As this will help you in growing your installation business.
- Go to the places like schools, colleges, hospitals, clubs, and in the petrol pumps. Because these are the places where you find lot of people.
- As a newbie, you can also go door to door marketing.
- Decide the good name of your company
- Design a website because it can expand your reach.
- Use flyers to market your service because these are affordable. You can design good flyers using canva again a free website.
- Keep talking to people around you and telling them the benefits of solar energy over fossil fuels.
- Highlight the financial benefits of solar in terms of IRR, NPV, and payback period.
- Motivate them to save nature by adopting solar.
2. Solar system servicing
With so many solar installations are going around you, maintenance of these systems is going to be a huge market within a couple of years.
A new and separate vertical of servicing & maintaining the already installed solar system will be required to cater to this growing need.
So, this is going to be a very good solar energy career for farsighted entrepreneurs.
Therefore, go and meet people who already have installed the systems on their rooftop.
Highlight the importance of system maintenance.
It not only boosts efficiency but also improves the useful life of the system.
Equipment and Team
As a newbie entrepreneur, this would be a good option for you as it requires minimal investment like:
- Cleaning equipment, ladder etc to climb and clean the panels
- Basic electrical kit including a multi-meter and tester to check the working of the system
At least a team of three people is required to serve better and provide timely service.
You can offer a 5-year comprehensive maintenance package to solar owners at a competitive price.
Include the following services in your package:
- Regular cleaning of the panels
- Checking the output of the system
- Checking and refilling the water level in the batteries
- Advising right solution like the addition of extra panels if demand increases in future
- Ways to save energy by replacing outdated appliances with efficient ones
- Help in choosing the best solar installer if they plan to increase the size in future
3. Career in Solar Energy Research
Many companies and investors are interested in investing in the solar sector.
But they need the right information before doing so.
If you can provide the right information and facts, they will buy from you.
Choose a topic
Start with choosing a particular vertical like solar photovoltaic or solar thermal etc. And within that vertical choose a topic of interest, it could be anything like:
- The solar potential of India
- The growth of solar photovoltaics in the last 15 years
- Top 10 solar companies in India and their growth potential
- Top solar states to invest in 2022
Look for buyers
Your next task would be to do internet research and look for the companies and the investors who can buy your report.
As you are a newbie, therefore, the investors would be skeptical about the authenticity of your report.
Keep a sample ready with you and e-mail them if required.
With constant follow-ups, you can sell your first report and with this, your entrepreneurial journey starts.
Do keep in mind to take the feedback of your work and showcase the positive feedback for your future customers.
Design a good website
Again, showcasing your work on the website would be a very good option as it can reach investors worldwide.
You can also gather this information and offer it to your customers in the form of an e-book.
This field requires constant knowledge updating and extensive reading about the development in this sector.
Well, in terms of investment it requires a laptop and an internet connection with lots of time.
Many times, you need to talk and personally meet the people of this industry to validate the information available on the internet.
Pricing
Pricing your solar reports is again a task. If your research is capable of bringing an investment of say 10 million dollars in this sector then pricing it a few thousand dollars would not be an issue.
Well, it depends on other factors like:
- Type of information general or specific; Specific being costlier
- Time taken to complete the report
- Amount of facts and figures
- Number of pages
Once you establish your credibility in the solar research sector, your brand value will increase and you will start getting inquiries.
4. Platform for solar installers and buyers
Again, this solar energy career option requires minimal investment.
You can create a platform like a website in which you highlight experienced and trusted solar installers capable of providing quality services to the customers.
How to do it?
To start with, collect the details of the solar installers like:
- Experience in the solar installation
- Team members
- Amount of installations done till date
- Brand of panels used by them
- Area of operation
- Tentative cost of solar installation
- Customers reviews
Select at least 10 top solar installers and keep this information updated on your website.
Simultaneously, start looking for customers who are interested in solar installations.
Inform them that you have a list of trusted solar installers who can provide quality services.
Know the requirements of the customers by designing a simple questionnaire.
- Address
- Monthly electricity bill
- Size of the solar panels they are looking for
- Brand of panels they want
- Tentative time for going solar
The more questions you ask, the better lead you will get for the trusted solar installers.
Inform the listed installers on your website that you have a qualified lead with good chances of conversion.
Ask for some fee in return.
This way you are acting as a platform between the customers and the solar installers.
You need to be very responsive in this kind of business otherwise the customer may lose interest in your proposal.
5. Career as a solar energy blogger
There is nothing like start writing about solar in your college days. Read books or collect information about solar and start writing in your style to let the readers know your point of view on solar.
There are many free sites in which you can start the blog and can start writing in no time.
The interested people will start visiting your blog and the traffic will increase with time.
There are many ways of monetizing the blog and some of them are:
You can even write the e-book, set a price, and publish it in your blog. The e-book can be sold using free payment junctions like Instamojo for Indians and Gumroad for international readers.
Again, this business model requires very little investment.
You can start with a free website or blog but with time when you grow, purchase the domain name to establish your own brand.
Conclusion
I received queries from my readers to discuss the probable solar energy career with required less investment. The above-mentioned careers are one of them.
The mental block that entrepreneurship in solar requires heavy investment is a wrong perception.
Hence the above solar energy career can be started in less time and with minimum investment.
There are many ways as you have seen above through which you can kick start your solar energy career with minimum investment and in less time.
