Capstone: Renewable Energy Diagnostics
Hands-on: diagnose eight on-site renewables call-outs — PV yield and sizing, string shading, batteries, the wind cube law, load-shifting, monitoring and orientation — then calculate, verify and prescribe the fix.
30 min read · Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead
You've learned how PV works and is sized, why self-consumption drives the value, how shading and orientation hurt yield, what batteries add, and why on-site wind so often disappoints. This capstone sends you round as the renewables engineer — sizing systems, building business cases, and spotting the designs that quietly throw value away. The thread through every case: self-consumed power is worth two-to-four times exported power, so size and operate renewables to the building's own demand. And know when the technology fits — PV beats wind on almost every building.