About Waivolt
I'm Duncan Miller. I've been building solar education platforms since 2006 — I'm the software engineer behind HeatSpring, where I helped build one of the first online platforms for NABCEP certification prep and trained tens of thousands of solar professionals. I left that company in 2023, honored a two-year noncompete, and built Waivolt. This is the version I always wanted to build.
Waivolt is NABCEP exam prep that respects your time and your money. The curriculum is developed by IREC Certified Master Trainers and NABCEP-certified experts with decades in the field. The content is current, the material is relevant to your career — not just the exam — and you can study at your own pace. Your first practice exam is free. Our Solar Hero program makes full courses free for qualified applicants. Waivolt Pro unlocks the full question bank and AI-powered custom exams built around your weak areas.
Fair pricing for individuals
The solar training industry has always charged individuals the highest price and given the biggest discounts to companies buying seats in bulk. That's backwards. If you're paying out of your own pocket to get certified, you deserve a fair price — not an inflated rate designed to make corporate bulk deals look attractive.
Waivolt is open to every solar professional, regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, or experience level — as long as you agree to our code of conduct and student honor system.
No investors. No bullshit.
Waivolt is an open startup — expert-owned, founder-funded, no outside investors. We share our key metrics publicly: revenue, expenses, profit. We contribute 1% of revenue to CO₂ removal. We will never sell your data.
We operate as an Oregon Benefit Company on a triple bottom line: people, planet, profit — in that order.
We only work with curriculum developers who are IREC Certified Master Trainers, hold NABCEP PV Installation Professional certification, and have signed the IREC code of ethics. The experts who build our courses also own a stake in this company. Their reputation is on the line every time you sit for an exam.
Why this matters
In July 2021, Portland hit 116°F. The day before had been 112°F. The day before that, 108°F. That summer I took my family camping at Lake Quinault in the Olympic National Forest — one of the wildest temperate rainforests in the world. As an amateur arborist, I noticed it immediately: deciduous trees with blistered, yellowed leaves. Conifers browned like they'd been put in an oven. Because they had. Wildfires followed that fall across the kiln-dried west.
I've believed in the energy transition since 2005. But that summer made it personal in a different way. The solar industry needs skilled, certified professionals who actually know what they're doing on a roof. That's what Waivolt is for.
Our Experts
Alexander Jarvis, IREC Certified Master Trainer
Alex has been working in the solar industry since 2006. He is an IREC Certified Master Trainer in Photovoltaic Technologies and a NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installation Professional. He is a solar installer and is the founder of Solar Systems of Indiana and cofounder of Southern Indiana Renewable Energy Network. He served on the Board of Directors at MREA from 2018-2024. + read more
Advisory Board
Christopher LaForge, Senior IREC Certified Master Trainer
Christopher has been a solar PV Instructor since 1993, he served on the NABCEP Board of Directors from 2004-2014, and is currently the Chair of the NABCEP Board Nominations Committee. He is a Senior IREC Certified Master Trainer in Photovoltaic Technologies and a NABCEP Certified Photovoltaic Installation Professional (Emeritus). + read more