What is Reddit's opinion of Solar PV Engineering and Installation: Preparation for the NABCEP PV Installation Professional Certification?

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I took the Nabcep 40hr course from Heatspring and it did a great job of teaching info that would be tailored towards the test. It's about a thousand bucks and my work paid for it, so it's tough to make a value assessment there. The teacher, Sean White is pretty great and he has a book that goes along with the course that I definitely recommend. I passed the first time but it was very difficult for sure. Background: Technical side of solar for 4 years and degree in civil engineering.

As was said before, being a master electrician or the like would be very minimal help unless you're highly experienced with solar. Being able to navigate the NEC code is how that would help. For the test itself, it's "open book" so to speak as they give you the NEC code to use. You should have 690 and 705 memorized by heart, and know how to use section 310 and 250 for stuff like conductor sizing and ground sizing. You don't actually need to memorize because it's open book, but its helpful to know where to look for stuff.

At the end of the day you should be able to optimally design a code compliant solar system from scratch.

From the physical side: being able to do shading calculations (aka you need to know trigonometry), how many panels can fit in a certain location or how much space is needed based on a desired amount of power.

From the electrical side:String sizing with voltage and temperature corrections, power needs, wire sizing, conduit sizing, all the correction factors that go into that, disconnect ratings, fuse ratings, interconnection methods, acceptable wiring uses and marking, which types of conduits you can use, etc...

You also need to be competent with OSHA stuff and general job safety stuff.