Do the work.
Every belt has a practical lab graded by a human reviewer against its rubric. The Black Belt capstone is the fictional warehouse case — full assessment, then an oral defense.
Warehouse capstone and hiring interview
Fictional warehouse: 480 V three-phase, 25,000 kWh/month, measured peak 120 kW at 7 pm, ten-year-old roof, leased premises, customer requests whole-site Powerwall backup for 12 hours. No actual tariff, interval series, roof report or critical-load inventory provided. Submit a discovery report, missing-data register, conceptual alternatives, one justified calculation, source register, risk/assumption sheet and a customer explanation. Present a 10-minute consultation followed by 10-minute source defense.
Demand-aware commercial bill
Fictional tariff: 30,000 kWh at $0.14/kWh, 150 kW billed demand at $20/kW, $200 fixed. Solar offsets 12,000 purchased kWh and does not change billed demand. Find before/after costs and savings. Then consider an independently verified 15 kW demand reduction. Ignore taxes, exports and other riders for this exercise only.
Cash flow and dated incentive analysis
Fictional investment $200,000; year-one gross bill savings $24,000; annual O&M $4,000; assume the resulting annual benefit stays constant for 10 years with no residual value. Compute simple payback and NPV at 8%. Do not include incentives. Then describe what must be verified before adding any incentive to a real proposal.
Safe site and approval plan
A leased coastal Florida building has an old roof and no service drawings. The owner invites you onto the roof and asks you to open the electrical cabinet for photos. Produce a safe data-collection plan and milestone chart.
Cold-voltage screening and document lookup
Teaching-only module: Voc at 25°C = 50 V; linear coefficient = -0.25%/°C; assumed cell temperature = -5°C; 10 modules in series; hypothetical equipment absolute limit = 600 V. Calculate cold Voc with this simplified model. Explain which additional checks remain before a real design. Locate actual model-specific specifications without substituting these invented values.
Powerwall consultation and source defense
Customer wants a 4 kW constant critical load for 8 hours. First calculate delivered energy. Use hypothetical 90% starting charge, 20% retained reserve and 90% discharge-path delivery factor to estimate nominal energy for a generic battery. Explain why these fictional factors are not a Powerwall specification and why Powerwall counts require an actual model/configuration review. Demonstrate locating the latest U.S. specifications, design limits and owner guidance.
Explain the system
Record or write a 90-second explanation for a business owner. Explain panels, inverter, battery and utility. Distinguish kW from kWh. State two discovery questions.
Units and service compatibility
A fictional DC circuit operates at 400 V and 8 A for two hours at constant conditions. Calculate W, kW and kWh. A different client has a 480 V three-phase service and wants Powerwall whole-building backup. Explain why the arithmetic exercise does not establish product compatibility.
Capstone: Warehouse capstone and hiring interview — graded by a reviewer, then defended orally before Black Belt issuance.
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