The Center has gained national and international recognition for its wide range of research, education, training and certification activities.

The remainder of the staff consists of technical and administrative support personnel and university student assistants.

Research at FSEC is based on field monitoring, computer simulations and controlled experiments in highly instrumented laboratories.

These research efforts are developed in partnership with industry, nonprofit organizations, private sponsors and national laboratories.

In October 2009, the United States Department of Energy provided a $2.8 million grant to Solar Energy Center to help lead efforts to create and manage the newly created Solar Installer Instructor Training Network.