On the heels of President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union Address in which he highlighted the growing urgency surrounding cleaner energy and diminished dependence on fossil fuel, DOE Secretary, Steven Chu, launched a new initiative designed to spur research in solar and drive down the costs of PV technology. Known as SunShot, this innovative program complements countless other state and federal initiatives that have arisen in the wake of growing public demand for cleaner and greener energy. Although California currently leads the solar charge, representing nearly 50% of total installed PV capacity in the US, states like Florida and New Jersey aren’t far behind, investing in more advanced PV training programs and consumer incentives to help solarize their economies. In fact, just recently, Florida’s state legislature approved over $31 million for its HVAC SunSense program, complete with solar rebates for those who make the switch from dirtier forms of energy.
Advanced PV Training Programs – Prerequisite for a Cleaner Tomorrow
Although the direct recipients of most solar subsidies are traditionally the manufacturers, businesses, and consumers who embrace the technology, these incentives help create indirect demand for those with the skills and training to help boost widespread adoption of clean power. In fact, Obama’s call for the nation to invest in tomorrow’s energy rather than subsidizing yesterday’s would go unanswered in the absence of qualified professionals able to build and install the requisite green infrastructure.
Fortunately, the clean energy industry is unlikely to experience a major deficit in skilled labor. While the dot-com boom of the 1990s owes much of its success to its army of programmers who had already accumulated years of coding experience, the solar industry can marshal its troops quite quickly and fill the gaps, with an advanced PV training program requiring less than an entire week to complete.
Be that as it may, this army is needed, and funding education in solar must be a top priority if the country is to become the world’s largest solar market by 2015. Like the dot-com boom, solar is largely fueled by market demand, but driving this rapid growth is a level of public investment that would make Silicon Valley blush. Solar has the potential to grow much faster, but only if education in solar accompanies this rapid rise.
