Green energy solutions are on everyone's lips these days. In fact, President Obama has recently taken advantage of his executive authority to drastically accelerate the progress that's being made in energy consumption by mandating new targets for green energy solutions in the power consumed by the government, including the military, by 2020. The new standards call for no less than 20 percent of the government's energy to come from renewables, and it's intended to be accomplished through a combination of closer monitoring—via the installation of up to 500,000 smart meters at federal facilities—and carbon-capture technologies. While the goals of the program are certainly modest, and its implementation in the face of determined resistance is uncertain, the minimal assumption is that the renewed emphasis on green energy solutions will work dramatic changes across the utilities industry.
Wind power is as good a candidate as any for the green energy solutions of the future. All across America, and especially along its coasts, wind farms have been springing up in much the same way that oil derricks grew across the prairies a century ago. Despite local resistance to these large windmills, the federal government has returned to its role as an active promoter of wind power—a role it largely abandoned in the 1980s.
If your work in the utilities industry involves the planning, construction, or maintenance of facilities, you're likely to be called on to support the development of industrial-scale wind facilities soon—if you haven't already. The American Wind Energy Association now asserts that wind power is economical without subsidies, which might be what has motivated financier Warren Buffet to invest $1 billion in over 400 new turbines for the state of Iowa alone.
Solar power is also one of the more promising green energy solutions being promoted. Here, you're more likely to be involved with the new solar economy as either an independent contractor installing the panels at the behest of homeowners, or as a planner in the industry whose job is to anticipate the diminished strain on the grid that solar represents. Unlike wind and nuclear power, solar energy works best as a distributed network—almost as a cottage industry—and will require very little in the way of new infrastructure to support it. It will, however, be feeding energy back onto your local grid, and the necessary adjustments will likely take up much of your working hours over the next decade as solar becomes all but universal in the sunnier states.
Key to this transformation is the continued emphasis on renewables set by the administration. Between the oil crisis of 1973 and the beginning of the 1980s, the US took a decisive lead in developing green energy solutions such as wind and solar. Starting in 1981, tax credits replaced direct subsidies to the industry, and progress all but stopped for years. Present-day green energy solutions have gone quite a bit farther than the experiments of the '70s, so a reversal of policy now would likely entail a larger disruption to utilities companies across the country.
(Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)
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