Will Today’s Brown Jobs Be Tomorrow’s Green Jobs?
The greatest transition from fossil-fueled “brown” jobs to renewable “green” jobs may end up taking place at the source. Not that solar panels will be going up inside coal mines. No, I’m referring to the source of the average consumer’s power – their local utility – which may become the launching pad for a dominant green economy.
Photo Credit: The U.S. National Archives
Although we like to think of solar power as owned and operated by the homeowner through rooftop solar arrays, the reality of a widespread, renewable energy economy may exist in large-scale utility power plants. That means that the line between green and brown jobs will likely blur as the transition to cleaner energy progresses.
As Liz Merry of Solar Today magazine pointed out, prospective green job holders should learn to “understand the technical, economic, political and regulatory nature of our electric utilities because the businesses that build and maintain our electrical grid may soon represent the majority of solar-related jobs and opportunities.”
Indeed, Merry may not be far off, although the real future of the solar industry remains torn between centralized solar power and distributed generation. Utilities are now eligible for federal tax incentives directly, which means they can build, own and operate their own solar power plants. Whereas, before last year’s renewal and update of federal incentives, utilities were forced to garner their renewable energy through power purchase agreements with outside businesses.
This newfound power has given utilities a strong stake in the solar industry, utilities which are making money on rising energy prices regardless of where that energy comes from.
At the same time, there are still plenty of mitigating factors leaving our exact solar future uncertain. There is plenty of opposition to remote, large-scale concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, including land use and water shortages, which could swing the pendulum toward smaller-scale distributed generation projects.
Photo Credit: greenforall.org
Many utilities are required to meet a certain percentage areas on rooftops, parking lots, or brownfields.
The point is that there is still time for proponents of CSP or distributed-generation to lobby for one side or the other. There is still no set path for the solar industry. Realistically, however, I can’t help but predict a further amalgamation of both – as we already have to this point – but would lobby hard for close-in, urban projects that minimize solar’s footprint on remote, public lands.
Utilities might just be in favor of that too, given their understanding of our dilapidated electrical grid and the cost of building new transmission lines. Right now, solar costs, although dropping, are still high enough to promote a more economies-of-scale approach (i.e. the larger the system, the cheaper the cost per watt installed). The next few years, given a continual drop in solar prices and the potential of technological breakthroughs, will make all the difference in determining whether Brown and Green join forces or continue to function as primarily separate but interrelated industries.
This issue is more complex than this blog can convey, but I will say this: All the youngsters aiming for solar careers would do well to heed Liz Merry’s advice and formulate an understanding of utilities and how they work. Because one thing is for sure in the foreseeable future – we will need increasingly more power, and utilities will keep on reading our meters.
Posted on August 19th in Solar News by Dan.