11/7/08 Building Green Jobs

Building Green Jobs. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. We have been talking all month about green jobs. That is a job that is related in some fashion to the generation of clean, renewable power. Some jobs are existing positions while others are new and still developing. Troy Nutter with Puget Sound Energy which is the largest investor owned utility in the state of Washington says there are several components to these jobs. NUTTER: We have two components to what we look at as our renewables and green power. We have one that is the actual generation component where we have the wind resources and the thermal resources that are the clean generation. The other is the energy efficiency side where we do a lot of work and energy around reducing load because every piece of load that you can reduce is the same as having to eliminate generation. The energy efficiency side is one that can even come right into our own homes as we become more informed. NUTTER: Using less energy, using more appropriate energy whether it be compact fluorescents, reducing load, making motors more efficient, making heating and air conditioning more efficient, how we light, how we balance the load; shifting load from peak hours to off. Nutter says that they are looking hard at what will be needed for the future of renewable energy technologies. NUTTER: All our projections looking forward are seeing an increase in all those kids of efforts. Our energy efficiency group is working with the Northwest Energy Efficiency Task Force to develop additional learning opportunities and training opportunities for people. They are working with the community college and workforce development folks around what are those kinds of jobs and what kind of skills do they need. So besides providing power, Puget Sound Energy is working hard to help develop the jobs that will reinforce their renewable energy systems. NUTTER: We want more people involved. We also from the point of view, as we take on more resources we need to find the workforce to operate, maintain and optimize these kinds of technologies. We also have a major solar project over at our Wildhorse facility that's a pilot project so we need to look at technicians to run solar farms and the technology of who's going to build those solar panels; who's going to install those solar panels. It's a wide ranging topic Nutter also says there will be an increased demand for new skilled labor as the baby-boomers continue to retire. For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network. www.harvestcleanenergy.org