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solar jobs

The belief that jobs in the solar industry are limited to working on the roof or chasing after sales leads is not really accurate today as other opportunities are available and increasing, according to solar career expert Liz Merry.

Merry, owner of Verve Solar Consulting in Davis, Calif., has been sharing insights and advice about the solar industry since 2001 through numerous courses, articles and blogs. Promising no hype and no panaceas, she offered solid advice for career seekers in the solar photovoltaics (PV) industry at a recent workshop at the California Center for Sustainable Energy in San Diego, Calif.

Merry outlined four major steps every solar job seeker should follow to understand where he or she may fit into the industry:

05/10/2010 1 comment

Energy Efficiency Renewable Energy

Solar Power: Made in the U.S.A.

written by Rosalind Jackson

Sunny Milpitas, California is the newly announced home of SunPower’s first domestic manufacturing operations. Yep, you heard right. More green manufacturing jobs right here in the U.S.A. (In November, Chinese solar powerhouse Suntech announced that its first U.S. manufacturing facility would be located near Phoenix, Arizona).

SunPower’s 75-megawatt production line is expected to employ 100 by the end of the year, and spread the wealth around even more by sourcing equipment and materials from a host of other states throughout the United States. At the Vote Solar Initiative, we like to remind folks that manufacturing is only a fraction of solar’s overall job creation opportunity. In fact, about 75 percent of solar employment is related to system installation, jobs that are inherently local in the first place. Nevertheless, manufacturing is near and dear to most Americans, and this new production facility is tangible proof that the green economy has a real role to play in bringing those jobs back home — with the right policies, that is.

As was the case with Suntech’s Arizona selection, SunPower’s decision to locate manufacturing in California is a testament to the state’s market-building solar policies. And so it is appropriate that stalwart renewable energy supporter, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, joined in making the announcement. During the event, Schwarzenegger highlighted a few initiatives that have been so instrumental to the state’s new energy economy that we think they bear repeating:

04/26/2010 0 comment

Renewable Energy

Solar Is a Perfect Match: A Video Valentine

written by Adam Browning

With this post, CleanTechies is diverging from our usual content with this light-hearted Valentine’s Day tribute to clean energy from the Vote Solar Initiative, which is working to make solar power mainstream.

People love solar. There are plenty of reasons why that’s the case. Solar creates local jobs. It produces reliable electricity when we need it most. It improves energy independence by tapping a homegrown resource. It offers real hope in the fight against global climate change. And ultimately the idea that we could be harnessing electricity from that big, yellow sun of ours just makes people feel good.

Always up for a good sun pun, Vote Solar thought we’d hammer that point home with a tongue-in-cheek Valentine Video campaign.

02/12/2010 0 comment

Renewable Energy

Green Tech Job Hunt: Build Your Brand

written by Frank Marquardt

Face it: You’re just a human resource, one of six billion from the rapidly multiplying species known as homo sapiens.

Okay, for whatever job you’re going for, you’re probably not in competition with six billion—but there are probably a thousand, maybe several thousand, and possibly tens of thousands of folks well-qualified and interested in the job you, too, are after. So what makes you different?

Understanding Your Brand

Your brand consists of a vision, purpose, goals, values, and passions. The vision is the big picture view of how your work serves the world. Maybe it’s for a world with a solar panel on every roof, or an energy grid that tells people how to save energy, or a carbon-neutral world.

06/22/2009 1 comment

Renewable Energy

Green Tech Job Hunt: Follow the Money

written by Frank Marquardt

Following the money isn’t just a great way to track corruption to its source. It’s also a solid job search strategy.

And it can be a particularly effective way to find a job in industries, like clean tech, where most companies are somewhere in the start-up phase.

Who’s Getting the Dough

Green media sites like Greentech Media, CleanEdge, and CleanTechies regularly publish articles about who’s investing in whom. When a venture capital firm puts money into a start-up, some of that dough will pay people’s salaries. So by tracking venture capital investments, you can get a pretty good idea about companies in your focus area that are likely to be opening job requisitions soon. Then you can target your networking to try to get to know some people at that company.

06/15/2009 1 comment

Renewable Energy

Green Technology Job Hunt: Succeed With Clear Goals

written by Frank Marquardt

It doesn’t matter where you are on the green technology job hunt. Maybe you’re contemplating a career change, or you’re just starting the job hunt, or you’re deep into networking. Your ability to use your job-hunting time effectively, get the most from your networking, and prioritize your daily tasks depends on knowing what you want.

But if you’re like many job seekers, you don’t know what you want. Okay, maybe you know you want to work in the solar industry, or on sustainable transportation issues, or on a more energy efficient grid. Or maybe you know you’d love to work in any of those areas, because they’d all align with your desire to promote sustainable change in your day-to-day work. That’s all well and good. But if a hiring manager popped out of your computer and asked you, “what do you want to do?” would you be able to tell her the role, the clean tech sector, and why in 30 seconds or less?

05/22/2009 3 comments

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Older Posts

solar jobs

How to Break Into the Solar Industry

Solar Power: Made in the U.S.A.

Solar Is a Perfect Match: A Video Valentine

Green Tech Job Hunt: Build Your Brand

Green Tech Job Hunt: Follow the Money

Green Technology Job Hunt: Succeed With Clear Goals