[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The sun creates new jobs; require new skills and new educations.
New sun?
The sun is not new. The sun is probably more than 4 billion years. The heat from the sun is not new. It has heated the earth. The light from the sun is not new. The sunlight appears different depends on where you are. If you are in the northern part of Norway wintertime, you do not see the sun at all. If you are in the same part of the world summertime, the sunlight appears 24/7. This is not new. It is the same every year. The energy from the sun can vary. However, we will always find solar energy.
What is then new with the sun? The new is the use of the sunlight or the use of solar energy. It is new when we look at all the years’ people on earth has been dependant on the sunlight.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]
Produce electricity from the sun
The use of sunlight and solar energy to produce electricity is not old. In 1953, a man called Gerald Pearson began researches into the possibility to use lithium-silicon photovoltaic cells. In 1954 Bell Labs announces the invention of the first practical silicon solar cell. If we look into the history, we can find that many have worked on the idea of producing electricity from the sunlight. Alexandre Edmond Becquerel observes in 1839 the photovoltaic effect via an electrode in a conductive solution exposed to light.
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Learn more about the sun
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The news from the solar energy
The use of solar energy to produce electricity is not very new. The news from the use of the solar energy comes from the cost of producing the solar cells. Forbes wrote in 2014 that the cost of solar panels is dropping exponentially. The first and most important technological change is the falling cost per watt of silicon photovoltaic cells over the past few decades. Check out the plummeting cost from $76 in 1977, to less than $0.36 today [1].
This drop in the price makes the electricity from solar cells affordable for a larger number of people. At the same time batteries become better and cheaper.
Cheaper energy
The price is still decreasing [2]. The new renewable energy capacity installed worldwide in 2016 was 161GW, a 10% rise on 2015 and a new record. The new record capacity cost $242bn, a 23% reduction in investment compared to 2015, and renewables investment remained larger than for all fossil fuels [3].[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Skills to handle the solar energy
All this renewable energy capacity needs skilled people for both the installations and maintenance. An example is India; the Indian Government has set a target of installing 100 GW of solar by 2022. In order to achieve this mission more than 50,000 skilled people are required for installation, commissioning, operation and maintenance in the field of solar technology – at all levels of management [4].
Skills availability plays an important role in facilitating the development of renewable energy.Whilst it is true that existing education and training courses and apprenticeships go a long way towards meeting the headline skills needs of the sector, the more specialized skill sets identified above may well not be communicated. Training and education providers may be slow to decide to focus specifically on the skills required for renewable energy. Developing a course and running it for the first time requires a significant investment of time and effort and providers are also constrained by the expectations of prospective students and trainees [5].
Read more:
[1] Forbes SEP 2, 2014. https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterdiamandis/2014/09/02/solar-energy-revolution-a-massive-opportunity/#644c23616c90
[2] Enerysage March 2017. http://news.energysage.com/solar-panel-efficiency-cost-over-time/
[3] The Guardian Tuesday 6 June 2017. (The new renewable energy is both wind, water, and sun cells) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/06/spectacular-drop-in-renewable-energy-costs-leads-to-record-global-boost
[4] SolarMango http://www.solarmango.com/solutions/talent/solar-talent/solar-jobs
[5] ILO 2015 Investment in renewable energy generates jobs. Supply of skilled workforce needs to catch up. http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_emp/@ifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_168354.pdf[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]