Solar military/civilian power- Veterans coming to the Coatesville VA will see Caln’s solar installation. They might be working in the solar industry.

 “The U.S. solar industry — which has experienced a 20 percent spike in job numbers from last year — currently employs close to 143,000 individuals. Nearly 10 percent of those employed in the solar sector are military veterans. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, veterans make up only 7.6 percent of the overall U.S. workforce.”  

“While the bulk of the jobs veterans occupy in solar are comprised of installation and manufacturing positions (39 percent and 27 percent, respectively), Luecke said the overall data points to opportunities for veterans to earn a higher wage while receiving invaluable work experience. “We found that solar installers make, on average, $23 to $24 per hour,” Luecke said. “In general, these jobs are very high skilled and very well paying jobs.”

A friend retired from his DOD job a few years ago. As a new college graduate he didn't find any challenges a microwave engineer in private industry. His private industry employer didn’t care how long or how well his designs would function but only if a customer would want one. As a DOD employee he designed the satellite/ground communication system our military used in Operation Desert Storm. Years later we use some of the concepts his DOD team designed in our smart phones.

Our military is one of the largest users of solar power. The new systems the U.S. military designs may make their way into regular civilian use:

 “DOD and the Mainstreaming of Solar The fact that the DOD’s heavy investment in solar could pave the way toward such advances, and toward mainstreaming a technology that is viewed by many as too costly, is not lost on renewable energy proponents. Nor is it lost on Kidd, who emphasized the U.S. military’s historical influence on achieving technological progress that would take the private sector twice as long. “The military has long been a source of technical innovation, driving advances in technology,” Kidd said, “but only when it’s contributed to our mission. The DOD’s mission is not the same as the DOE’s, even though there is an overlap of interest in many cases.”  

Kidd added that the Army is presently working toward improvements that will set new standards for reductions in balance of system costs. “These are all very good and positive things that will result from our efforts,” he said.  

Meanwhile, the Department of Defense continues to pursue innovations in solar energy production. “The DOD’s Installation Energy Test Bed is funding demonstrations of innovative solar energy technologies from the private sector,” Wright said. “Further testing and analysis will establish their technical and economic performance, and in turn help the industry expand the role of successful technologies in mainstream renewable energy markets.”  

A recent announcement by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. unveiled plans to create a space-based solar array that would orbit the Earth, capturing solar rays and transmitting them to land-based receivers — offering evidence, even to those in doubt, that the DOD’s combined renewable energy efforts could well be the catalyst that ushers in a new and vastly improved age in solar technology."

FROM

The Solar Battlefield: How the US DOD Will Bring SolarTechnology Mainstream

Vince Font, Contributing Editor

April 23, 2014

 Caln Township PA has it’s own private-public solar generation station coming:

Coatesville Solar Initiative - Economic Impact 

COATESVILLE AND CHESTER COUNTY, PA 

"The Coatesville Solar Initiative (CSI) is a 9.1 Megawatt (MW) homegrown project! CSI managing partner, Bob Keares of Keares Electrical Contracting is based in Exton and employs over 100 people.
  

Our investors and potential workforce are local. Goods and services will be sourced locally to the greatest extent possible. Two members of the CSI development team are graduates of Coatesville High School.  

Capital expenditure of around $35 million, of which $12 million is expected to be spent locally over the two year construction phase.  

Coatesville Area School District will purchase 6 MW of clean renewable energy through a long term power purchase agreement (PPA). Millions saved over the term of the PPA will go back into education programs and help already strained budgets. The Chester County Intermediate Unit has expressed interest in purchasing the remaining 1.2 MW.  

Taxpayers in the school district will benefit from stable electricity prices over the 25 year PPA.  

Solar farms require no public infrastructure. Unlike residential and commercial developments, CSI will not burden taxpayers with the need for more classrooms, roads, trash pickup and police."

MORE AT:

http://www.gogreencsi.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17