Solar Job Possibilities

Why do I want to go into solar?  Well, first and foremost, this is an industry with a very sunny future.  No, really, I have good reasons.  First, let me tell you why I’m even interested in this field in the first place.

Why I want to go into solar

My academic training is mostly in ecology and biology, though I’ve picked up a lot in physics, electronics, and computer science along the way.  As such, I have a great respect for the environment and the technology that operates within it.  I think energy is important for the success of all living things on earth, not only because they need energy to survive, but because we humans have a nasty history of destroying the environment with waste and pollution just to obtain the energy that our economy needs to survive.  I don’t think we do this out of malice, but moreso out of ignorance and tradition.  Most of us just either don’t know how to obtain clean energy cheaply, or don’t see anything wrong with existing energy sources.

Solar is thus a natural complement to my background.  It is both a green and a technical field, two things that I like to see in a prospective career.  It is on the cutting edge of progress, and undeniably there will be a need for more people with solar expertise as the years progress, and clean energy becomes an even bigger issue than it is today.  By entering the field today, I will be prepared for tomorrow.

I love solar panels.  Who doesn’t like how nice and shiny they are?  That’s one reason by itself to enter the solar field – you get to be surrounded by pretty, shiny panels.  Every time the sun hits them, they output clean electricity – no waste, no pollution.  People like sparkly jewelry and are willing to pay thousands for them, but when does that jewelry ever have a real function besides looking nice? Solar panels are beautiful and are sources of power at the same time.

Potential careers in solar

The first thing I looked at was being a solar installer.  It is a career path that’s accessible to me after just 1 year at Durham Tech – I would get a co-op in my second semester with a local company, and potentially that would be the beginning of a promising career.  The pay should be pretty good – from my Internet research it looks like it will be from $12-30/hr depending on level of experience.  And from this great post about a day (or three) in the life of a solar installer, I know it will be hard work – climbing up on roofs, carrying panels that are 30-50 lbs – but I think it will be rewarding work because at the end of the day I will be able to see real progress.  At the end of the week, the job will be done, and I can check off another house as being solar-ready.  I’ve had some construction experience as part of our home renovation project, have the strength to carry heavy pieces of drywall and wood, can use electric power tools pretty well, and go up on the roof maybe 3 times a year for tarring leaks and cleaning out the gutters.  So I think I have the capability to be a good solar installer, but there are other careers that might open up for me once I get enough background in the solar field.

Another career path might be as a solar designer – being the person who actually plans and designs the solar system for the installers to install.  For this career, I would likely need to pass the NABCEP PV installer exam, not just their entry-level exam.  This would certify that I’ve been in charge of several installation projects already, and thus am qualified to design solar power systems.  Of course, I would need to have done work on several installation projects in order to work my way up to being in charge of them, so a career as solar designer is likely years ahead in the future.  However, maybe there is a shortcut, like coursework leading directly to that.  I don’t know…I’ll have to do more reading on that.

Yet another career path would take me into running my own business as a solar landscape lighting contractor.  I would do both the planning and installation of solar-powered landscape lights, using natural materials to integrate solar power systems into the landscape.  This wouldn’t be just your regular solar-powered lights you can buy at your local hardware store that work half the time, fill up with water the rest of the time, and put out too little light all of the time.  I’m thinking about big, bold lights you can comfortably light up your patio with, powered by panels of 150 watts or more.  Your house would be lit, to say the least.

Unfortunately, to do the installation by myself I would need an electrician’s license, which requires 2 years of experience as an actual electrician and the other 2 years a combination of other things.  I’ve never seen myself as ever becoming an electrician, though I do have wiring experience and enough physics background for a basic understanding of electricity.  I just want to install solar panels, connect them up to lights, and make sure the whole thing works nicely and safely.  Oops — I guess that would be called being an electrician, which could be a career path all in itself.  Guess I might have 4 years of work ahead sometime in my future if I ever decide on this route.

Another career path which I just came up with would be a solar artist – a person who creates artforms that either feature, or are powered by solar energy, or both.  For small installations, I wouldn’t need an electrical license.  However, the job would demand a lot of creativity, and there isn’t the certainty in pay that the other jobs above would provide.

Essentially what I’d like to do

If I’m going to be in the solar field, I would like a career where I get to work with the panels as closely as possible.  It’s amazing to know that they generate electricity, and I love the beauty of solar panels.  I think it would be interesting to build entire walls out of them, so the entire exterior of a building could be devoted to electricity production.  The more, the better since a person can never have too much clean electricity – the excess can be sold back to the power grid for others to use.

I don’t know what area of the solar industry that interest would translate into right now, since I’m just getting started.  Right now, the entire field of solar is wide open to me, and I imagine I could end up anywhere.  I would be happy as long as I could do something hands-on to help there be more clean electricity in the world, either by installing the panels themselves or by writing about it on the web as I’m doing now.