Wanted: green engineers
Regardless of the outcome of the Copenhagen conference in December 2009, one of the most pressing anticlimate-change needs will be the ability to get things done in 2010 and beyond. The commitments already made by some large economies require an extremely large capacity to get new energy systems in place quickly. That includes making sure that there are the people around to design and build them.
The infrastructure needed to make a large dent in the worlds emissions is daunting. What is unusual is not the scale of investment, but that much of it has to be spent on new capabilities. With the use of coal worldwide expected to double by 2030, for example, carbon capture and storage technologies will be crucial. The amount of pipelining, geological surveying and chemical engineering needed for this is not unprecedented compared with what already exists in the oil, gas and mining industries. But it is vastly larger than todays CCS capacity, and the people needed cannot just be borrowed from the current fossil-fuel industry.
The nuclear industry is also bedevilled by labour-force issues, at all skill levels. For the past few decades very few Western countries have been producing nuclear engineers; if the nuclear industry is to expand again, over the next decade it will need thousands of engineers who are at present nowhere to be found. And if the supply of expert engineers is tight for builders and operators, it will be tight for regulators, tooregulators who will be sorely needed if a new generation of nuclear-power plants is to enjoy, and deserve, public confidence.
Renewables do not face these issues in quite so pressing a form; the solar and wind industries reap the benefits of the production line in ways that nuclear and carbon-capture technologies, with their large installations, do not. This is one of the reasons that governments like renewables: they provide jobs. Retrofitting homes for greater energy efficiency also offers this advantage on a large scale . Even so the renewables sector will also be competing for designers and engineers.
To a large extent this is a market problem that markets can solve; if the demand is created, companies will find ways to get the work done. But there are some specific things that governments can do to help. One is to fund research with a strong emphasis on energy engineering and science. New breakthroughs, however welcome, are not the point here; though new technologies will be a boon in the 2030s and 2040s, the realities of large-scale change mean that, for the moment, energy transformation is a come-as-you-are party. But breakthroughs are not the only thing research produces. Nuclear engineers are scarce in part because there has been little ongoing research to captivate students.
2015高考英语作文预测:A Lesson from My Parents
2015年高考英语作文范文汇总
2015高考英语作文预测:The real ecological tourism
2015年高考英语作文范文:英语不再重要吗
2015年高考英语作文高级表达方式汇总
高考英语作文提分必备点睛短句
2015年高考英语作文预测15篇
2015年高考英语作文范文:网络舆论
2015高考英语作文预测:The most unforgettable person in my memory
2011高考英语满分作文(天津卷)
2015年高考英语作文高级表达方式(三)
2015高考英语作文预测:Changes in My Hometown
2015高考英语作文预测:Wealth and Happiness
2015高考英语作文预测:Health and diet
2015高考英语作文预测:The protection of wild animal
2015高考英语作文预测:Honesty is a virtue
2015年高考英语作文如何拿高分
2015高考英语作文预测:Time is precious
2015高考英语作文预测:Graduation farewell speech
2014高考英语满分作文(北京卷)(2)
2015高考英语作文预测:Should Internet Slang Be Prohibited
2015年高考英语作文预测汇总
高考英语满分作文汇总
高中英语作文万能句子
2014高考英语满分作文(北京卷)(1)
2015年高考英语作文范文:面对失败
2015年高考作文预测(三)
2015年高考英语作文高级表达方式(一)
2015年高考英语作文范文:如何处理人际关系
2015年高考英语作文高级表达方式(四)
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |