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.
英语学习一定要养成的20个好习惯
快速学习英语的方法
名词
如何用“新概念英语第三册”来攻克托福写作
夏季的温馨:采浆果
周成刚老师:我眼中的新概念英语
日产拟推低价版聆风提振电动汽车销售
叙利亚屠村事件新证据否定蓄意屠杀说法
饥饿
美国语言
背诵《新概念》的内功心法
2012年中考第二轮复习资料:初中虚拟语气练习
什么人适合学新概念?
VOA、BBC、CNN、CRI、NPR英语听力2012年2月份音频打包下载
Lex专栏:欧洲或需继续紧缩
2012年中考英语第二轮复习---语法专项复习
现在完成时讲解
联发科的“联发”优势
态度决定你的命运
众多专家谈英语的学习方法
学好英语没啥捷径就是靠坚持
看英文电影和看英文书的学习英语技巧
英语学习要及时复习
最in的英语学习方法:摆脱死记硬背
燃烧的爱LOVE
掌握学习六大技能即可轻松搞定英语
牛津版中考英语形容词副词专题讲解与练习
“世纪审判”引发阿根廷违约担忧
Spring
九大诀窍快速提高英语阅读速度
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |