Green jobs abound, but few takers

Potentiality; Opportunities in renewable energy sector

Up the Alaska Highway -- way, way up at Mile Marker 0 -- renewable energy entrepreneur Randyn Seibold has been wrestling with a tough choice: to have a once-in-a-lifetime adventure in Northern B. C.'s unspoiled wilderness or follow the lure of capitalism.

In the end, the 32-year-old avid rock climber has picked adventure-- with a paycheque -- as one of the so-called "green-collar" electricians fitting out the $190-million Bear Mountain Wind Park, a 34-turbine facility in the Peace River region. When completed in November, it will generate 102 megawatts or enough electricity in an average year to power more than 30,000 homes.

"I'm leading by example, I guess," laughs Mr. Seibold, who stepped back from his green business interests to sign on as a hands-on apprentice electrician. He says the project will become a key renewable energy hub for the province.

It's not a surprising decision. While other sectors have contracted or slowed, he says, renewable energy is "building momentum," supported not just by a pressing environmental imperative but by investments such as federal solar energy rebates and Ontario's Green Energy Act, which promises to create 50,000 jobs within three years, support alternative energy industries and make the province North America's renewable energy leader.

"The possibilities of sustainable energy are enormous," agrees Guy Dauncey, president of the B. C. Sustainable Energy Association. "[U. S. President Barack] Obama's plan in America has a potential of creating two million green jobs in two years. Our equivalent in Canada is 200,000 jobs within two years, if we had a green economic recovery plan. There's job potential for everyone."

And there's the rub: Despite the endless possibilities of sustainable energy, the number of green graduates is not keeping pace with job creation, says Don Young, dean of applied science at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ont.

"Solar and wind technologies are developing quickly because other countries like Germany and Japan have a pressing need. So we didn't have to break ground in Canada," says Mr. Young, who four years ago launched the college's nationally-acclaimed solar energy program.

"The trouble is that in this country, we have the technology but we don't have a trained workforce to manage and build it. And that's no way for an industry to build itself."