HomeMy WebLinkAboutCSURF RESEARCH CAMPUS - ODP - 4-04B - REPORTS - (5)been auto factories or auto suppliers —
particularly glass manufacturers that
make car windshields. But lately Toledo
has established a growing national repu-
tation as a hot spot for firms develop-
ing solar panels. Why Toledo? Glass is
a key component in solar technology,
and the University of Toledo has been do-
ing hard-core solar -cell research for two
decades. Local economic -development
officials recently launched a $22 million
venture fund to help launch more start-
ups. The payoff from this combination of
forces: according to the local Regional
Growth Partnership, the Toledo area al-
ready has nearly 6,000 people employed
in the solar industry. "We're seeing this
transition of people moving from auto-
motive to alternative energy," says Steven
Weathers, CEO of the Regional Growth
Partnership.
Walk the hallways of these energy
firms and you'll meet a fair number of
physicists and chemists. But as these
technologies mature, they need tradition-
al business people, too. First Solar, a so-
lar -panel manufacturer outside Toledo
that employs more than 550 workers,
currently has 38 job openings. Some of
The solar sector could
employ 2 million people
by 2020—more than
work as elementary-
school teachers.
—PETER BEADLE. GREENJOBS.COM
BRIGHT LIGHTS: Ph.D. students at the Univ. of Toledo holding a solar
module (left), First Solar's Todd Spangler (above left) with new hires
those spots require a Ph.D., but the firm
has also been hiring in human resources,
accounting and information technology.
Just about every discipline has an open-
ing or two," says Carol Campbell, First
Solar's FIR chief.
On college campuses, students are
increasingly aware of these new opportu-
nities. Some schools are
adding programs to capi-
talize on student interest.
Last month Duquesne
University in Pittsburgh
enrolled the first stu-
dents in its Sustain-
able Enterprise M.BA
program. New student
Chris Togni, 29, is part
of a team consulting with
a local retailer on how
to reduce the waste creat-
ed by its reliance on plastic bags —and
after graduation he hopes to find simi-
lar work at a consulting firm. Togni, the
son of a steelworker, believes this focus
will make him attractive to employers.
"It's my differential advantage over other
M.B.A.s," he says.
The focus on all things green may be
getting a little ahead of itself. Between
2005 and 2006, venture-capital invest-
ments in the clean -tech sector jumped
from $623 million to $1.5 billion, with so-
lar and biofuel garnering the biggest infu-
sions, according to analysts at Lux Re-
search. That's led to talk of an alt-energy
bubble. "From the perspective of inves-
tors and entrepreneurs, this is the new
Intemet," says Lux Research president
Matthew Nordan. Even employees at alt-
energy firms acknowledge that renewable
energy has suffered false starts in the
past. Still, even skeptics suggest that for
young workers charting a career path, the
industry's allure is hard to beat. "It's vir-
tually impossible to beat the long-term
trends in clean tech," says Nordan.
Inside Xunlight, that optimism is per-
vasive. The firm, founded
by University of Toledo
physics professor Xunming
Deng, moved into new of-
fices just a few weeks ago.
Last week the cubicles still
had a pristine, unsullied
look to them, and some
employees didn't yet have
working phones. The firm
hasn't even made its first
sale, but employees say its
product —a superthin, flex-
ible solar cell created using sheets of
stainless steel —should be in high de-
mand. Within two years, Deng expects to
employ hundreds. Many will be twenty -
somethings, but there are veterans, too.
"The excitement of being in a start-up is
the same whether you're 32 or 52," says
facilities VP Stan Rubini, as he surveys
the mammoth empty warehouse in which
Xunlight hopes to manufacture more than
$200 million worth of solar cells each
year. As fuel costs rise and concern about
climate change spreads, investors and
employees aren't the only ones hoping
firms like this one find a viable solution.
Almost everyone is. ■
41 Read more environment coverage
atxtra.Newsweek.rain
58 N E W S W E E K O C T O B E R 8, 2007 PHOTOGRAPHS BY M. WRIIEY FOR NEWSWEER, WESTENGel—GR IMAGES (LEA
BY DANIEL MCGINN
RAD MOHRING HAD
reached a crossroads.
Until recently the 31-
year-old design engi-
neer had worked for a
Toledo, Ohio -based company that
builds manufacturing equipment
for automobile plants. With the
auto industry struggling, he fig-
ured it was only a matter of time
before he'd be laid off. So this
spring he began looking for a new
job. In a few weeks he had four
offers. Today he could have been
working for a giant defense con-
tractor or an established agricul-
tural company. Instead, he chose
the lowest -paying job —and be-
came the 20th employee at Xun-
light, a Toledo -based solar -energy
firm. "I left a job I'd worked at for
56 NEWSWEEK OCTOBER 8, 2007
The search for
sources is making clean -tech
12 years to join a start-up," says Mohring,
who has a 1-year-old child and another
due in February. "It's something of a gam-
ble, but if it pays off, it pays off big."
It's becoming a common bet. With oil
prices near record highs and more com-
panies concerned about their carbon
footprints, workers are finding job op-
portunities in the emerging green econo-
my. Companies are hiring scientists to
work on renewable -energy technology
and business people to market earth -
friendly products. Even if some of these
nascent companies falter, there's wide-
spread conviction that this sector will be-
come one of the country's hottest em-
ployers. "This is the challenge of the 21st
century ... and it's not going away," says
Kevin Doyle, founder of the consulting
firm Green Economy.
It's impossible to say precisely how
many people work in green jobs —partly
because there's no formal definition of the
term. Does a clerk stocking organic pro-
duce at Whole Foods Market qualify?
How about an engineer working to make a
coal-fired power plant run more efficient-
ly? Meanwhile, in sectors like solar energy
and biofuels, payrolls are growing so rap-
idly it's hard for researchers to keep an ac-
curate count. Despite the lack of precise
numbers, all observers agree the ranks are
growing quickly. Based on the flow of
venture capital, K. R Sridhar, CEO of the
fuel -cell start-up Bloom Energy, believes
the clean -tech sector could produce
50,000 new jobs by 2010. (By way of com-
parison, General Motors' hourly work
force, which briefly went on strike last
week, currently numbers 73,000.) Peter
Beadle, president of Greenjobs.com, cites
estimates that the solar sector alone could
employ 2 million people by 2020—more
Americans than currently work as ele-
mentary-school teachers.
During the last decade's dotcom em-
ployment boom, much of the job creation
was concentrated in Silicon Valley. In
contrast, green jobs are popping up all
over —some of them in very unexpected
places. A good example is Toledo, a rust -
belt manufacturing center with no short-
age of vacant downtown buildings. His-
torically, Toledo's big employers have
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