It’s hard to do that while keeping one eye on the lookout for the atomic dagger in the back.

Have a nice day.

I don’t have a solution. Since the energy sector is already short on workers, the extra labor requirements of renewables will mostly be met by falling production rather than increased employment.

There is a shortage of tradeworkers because people are over or undereducating themselves to avoid manual labor. To be frank it’s a larger societal problem involving people being adverse to real work.

“More production came on line and prices fell. Now we seem to have a bit more production capacity than demand.”

But they are still installing substantial numbers of new turbines when they can’t maintain existing. That doesn’t sound wise.

Or do you have a different solution? Perhaps use a lot more coal? Build more nuclear plants?

Oops, building more nuclear plants – we don’t have the engineers and experienced construction people to do that. It would take years to train a new generation vs. a few months for wind techs.

Now, how about wrapping this up. You have a minor point – we need more wind techs. This is not a big deal. Advertise the positions and training opportunities. In a year or so we’re caught up.

There will never be perfect synchronization of materials, transmission and personnel in a rapidly expanding industry.

If you recall silicon refining lagged demand for a while. Then panel production got ahead of demand. Now panel demand is starting to exceed production.

A few years back wind turbine demand exceeded production and prices rose. More production came on line and prices fell. Now we seem to have a bit more production capacity than demand.

Back when we were building nuclear reactors some construction projects were abandoned because projected demand did not materialize. In fact, TVA recently canceled a nuclear project due to falling demand.

Around here we don’t consider failed weatherman turned shills for Big Oil experts in anything except their masters latest propaganda.

http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1176255/recruitment-step-manage-o-m-shortfall

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2008/09/survey-says-60-of-us-wind-turbines-may-be-behind-in-maintenance-53502

According to the findings, many wind farm operations and maintenance teams are so resource constrained that they are barely able to keep up with the unscheduled maintenance repairs their wind turbines require to continue generating electricity. Even regular, scheduled preventative-maintenance like oil changes and gearbox lubrication (services that are often still under warranty) are falling behind as manufacturers face similar resource struggles related to the shortage of qualified technicians.

http://nawindpower.com/issues/NAW1310/FEAT_03_Turbine-Maintenance-Pay-Now-Or-Surely-Pay-Later.html

According to the American Wind Energy Association, nearly $40 billion worth of wind installations in the U.S. came out of warranty in 2011, and 50% of the country’s wind turbine generator fleet is behind in original equipment manufacturer (OEM)-recommended maintenance schedules. Now wind farm owners must assume the entire financial risk and provide cost-effective operations and maintenance (O&M) programs.

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Then again, it’s not absolutely necessary to maintain turbines. The government will buy you new ones so that may be the reason why there are pictures of abandoned windfarms on the internet.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/03/19/the-reality-of-wind-turbines-in-california-video/#more-36283

Besides, we have unemployment. Surely the unemployed aren’t unemployed just because they’re lazy and not making an effort to find work. They just aren’t going into wind.

Teachers in the US are among the highest paid in the world, even among developed countries. It gets to a point where you just can’t cram more people into one narrow sector of the economy.

In any case the current shortage shows either problems with our approach to wind or incompetence on behalf of the wind industry for overbuilding capacity.

http://www.fit.ie/index.php?page=wind-turbine-maintenance

At the moment the wind energy sector and the Green Economy are rapidly expanding, both in Ireland and across Europe and America. With recent reports highlighting that 60% of wind turbines may be behind on their maintenance schedules there is a notable shortage of essential staff in the industry at present. The course will therefore meet needs within the industry while providing graduates with an excellent opportunity to compete within the labour market in Ireland but also to capitalise on employment opportunities across Europe.

Things like this straighten themselves out. It’s just a matter of time until people understand the opportunity and jump in. This isn’t like a shortage of teachers because we underpay teachers.

Glory goes to those who can recognize their mistakes, take on new information and move forward. They evolve and they produce ideas that advance the discussion.

You can do that. I’m willing to believe the highest job creation figures for renewables are made up. In fact, I agree with your summary except the implication that the labor requirements are impossible.

I wouldn’t say impossible. Just very difficult. We will see. Bob can have the last post if he prefers.

Based on some assumptions and the Garret Peltier table you come to the conclusion that 25% renewables would require 13 million workers. You did not state your conclusion explicitly, but since your comment was on an article about RE growth it is suggested that you meant that a large growth of renewables would be impossible due to lack of qualified workers. The other people reacting to you also interpreted it that way and you did not correct them by saying that your point actually was something else.

I than redid your calculation for both 25% renewable electricity as well as for 25% energy based on the very specific data in Wei et al (that you brought into the discussion) and came out an order of magnitude. Thereby reducing the labour shortage problem from an insolvable mega-problem to a doable challenge.

Note that I have been very pessimistic in my calculations because I ignored learning effects, and the difference between primary energy and usable energy

You than brought in the EWEA report like it would prove your point of insolvable labour shortage although they only speak of a current shortage of 7000 workers and 15 000 in the year 2030. A completely different order of magnitude than your first post.

Now you suddenly seem to imply that your original point was that the Garret-Peltier Table contains wrong data. And you still ignore the possibility that you do not understand what is meant by the table.

The Monty Python description was not meant as an argument, just a way to describe the running of the discussion by means of a metafor. On the other hand, continuously calling numbers that you do not understand “propaganda” is definitely rhetoric.

I am now going to do like king Arthur and move on while your are laying on the ground claiming victory.