...Renewable energy generating jobs
(From Page 1)
Photo-Voltaic Energy Generation Sys-
tems that begins in January had just
one spot remaining as of press time.
Solar industry demand for silicon
chips surpassed the demand from
computer makers.
“The market is increasing, and we
want to capture as much of it as we
can,” said the training center’s solar
specialist, Brian Crise, who helped re-
vise the Solar Photovoltaic Systems
chapter of the National Electrical
Code.
IBEW’s market share in residential
solar installation is pretty small. But
several well-known union commer-
cial-industrial contractors now have
solar divisions and a growing busi-
ness, including EC Company and Dy-
nalectric.
Solar installation employs electri-
cians, but there are also jobs on the
manufacturing side, like the workers
at the Solarworld AG facility in Van-
couver, Wash., who are represented by
the Machinists Union. In February,
Solarworld bought the former Ko-
matsu silicon chip plant in Hillsboro,
and announced plans to invest $400
million to remake it as a solar silicon
wafer and solar cell production facil-
ity. When it reaches full capacity by
2009, the German-owned plant is ex-
pected to be the largest solar factory in
North America, with around 1,000
workers.
And California-headquartered So-
laicx, a manufacturer of silicon ingots
and wafers used in the solar energy in-
dustry, announced in June that it will
be locating a solar chip factory in
Portland’s Rivergate Industrial Dis-
trict, employing around 100 workers.
Meanwhile, other skilled trades are
reaping the wind. Wind turbines aren’t
manufactured locally (yet), but Dan-
ish turbine maker Vestas employs
about 200 people at
its North American
headquarters in Port-
land. Ships bearing
Vestas wind turbines
made in Europe and
towers made in Viet-
nam are being un-
loaded by union
longshore workers at
the Port of Vancouver
using a special $23
million crane installed for that pur-
pose. The windmill components head
up I-84 aboard Wilhelm Trucking and
Rigging trucks driven by members of
Teamsters Local 162. Then union Iron
Workers, Operating Engineers Labor-
ers and Electricians install them.
The Columbia Gorge east of the
Cascades is fast becoming a giant
wind farm, with 438 megawatts of
currently-installed peak capacity from
wind turbines, 919 megawatts ap-
proved for construction within the
next year or so, and 1,847 megawatts
more under review. [As it’s commonly
described, a megawatt is enough elec-
tricity to power 1,000 homes; wind
turbines typically operate at about a
third of peak capacity, because the
wind doesn’t always blow at top
speed.]
D.H. Blattner & Sons, the general
contractor on the wind farms, started
out open shop on the Stateline Wind
Project, but unions worked to build a
relationship, and now the company
signs project labor agreements pledg-
ing to use all-union crews.
Blattner is currently overseeing the
construction of two
wind farms — PGE’s
450 megawatt Biglow
Canyon and the 285
megawatt Klondike
III; both are in Sher-
man County. Also in
the works are the
Leaning Juniper II
wind farm in Gilliam
County (279
megawatts) and and
expansion of the Stateline farm in
Umatilla County. Four more wind
farms — in Wasco Sherman, Gilliam,
and Morrow counties — are at earlier
stages in site review process.
That pace is likely to continue un-
der another new law approved by the
Oregon Legislature this year — it re-
quires the state’s investor owned utili-
ties (PGE and Pacificorp) to get 25
percent of the electricity they sell in
Oregon from new renewable sources
by 2025.
Then there’s biomass, a catchall
term — basically organic material
which is burned to create energy. That
can mean cowpies — like methane di-
gesters on a feedlot or dairy farm —
or it can mean wood products.
Denny Scott, assistant director of
the Carpenters Industrial Council, said
‘The market is
increasing, and
we want to
capture as much
of it as we can.’
Swanson, Thomas &Coon
Since 1981
Jacqueline Jacobson
the Canadian company Finavera Re-
newables to build prototype wave en-
ergy buoys. And in April, Australian-
headquartered Oceanlinx Limited
announced plans to build a “wave
park” one to three miles off the Ore-
gon coast near Florence. At least 10
floating wave energy buoys would be
anchored to the seabed, generating up
to 15 megawatts, with the potential for
more to be added.
Taken together, says Shimshak of
Renewable Energy Northwest, the re-
gion’s new renewables could supply
the region’s energy needs, and supply
energy-hungry California as well.
HEMORRHOIDS
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
James Coon
his union has been
calling on the U.S.
Forest Service to
award long-term stew-
ardship contracts to
thin overcrowded
forests — to reduce
catastrophic forest
fires and provide bio-
mass fuel. Currently
several mills use saw-
dust or woodchips to
generate energy for
consumption in the
mill, turning a waste
product into a renew-
able fuel source. To ex-
pand, Scott said, com-
panies would need to
know they would have
a steady supply of new
material.
Another underex-
ploited source of en-
ergy is geothermal:
Oregon is geologically
active, with hot springs
and volcanic activity
under the surface, par-
ticularly in the central part of the state.
In Klamath Falls, with the help of fed-
eral money, the Oregon Institute of
Technology is planning to drill a mile-
deep geothermal well and use the
steam to generate about one megawatt
of electricity, enough to power the
campus.
The final frontier, perhaps, is wave
energy from Oregon’s 300-mile coast-
line. Several technologies are being
tested. Oregon Iron Works in Clacka-
mas, which employs members of Iron
Workers Shopmens Local 516, has
signed contracts with New Jersey-
based Ocean Power Technology and
Ray Thomas
Kimberly Tucker
Margaret Weddell
Cynthia F. Newton
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