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Green Collar Careers - Demand and Supply

Demand and supply are the lowest branches on the trunk of Green Collar Jobs.  Where supply focuses on renewable energy systems, demand focuses on energy conservation technology.

Demand

Demand is all about managing energy conservation and often doesn't require a reduction of comfort.  In many cases conservation methods can actually increase comfort.

Using home economics as a reference point consider the appliances and lighting fixtures in your home that consume power.  If your lamps are using standard incandescent bulbs designed over a century ago, it would stand to reason there may be a more efficient solution to lighting.  About 15% of the energy consumed by an incandescent is turned into light, the rest into heat. 

On a hot summer evening if you're burning 1000 watts to power incandescent bulbs, you're also burning another 1500 watts to cool your home just from the heat produced by the lights - a total of 2500 watts.  Replace all those incandescent lights with Compact Florescent Lights and the total consumption (light and heat) drops to 450 watts.  At 12¢ a kilowatt, 4 hours a day, 30 days a month that amounts to a savings of $14.40 a month in electricity.

While this is only one example, you can imagine how quickly this would multiply when applied to commercial and industrial applications.  In large scale applications such as international airports, million dollar a year electric bill reductions have been achieved from lighting system upgrades alone.

Lighting accounts for less then 10% of the power consumed in the average residence giving many other options for improvements with other appliances.  In many cases its not a matter of replacing the appliance as it is servicing.  The same is true for commercial and industrial consumers.

Module 200 Demand Management provides a comprehensive lesson for the most practical conservation initiatives.

Supply

Most people associate Green Energy with the supply side of renewable energy generation systems.  To size a reasonable renewable energy system takes much more the looking at the consumer's past electric bills to determine a kilowatt-hour number.  It is essential to first understand the demand and reduce that demand without compromising the customer's comfort and quality of life.  It is also important to estimate the likelihood of future demand growth such as a growing family.

Choosing a system that best fits the needs of the customer is crucial.  All of the energy demand objects need to be taken into account;  Solar water heating may be an option if the customer does not have a natural gas pipeline.  On the other hand with the current and foreseeable cost of natural gas a solar hot water system doesn't make economic sense.

The supply side technology is the most complex with 5 separate modules dedicated to the training you'll need to understand and effectively design a system for installation.