7 ms·

As someone who works in the energy field, I have been stoked to see these types of advancements in the past few years. When I first got into this field and woul

As someone who works in the energy field, I have been stoked to see these types of advancements in the past few years. When I first got into this field and would research green energy products, there was a limited field of players. Now there are so many start ups coming up with brilliant products that I can't even keep track! What a wonderful problem to have. One of my favorite books is "The Wizard and the Prophet", and it's great to see more and more companies following in Norman Borlaug's footsteps and finding new ways the science/tech fields can serve humanity. If anyone out there is feeling a bit down about the general state of the tech industry, I highly encourage you to look into jobs in the green energy field. It's an exciting space filled with lots of passionate, mission-driven folks. (And, in case you're wondering, most of us aren't the neurotic, perpetually angry types that dominate the activist space. We're pretty chill people who just want a healthy and affordable planet.)

roughly 4y ago
> If anyone out there is feeling a bit down about the general state of the tech industry, I highly encourage you to look into jobs in the green energy field. It's an exciting space filled with lots of passionate, mission-driven folks. (And, in case you're wondering, most of us aren't the neurotic, perpetually angry types that dominate the activist space. We're pretty chill people who just want a healthy and affordable planet.) I’d second this - I’m not in green energy, but I am in a field that looks to have a substantially positive climate/environmental impact. If you’re feeling particularly existential about the world right now, there’s a real sense of relief from knowing your work is aligned with your values and where you want the world to go.
- rmvt 4y ago
  i'd love to have your optimism. whenever i looked at the job market in this area ("green" tech) most, if not all, of what i found was around carbon offsetting, which is something that has failed to convince me so far
  - thelazyone 4y ago
    Agreed. Definitely not a bad kind of business for the planet, but more linked with regulations and bylaws than with actual technological advancement.
  - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
    Carbon offsetting is needlessly and cynically attacked by the same people who talk about wind power killing birds or not recycling the blades. Yes, it's not a perfect unicorn magic solution, but the basic idea of putting a price on carbon and letting the genuinely hard to decarbonise sectors pay for the low hanging fruit in other areas is deeply powerful. If you think that market forces are a powerful tool, then carbon offsets are a similar thing. In many ways it's "effective altruism" for carbon (though that movement is under a bit of a cloud lately).
    - kenniskrag 4y ago
      I see a danger that poor countries can't pay this price and fail to develop. And I hope someone gets the money of this carbon certs and does something to reduce the impact?
      - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
        Poor countries are more likely to find their transition to clean energy being funded by rich countries paying carbon fees and looking for impactful ways to cut carbon. Less carbon, more green energy, everyone is happy. It's insisting that rich people can't offset that leaves both the rich and the poor (both between and within countries) worse off, as in other situations without market pricing to allow trade.
    - geewee 4y ago
      Unfortunately while carbon offsetting might in theory be effective, in practice they've been proven to be.. terrible. E.g. see here, where 90% of carbon offsets turned out to just be offsets on paper. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/18/revealed-forest-carbon-offsets-biggest-provider-worthless-verra-aoe https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/18/revealed...
lost_soul 4y ago
If anyone out there is feeling a bit down about the general state of the tech industry, I highly encourage you to look into jobs in the green energy field. There are so many things this world needs smart people doing. A slowdown in the tech sector might just be the catalyst.
chad_c 4y ago
What’s the best way to find job postings in this industry?
- AlphaCharlie 4y ago
  I'd love to know as well, especially for software engineers. I'm wondering if there are opportunities in this field for distributed systems experts, but not a necessity.
  - kabes 4y ago
    There's a lot of adjacent software industry. E.g. I work for a company that makes management software for offshore wind farms. The channels to find jobs in this field are the regular ones like LinkedIn.
  - hgomersall 4y ago
    There's a huge requirement for good power management, tying buffer stores to generation. I have a start-up idea in this area...
- freeCandy 4y ago
  There are a bunch of sites listed here: https://github.com/philsturgeon/awesome-earth#jobs https://github.com/philsturgeon/awesome-earth#jobs
- jnsaff2 4y ago
  There is a pretty active Slack community which you can join, it has job postings as well. https://www.newenergynexus.com/network/ https://www.newenergynexus.com/network/

roughly 4y ago

> If anyone out there is feeling a bit down about the general state of the tech industry, I highly encourage you to look into jobs in the green energy field. It's an exciting space filled with lots of passionate, mission-driven folks. (And, in case you're wondering, most of us aren't the neurotic, perpetually angry types that dominate the activist space. We're pretty chill people who just want a healthy and affordable planet.) I’d second this - I’m not in green energy, but I am in a field that looks to have a substantially positive climate/environmental impact. If you’re feeling particularly existential about the world right now, there’s a real sense of relief from knowing your work is aligned with your values and where you want the world to go.

rmvt 4y ago
i'd love to have your optimism. whenever i looked at the job market in this area ("green" tech) most, if not all, of what i found was around carbon offsetting, which is something that has failed to convince me so far
- thelazyone 4y ago
  Agreed. Definitely not a bad kind of business for the planet, but more linked with regulations and bylaws than with actual technological advancement.
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  Carbon offsetting is needlessly and cynically attacked by the same people who talk about wind power killing birds or not recycling the blades. Yes, it's not a perfect unicorn magic solution, but the basic idea of putting a price on carbon and letting the genuinely hard to decarbonise sectors pay for the low hanging fruit in other areas is deeply powerful. If you think that market forces are a powerful tool, then carbon offsets are a similar thing. In many ways it's "effective altruism" for carbon (though that movement is under a bit of a cloud lately).
  - kenniskrag 4y ago
    I see a danger that poor countries can't pay this price and fail to develop. And I hope someone gets the money of this carbon certs and does something to reduce the impact?
    - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
      Poor countries are more likely to find their transition to clean energy being funded by rich countries paying carbon fees and looking for impactful ways to cut carbon. Less carbon, more green energy, everyone is happy. It's insisting that rich people can't offset that leaves both the rich and the poor (both between and within countries) worse off, as in other situations without market pricing to allow trade.
  - geewee 4y ago
    Unfortunately while carbon offsetting might in theory be effective, in practice they've been proven to be.. terrible. E.g. see here, where 90% of carbon offsets turned out to just be offsets on paper. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/18/revealed-forest-carbon-offsets-biggest-provider-worthless-verra-aoe https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/18/revealed...

lost_soul 4y ago

If anyone out there is feeling a bit down about the general state of the tech industry, I highly encourage you to look into jobs in the green energy field. There are so many things this world needs smart people doing. A slowdown in the tech sector might just be the catalyst.

chad_c 4y ago

What’s the best way to find job postings in this industry?

AlphaCharlie 4y ago
I'd love to know as well, especially for software engineers. I'm wondering if there are opportunities in this field for distributed systems experts, but not a necessity.
- kabes 4y ago
  There's a lot of adjacent software industry. E.g. I work for a company that makes management software for offshore wind farms. The channels to find jobs in this field are the regular ones like LinkedIn.
- hgomersall 4y ago
  There's a huge requirement for good power management, tying buffer stores to generation. I have a start-up idea in this area...
freeCandy 4y ago
There are a bunch of sites listed here: https://github.com/philsturgeon/awesome-earth#jobs https://github.com/philsturgeon/awesome-earth#jobs
jnsaff2 4y ago
There is a pretty active Slack community which you can join, it has job postings as well. https://www.newenergynexus.com/network/ https://www.newenergynexus.com/network/