By Robert B. Stein
The Gulf coast states will face a long-term ecological disaster from crude oil that is washing ashore on beaches and inundating fragile marshlands. The oil leaking from a production well deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico reinforces the need for energy efficiency and alternatives to fossil fuels.
Thanks to academic programs around the state that prepare students for the next generation of green energy employment, Missouri has the opportunity to position itself as a leader in deploying sustainable energy technology.
Consider this snapshot of the research and training programs on Missouri campuses that are on the cutting edge of alternative energy technology:
- Linn State Technical College has been a leader in geothermal heating and cooling for more than 20 years. The Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning program teaches the underlying principles of ground source heat pumps and their practical application in the industry. A student chapter of the Home Builders Association is learning how to make buildings more energy efficient and is retrofitting a demonstration house in Jefferson City.
- Missouri University of Science and Technology has received multiple federal grants for sustainable energy research, including a way for military bases to use fuel cells to avoid fossil fuel dependence.
- Crowder College offers an Associate of Arts degree in sustainable energy, and has been on the forefront of solar energy use through participation in the annual Solarcar competition. Crowder students have won national awards for designing and building a prototype house powered entirely by solar energy. Students at Crowder can also earn certificates as wind energy technicians.
Colleges and universities in Missouri have been quick to respond to the national priority of increased energy efficiency in part because of Missouri’s Clean Energy Initiative that requires utility companies to increase their production of renewable energy to 15 percent by 2021.This year, the Kansas City Power & Light Company will produce up to 300 megawatts of electricity generated by wind. Ameren Corporation is exploring solar energy generation and has installed solar features at its headquarters in St. Louis.
The town of Rockport in northwest Missouri produces all of its energy from the wind. Plans are in motion to build more wind farms to generate alternative clean energy in Missouri.
The Missouri Department of Economic Development designated energy as one of its core industry clusters. Ten energy-related companies have located in Missouri, manufacturing everything from solar panels to ethanol. Mainstream companies already located here, such as Eagle-Picher in Joplin which manufactures lithium batteries, produce essential components for the alternative energy field, .
Many factors make Missouri a desirable location to develop sustainable energy technology. We are 13th in the nation in the number of science and engineering degrees granted, awarding more than 3,300 degrees in engineering and related technical fields in 2008. Our potential for harnessing solar power, based on the amount and intensity of sunlight, exceeds that of Germany, which leads the world in deployment of sustainable energy technology. Missouri recently formed the Energy Workforce Consortium, made up of builders, educators and policy-makers, to coordinate and promote sustainable energy efforts here.
It will be many years before the U.S. recovers from the tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but all sectors of Missouri higher education are contributing to research and training to make alternatives to fossil fuels a practical reality for the nation.
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