Veterans Green Jobs is putting America’s military veterans to work in a green industry through MHEEP. Veterans participating in the Military Housing Energy Efficiency Project (MHEEP) will perform home weatherization work on qualifying Virginia National Guard households at NO COST.

MHEEP is funded by the Sierra Club as part of its commitment to military families and the environment. Sierra Club’s Military Families Outdoors facilitates military veterans, service members, and their families experiencing the outdoors and enjoying the mental and physical benefits.

MHEEP is powered by the WeatherizeDC, which is one of the nation’s most robust community engagement campaigns around home efficiency, proving that it’s really possible to save homeowners money while taking action on climate change and creating good green jobs.

Qualifying Virginia National Guard households will receive $4,500 worth of auditing and weatherization services at NO COST, making their homes more comfortable year-round while reducing their utility bills and helping put fellow veterans to work.

Housing selection criteria
Participating Virginia National Guard Households must conform to the following criteria:

• Smaller than 3,000 square feet in size
• Have one (1) heating/cooling zone (A single thermostat heating and cooling system)
• Be in safe working condition
• Located in northern Virginia (Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Arlington County, Prince William County, City of Alexandria)

Owned by members of the military

Milicruit and the Department of Labor (VETS) are pleased to announce the date of the virtual career fair being held for veterans and military spouses. Imagine being able to meet with dozens of industry leading employers, but without having to leave home.

A partial list of employers already signed on include: GE, T-Mobile, Wal-Mart, Booz Allen, CSX, Ryder, Comerica, Alion, Military Sealift, Waste Management, 3M, Wellpoint, American Red Cross, Department of Energy, VA, Wounded Warrior project, IAVA, Hire Heroes, Excelsior College, Tarleton State University, TCF Bank, Fed Ex and more.

If you participated in the April Milicruit virtual career fair, you can use the same login for the July 15th event, but if you did not register for the April event, you must register to participate here: http://www.veteranscareerfair.com

Recruiters will be online and available for chat on the 15th between 11-5PM est. After the live day, you can still access the event, hover recruiters may or may not be online. if you are in an employer booth and the recruiter is not online, be sure to use the contact a rep button to send them a question. All questions will be answered within 24 hours. Be sure to upload your resume in each employer booth you may have an interest in.

When you sign in to the event on the 15th, be sure to build a profile at the bottom of the screen, upload a picture of yourself, and be sure to take the survey before you leave.

One lucky participant will win their choice of an Apple IPad, or a GNPS system for their vehicle.

Pass along to any other veteran you think may be in the market for a job.
Thank You for your service and enjoy the show

Green Career Institute, a leader in Green Education and Training, is offering its leading Solar PV Curriculum to training and education providers nationwide.

“With over 1500 people trained, GCI’s Solar PV Curriculum is tried and true,” says John Sanchez, CEO of GCI.  “Our curriculum was written and designed by two Ph.D’s who are experts in the Solar PV field.  We are pleased to offer our program to other providers looking to start a turnkey Solar PV Training program.”

More than 1500 students have successfully completed this practical, hands-on training and many have gone on to become installers, sales people, estimators, PV entrepreneurs, and designers at companies that include Sungevity, Sunlight & Power, Clean Power Finance, Sun Door Solar, Save a Lot Solar, and more.

Job Growth Continues to Blossom

California’s employers added jobs for the fourth straight month in a row, with April’s addition of 14,200 bringing this year’s total to 56,400, according to preliminary estimates by the state Employment Development Dept. Further evidence of the sluggish labor market coming back to life was a federal survey of households, which found 76,000 more Californians working than in the previous month. That number includes people who have been hired on a temporary basis or are self-employed. Venture-capital funding for startups also showed an increase of 12 percent in the first quarter of this year. Despite the progress, the state is still lagging behind much of the nation in reversing damage caused by the Great Recession. The gains are but baby steps in CA’s long road to recovery, with 355,300 jobs lost in the last year alone and more than two million Californians still unemployed. The state’s unemployment rate remained at its record high of 12.6 percent.

60,000 Solar Jobs to Brighten Future

California could be home to 60,000 new solar-industry jobs by 2016, according to a study by the Solar Energy Industries Association. The industry is projected to create 200,000 solar-related jobs in the nation overall, with 10 gigawatts of new solar installations during that time frame – enough to power 2 million homes.

Here is a great podcast on transitioning from military life to clean energy jobs:

Young Americans returning from war sometimes struggle to readjust to civilian life. And a growing number of those coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan are making that transition via the environment.

In Washington State, an innovative program called the Veterans Conservation Corps helps connect veterans with environmental work.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) ― The Cheyenne VA Medical Center is one of 18 Veterans Affairs facilities in the country to be awarded funding to install solar energy systems.

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Thursday that it is spending $20.2 million on the project nationwide.

VA is using crystalline silicon modules for its solar panels. Depending on the facility, the solar panels will be installed on roof tops, carports or the ground.

The VA says the solar projects should be in operation by September.

The Cheyenne VA Medical Center serves veterans in southeastern Wyoming, northern Colorado and western Nebraska.

Mar 12, 2010 – Cincinnati, OH — RecruitMilitary, a military-to-civilian recruiting firm, will present a free employment, entrepreneurship, and education event for job seekers with military backgrounds in Portland on Thursday, April 15. This event, the RecruitMilitary Opportunity Expo, will take place from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. at Rose Garden, home of the Portland Trail Blazers. RecruitMilitary is inviting veterans who already have civilian work experience, men and women who are transitioning from active duty to civilian life, members of the National Guard and reserves, military spouses, and other military family members.

Check out this interesting story from GetSolar’s Margaret Collins:

Powering modern warfare is an aspect of defense funding that not many Americans think about on a daily basis. How do you keep communications equipment and tactical devices running in the field? How do you deal with transporting batteries, generators, and enough fuel to run an entire mission off base? A recent article by Brian Robinson in Defense Systems highlights a new technology that will give Marines stationed in war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq a whole new way to keep powered up on the move.

The Ground Renewable Expeditionary Energy System (Greens) uses arrays of solar panels and rechargeable batteries to provide an average continuous output of 300 watts, enough to power most of the essential communications and targeting electronics that Marine forces would need in remote locations. It can provide as much as 1,000 watts of power.

While Marines will benefit from this new solar technology, the Navy is actually developing it. The Navy signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Agriculture last month to start working on renewable energy and biofuels technology. Strategically, U.S. armed forces would like to be as independent as possible, for obvious reasons; and by 2020, “at least 40 percent of the Navy’s total energy consumption should be from alternative sources”, said Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.

You can read the rest of the post on the GetSolar Blog.

The Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) on Thursday approved $61 million in state tax credits over 15 years for Dow Chemical. Provided funding comes through, the company plans to use some of the the credits to build a new solar-shingle manufacturing plant in Midland, Michigan.

As reported by Midland Daily News, the move may create as many as 1,700 jobs:

Gov. Jennifer Granholm spoke about the project in her State of the State address and the MEGA board is expected to approve a 100 percent employment tax credit for 15 years for up to 1,700 net new employees in excess of the company’s established base of 5,278, provided Dow creates and maintains at least 1,700 qualified new jobs by the end of the twelfth credit year. Failure to do so would forfeit the remaining credit years.

The project has the potential to create more than 1,200 jobs in the region by 2014, with a total of 1,700 jobs as it moves forward. … The shingles integrate low-cost, thin-film CIGS photovoltaic cells into a design that reduces installation costs because conventional roofing shingles and solar generating shingles are installed simultaneously. The solar shingles were named one of the “50 Best Inventions of 2009” by TIME magazine.

Michigan is home to a number of other clean-tech manufacturers, including Hemlock Semiconductor, United Solar Ovonic and battery-maker A123 Systems.

Distributed solar generation, where solar panels are incorporated into building materials and on rooftops, will require a new generation of trained electrical and solar specialists.

Solar energy, despite all of the effort to increase its usage, still only accounts for less than one percent of the energy we consume.   The amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth’s surface every hour is greater than mankind’s total demand for energy in a whole year. The total energy stored in the world’s supply of fossil fuels is equal to just twenty days of solar energy.  By any measure, the sun is a powerful and virtually limitless source of energy and it is imperative that we capitalize on this clean energy source by increasing our use of solar energy and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.