Photo credit: SMC.edu
climateactionsantamonica green energy, Green Tech

Jobs for the Future: SMC Trains a Green-Tech Workforce

As part of the National Solar Open House on October 5th, Santa Monica College’s Sustainable Technologies Program opened its doors to the public for an inside look at the campus’s solar installations and its award-winning sustainable technology learning facilities. 

Climate Action Santa Monica (CASM) Steering Committee members got a tour of the large-scale solar power installation on a 10,000 square foot city-owned office on the airport property.  Hundreds of solar panels cover the roof of the building and generate 53,000 watts of electricity, enough to fully power all the offices.

Solar-powered office building just east of the Museum of Flying on Airport Avenue

This is an example of the numerous facilities that are being planned to meet Santa Monica’s greenhouse gas reduction goals.  Implementation of the city’s Climate Action and Adaption Plan (CAAP) will require a growing workforce to fulfill this critical mission. Learn more about CAAP.  

SMC renewable energy professor Stuart Cooley in the lab of the school’s Sustainable Technologies Program.

This is where SMC’s nationally recognized Sustainable Technologies Program comes in.  It was launched in response to this rapidly expanding need for skilled workers in the green jobs sector. The program provides students with topflight training for employment in solar energy, recycling, resource management, energy efficiency, public policy, and other sustainability-oriented fields. 

Learn more about SMC’s Sustainable Technologies offerings or contact Stuart Cooley at Cooley_Stuart@smc.edu or call (310) 434-8721.

Photo credit: SMC.edu
Photo credit: SMC.edu SMC students performing a public installation at the Dept. of Energy’s Sunshot Conference.
climateactionsantamonica green energy, Reduce your carbon footprint

National Solar Tours Coming to Santa Monica

Do you have solar? Does it work for you? Don’t have solar but curious to learn more?

The National Solar Tour is October 5th and 6th, and Climate Action Santa Monica is looking for people in Santa Monica to sign up and show off their solar systems. This is an opportunity for people who are curious about the potential of solar and want to know what it is really like to live with solar power.    

Research shows that people are more likely to get solar when their neighbors have it. Solar power figures prominently into the City of Santa Monica’s Climate Adaptation Plan. It is also considered one of the top solutions to the climate crisis globally.  Even better, for many homeowners it makes financial sense. It creates local jobs, too.   

Interested? Please contact climateactionsantamonica@gmail.com and learn more about the event https://www.nationalsolartour.org

If you don’t have solar but want to learn more, you can visit a home on the solar tour and ask a real user (not a sales person) about their experience. 

And what if you live in a multi-unit building? New laws make solar for condos more feasible and pilot programs are being run to investigate ways to bring solar to multi-unit buildings of all kinds. Advocates are always needed to shift laws and regulations so that solar is available and affordable to EVERYONE! Find out more by emailing climateactionsantamonica@gmail.com