US Warns of Emerging Skills Crisis

The power industry could be facing a skills crisis as demand for energy increases and requirements for new technologies grow, according to speakers at the World Energy Congress this week.p>

General Electric (GE) CEO Jeffery R Immelt and US Energy Secretary Samuel W Bodman both warn that the global energy market is lacking the skills to meet any directives for sustainable growth or change.

They say the industry must commit to training initiatives and recruitment and development (R&D) to help push technologies from nuclear towards carbon capture storage, which in turn would help the renewables industry move forward.

Both men also advise that any developments must be shared with emerging nations.

"There is a shortage of qualified engineers and technical staff that are needed to meet demand and rapid innovation," Bodman says.

Immelt says this shortage can already be felt in the current supply chain, effecting developing nation's ability to take on more sustainable methods of energy production, .

He says technologies such as coal sequestration and nuclear power have not had enough R&D funding to fulfill their potential.

Immelt also says that R&D should take place in developing nations, where new plants are being established, before being rolled out to the rest of the world.

"The future for GE in the next ten years is going to be created in the emerging markets - in China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and South East Asia," Immelt says.

"That is where the raw materials are, that is where people have money and where they are going to reinvest.

"Whether it is an industry for coal, gas or nuclear, this will not be decided by Brussels, it will be decided by New Delhi and India where the need is greater and these are not basic technologies, they are big technologies."

Immelt says R&D in these areas, and the proliferation of technologies such as carbon sequestation, will help keep the cost down for developed markets, where previously these technologies have been too expensive.

While GE has called for more government support for R&D, Bodman has called for more help from the industry.

"The government has a tremendous role to play here but the government cannot fill this role alone, we need a new way of thinking about how to deal with the private sector," Bodman says.

"We need to invest in new leaders to steer us through the new challenge - to help ease the risk the private sector is not willing to take on."

By Penny Jones