Hello I"m new and in need of help

[thsee]

Hello. I'm Sarah I'm 21 and I live in Tx, Plan on moving to Colorado or atleast the Northwest. I'm planning on going to TSTC in Jan to complete a Wind Certificate. It will take 2 semesters to complete. I'm curious as to what is better to be going into wind or solar? I admit I'm more interested in the solar but my dad wants me to go for wind.. At TSTC I could get a solar cert in 1 semester or solar cert 2 (which I"m assuming is more intense) for another semester... Now I'm assuming wind will be harder since just the first certificate is 2 semesters? I need help in choosing which one is going to make me decent enough money (just ATLEAST $30,000 a year but more is always fine ) and which one I will enjoy more. Also are certs worth anything? I ask cause I got my "diploma in PC Repair and maintence" it didn't help me anything with a job. I think it just may be my location (town with 6000 pop and well just crappy place nothing but oil jobs here). I use to be a PC Repair person and loved that job. So I'm thinking wind repair or solar repair... I'm not really sure if I even wanna do the repairing maybe the installing.. but that's just an idea of what I like. My dad wants me to get my associates but I'm scared that will be to much school for me and I won't like it. IS associates that much better than a cert? I'd like some advice on schools also. I will be needing an online school. (at tstc you do it online then go in the last week to do labs) any advice or personal opinions would be GREATLY appreciated. I have about 5 months to make this decision... it is what i'll be doing for the rest of my life... so it's a big one. Thank you!
Sarah

[Desert Rat]

Hello Sarah, Welcome to nature2energy.com glad you joined us.

I would say if you are moving to the NorthWest I would go with a Wind Certificate. I am not very familiar with whats going on in the NW but I would believe there is a bigger market for wind power then solar power in the NorthWest but I could be wrong.

Hopefully someone else will have some great advice to share.

[thsee]

Alright awesome. That's what I figured. Do you know if a wind cert would be enough to get hired?

[EcoBill]

Hey Sarah, Im actually involved in Solar now but Iv done a wind internship. In NJ there was a free training that was a week long to become a Wind Site assessor. On the NJcleanenergy website they have different green training (some for free, some cost $) I'm sure the North West has something similar.

I have a BA in Business Mgmt, but to help me get into the Solar field I took a class from SolarEnergyInternational on PV Design. After taking this class I was able to sit for the NABCEP entry lvl certificate, but choose not too since the guys at my work said its not mandatory to have it but does show them you know what your talking about. Also, since I'm working there, they said I could also assist with installs to gain exp to eventually obtain my solar installer certificate.

I would look around and see what type of job you would like to do in the Renewable Energy(RE) field and then see what type of degree or certificates you would need. Associates, Bachelors or MBA are obviously going to earn you more money then certificates but since the RE jobs are still sort of new and new positions are always popping up,

If you have any other questions or need any help, please feel free to PM me