Chemical or Electrical Engineering ?
ChemE look like more proper for that industry because solar harvesting is actually a chemical process depending on the wellness of materials upon soalr cells. What do you think about that ?
You should choose based on what you like to study, the disciplines are very different but you can find work in the solar industry with both of these, plus Materials Science, Physics and others too.
Like many products, the solar power industry needs all kinds of engineers. Yes, there are chemical processes involved, but also structures to hold the solar cells, materials engineers, manufacturing engineers, etc. to produce the product. At this point it seems that solar cell research is quite mature and most of the effort is in making the cells cheaper to produce. Therefore, not a lot of jobs in the chemical process area.
Choose the field of engineering that you like and will do well in is the best way to have a good career in engineering.
I must add that Chemical and materials engineering are very similar. So materials engineering is much more closer to chemical engineering than electrical eng.
I took a class on solar cells about three years ago, and it seemed like Electrical Engineering and Materials Science were the fields that got mentioned the most.
Materials Science means Chemistry and Chemical Engineering ??
Materials Science is a field in itself and its practitioners can come from Physics, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, or Materials Engineering degrees. Electrical Engineering Department have traditionally had research in semiconductors and this is a good place for photovoltaics too. Basically, you can come into it from just about any STEM field.
Solar energy, like most product fields, is multidisciplinary. It involves EE’s, ME’s, ChemE’s, and scientists of several types, all performing different roles. You could enter any of those fields (or others still!) and go into solar energy. So the question is really what in particular excites you about solar energy enough to want to do that one particular thing as a career? Or, alternately, what talents and interests do you possess that would make one of those fields easier and more enjoyable than the others?
Actually, Mech Engineer is often also asked for. My son has an interest in Solar.
from http://www.environmentalscience.org/career/solar-engineer
Are there any other reliable links ?
With prices for oil and gas plummeting, solar will not be as competitive and the demand for solar engineering specialists may plummet. Home solar cells are basically a commodity product, Chinese plants are putting these out at the same rate as flat screen TVs, not much room for fancy engineering in the US.
A degree in ME or EE is always in demand, for projects big and small.
Batteries for home use, hot water flow style heaters for heating pools or hot water or providing heating, passive solar … it’s all been around for a while, but becomes more popular as prices drop and energy prices rise.
The exciting work was really in the large scale plants that used technology like this, but the massive scandal slowed government investment in these technologies (but R&D is not a national priority now anyway).
http://www.solarreserve.com/en/technology/molten-salt-energy-storage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_plants_in_the_Mojave_Desert
It’s the internet, start with google and wikipedia and move to more specific sites of interest. The odds of someone spending a lot of time to write “unreliable” technical info is pretty low, but some data is out of date, like the price of energy or current job markets.
You can also look for some good courses or papers on the financial aspects of solar and other renewable energy. Germany has been investing heavily in renewable energy to replace their nuclear plants … they may be at the forefront of the industry, but it’s easy to find interesting things to read.
Find the websites of companies that are involved in creating or manufacturing products for the solar energy industry. Then find their jobs/careers page, and look through the available positions to see what types of degrees and majors they seek.
ı thought that ı could find some information on this website. I tried that but their jobs pages were misleading.
@Noobdotaci , are you a foreign student? There are tons of ads with the keyword of Solar on Indeed. The ads are often for PV Designers.
There are many industries that are interdisciplinary. There isn’t very likely a preference for one over the other (ChemE vs EE) in the solar energy industry, and those are likely not the only two majors you are limited to if that is the type of industry you want to go into. When you work in industry, you will likely work with colleagues with different majors on the same project.
If you are interested in both, you can choose whichever major you feel more interested in, and then take courses in the other as electives.