September 2023
In this issue…
Upcoming Event: VSPE/Cardinal Education Engineering Seminar at Virginia Tech
Save the Date! VSPE Virtual Lunch and Learn
Don’t Miss Out: Preorder New PE License Plate
Dominion Energy to Construct Largest Airport Solar Farm in America at Dulles
NSPE Job Board
Workability Webinars Series to Focus on Emerging Tech
#NSPECon23 Revisited
A False Solution for Our Workforce Challenges
Upcoming Event: VSPE/Cardinal Education Engineering Seminar at Virginia Tech
We are pleased to announce our fall engineering seminar Friday, October 13, at The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center in Blacksburg. Timely presentations and topics are on the agenda, and an optional tour of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s Smart Roads Facility and Test Bed will be held during the afternoon.
Topics and speakers include the following:
- AI’s Role in Materials Research and Education: Current Trends/Outlook – Luke E. K. Achenie, Ph.D., and Sanket Deshmuk, Ph.D
- From Alchemy to AI: Engineering Materials Toward Sustainability – Hongliang Xin, Ph.D.
- Methods in a Meaningful Engineering Root Cause Failure Analysis – Jerry Davis, P.E.
- Professional Development Opportunities for the Commonwealth’s Engineers – Bob Bailey
This event is sold out…
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Save the Date! VSPE Virtual Lunch and Learn
Dominion Energy Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Construction and Planning Overview
Look for upcoming details for a virtual lunch and learn event on Wednesday, November 1, featuring Dominion Energy’s Justin Bennett, manager of project construction engineering and Christopher Nunn, director of construction projects. Attendees will hear the status, progress, and schedule of Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project that will begin construction in 2024.
CVOW is a 2.6-gigawatt offshore wind energy project that will consist of 176 wind turbines located 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, three offshore substations, undersea cables, and new onshore transmission infrastructure to deliver emissions-free wind power to homes and businesses. Learn more about CVOW here.
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Don’t Miss Out: Preorder New PE License Plate
You can be one of the first people to receive Virginia’s new Professional Engineer license plate for your car or motorcycle. Your ride will look great, and you’ll be able to share your enthusiasm for the engineering profession and all the great innovation that engineers have brought to Virginia.
The VSPE Board of Directors has talked about accomplishing this milestone for the Commonwealth’s PEs for decades, and our partners at the American Council of Engineering Companies, Metropolitan Washington Chapter (ACEC/MW), worked hard to make this goal a reality. The artwork on the plate exemplifies our mission and charge – Professional Engineers Find Solutions. You can preorder the plate for $10 for a standard plate, or $20 for a personalized plate.
How To Preorder Your License Plate
The Virginia plate is not yet available at the tag offices or the DMV website, so please access the preorder form here to apply for the plate. We must secure 450 preorders by October 31, 2023, to make the plate official in 2024.
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Dominion Energy to Construct Largest Airport Solar Farm in America at Dulles
Dominion Energy, the largest utility company serving Virginia, has reached an agreement with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) to build the largest airport solar farm in the United States, Energyportal.eu reports. The solar farm will be located at Dulles International Airport, one of the airports serving the Washington, DC area. Construction is set to begin later this year, and the project aims to have all 200,000 solar panels installed and operational by 2026.
The 100 MW solar farm will also feature 50 MW of battery storage and will occupy 835 acres of land owned by MWAA. Dominion Energy will construct two additional 1 MW rooftop solar systems that will cover carports at Dulles International. The electricity generated by these solar carports will partially power the airport facilities. The project also includes the installation of electric vehicle charging stations, as well as the introduction of 18 electric transit buses and 50 electric fleet vehicles.
This development aligns with Virginia’s goal of achieving zero emissions electricity by 2045. Dominion Energy, in order to comply with this objective, plans to install 16,000 MW of solar power by 2035. Read more.
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NSPE’s Job Board is your one-stop resource for professional engineering employment. Whether you are on the hunt for your next career move or looking for today’s top engineering leaders and talent, you will find it here.
NSPE provides the tools PEs need to keep current in the profession and advance their careers.
Featured Jobs
- Environmental Engineer – Norfolk, VA
- Engineering Technician, Engineer I or Senior Engineer – Leesburg, VA
Find more job openings or reach the right employees on the NSPE Job Board.
Stay up to date on legislative issues through the NSPE Advocacy Center.
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Workability Webinars Series to Focus on Emerging Tech
NSPE offers a live webinar series free to members—“WORKability Wednesdays”— to support members with their professional development goals. The first webinar of this season took place on September 13 – How New PFAS Regulations Will Impact Water and Wastewater Utilities . A webinar on What Utilities Want Fleets to Know About Moving to Electric Vehicles will take place on September 27.
NSPE members get free access to the webinars but must register to attend. Visit the PE Institute to review the full series line-up and to mark your calendar for these live, online events.
Registration Open: 2023 NSPE Women’s Leadership Virtual Fall Symposium
Join us for these live, one-time events to hear from experts in the field and join your colleagues in important discussions organized by NSPE’s Women Leadership Program Task Force: The Cost of Leadership; Leading Yourself: Learning to Increase Your Emotional Intelligence; and Networking Strategies: An Unconventional Approach to Connecting with Others. The webinars will take place on October 12, October 19, and October 26 at 1:00 p.m. (ET). This exclusive package is free and includes all three live, one-time sessions. The sessions will not be recorded and PDH credits will not be issued for them.
#NSPECon23 Revisited
NSPECon23 provided an opportunity to learn and build community in the heart of Louisville, Kentucky. Find photos from the All Things Louisville reception, the first-time attendee mixer, PE Day celebrations, recognition and installation ceremonies, and more on NSPE’s Flickr account . Relive the fun and excitement with all your PE peers that gathered to celebrate the engineering profession.
Save the Date: NSPECon24—Raleigh, North Carolina—August 7–9
A False Solution for Our Workforce Challenges
The Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing (ARPL) recently posted an opinion column that highlights the risks of weakening professional licensing requirements to address workforce challenges. NSPE is a member of ARPL.
Workforce shortages, talent pipelines at a trickle and expensive labor are all-too-familiar challenges facing businesses and the public sector. In an attempt to tackle these problems, there is a growing trend of exploring the weakening or elimination of certain key job requirements. These proposals include getting rid of college degree requirements without equivalency alternatives, doing away with requisite testing, and downgrading credentials and licensure for professionals.
To be sure, there are some elements of the occupational licensure process that require continuous improvement and elimination of impediments disparately impacting underrepresented groups. However, in the rush to address workforce challenges, legislators and other policymakers must be cautious not to create new problems that leave employers and the public at risk.
Weakening professional licensing requirements is a false solution to various workforce ills. Minimum qualifications ensured by licensing exist to protect employers and the public they serve. This is particularly important for technical professions with high public impact, such as architecture, certified public accountancy, engineering, landscape architecture and land surveying. Care must be taken to ensure that critical licensing systems for such professions, designed to ensure public and economic protection, are not compromised and swept up in broad-brush calls for occupational licensing reform.