Fortune magazine has nailed down the new "hottest" green-collar job: wildlife biologist. The demand for wildlife biologists has skyrocketed lately, due entirely to the rapidly growing solar power industry. As companies seek to build large solar power generators in the Southwest, they run into a number of requirements: Local fauna and flora must be cataloged, habitat-protection plans must be created, and endangered-species laws must be observed.

Ausra is currently building a solar power plant for PG&E in central California. To complete the wildlife survey and other associated tasks, Ausra needs a team of about 40 people to scour every inch of the land chosen for PG&E's plant. Other projects require up to 75 biologists to complete, but there simply aren't enough wildlife biologists to go around. Hal La Flash, a renewable-energy executive with PG&E, told Fortune that he worries that universities aren't meeting the demand for green workers, including wildlife biologists. "It could really slow down some of these big solar projects," he said.

Another California solar project is a case in point. Stirling Energy Systems is building a solar installation in the Southern California desert. It took two years of wildlife surveys to get permission from regulators to proceed, and work on the site has routinely been halted because of a lack of wildlife biologists able to handle surveys.

Photo — kqedquest