Helping Charlotte Become the Nations's Energy Capital

Prof. Steve Patterson, director of UNC Charlotte's Energy Production & Infrastructure Center, weighs in to a Business North Carolina roundtable discussion on the energy sector. UNC Charlotte, through partnerships with leading energy companies and with state support, is building EPIC to educate the next generation of energy engineers, which will go a long way to helping Charlotte evolve from an important energy hub, into a national energy capital.

Says Patterson, "The students are seeing that there’s an expanding job market, and educating and doing the research in these areas is a steadily growing business. In fact, I would say interest in the education is probably growing as fast or faster than the business itself. We have not built nuclear plants for a very long time, but we’ve also not built most of the major turbine installations. It’s all aging infrastructure, including the expertise that’s maintaining it. So I’m looking for another generation of hardware, and I’m looking for another generation of engineers to be able to design and service that hardware."

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