Power recruitment goes green

An unprecedented $150 billion in investment flowed into the renewable energy industry in 2007. With support like that, no wonder the industry is booming and along with it the need for more ‘green collar’ workers engaged in designing, manufacturing, installing, operating, and maintaining renewable energy technology. In the UK alone the number of these jobs is set to increase by 160,000 by 2020 according to government forecasts.

The outlook for green energy may be optimistic, but growth also brings challenges, particularly in the fields of training and recruitment. Increased demand for green energy has lead to increased demand for skilled workers in the industry, a need the sector is finding innovative ways to fill and one that presents opportunities for those looking to find a way into a career in sustainable energy.

The rising tide of green energy

According to the Renewables 2007 Global Status Report – produced by the Renewable Energy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) in collaboration with the Worldwatch Institute, energy from renewable sources is flooding into the market. The report cites the addition of 40GW of new renewable energy capacity, bringing the total global generating capacity, including large-scale hydroelectric power (HEP) to more than 1,000GW, representing a 33GW increase, enough to power all the homes in the UK.

The flood of renewable power entering the market comes as consequence of an equally vast injection of investment into the sector. a Heidrick & Struggles/New Energy Finance study revealed expansion across all main renewable sectors and categories. In 2007, the $148.4 billion invested in new clean energy amounted to a 60% hike on the previous year and nearly a five-fold increase over 2004.
Expanding employment

This kind of growth and investment offers the promise of unparalleled employment opportunities for anyone seeking a “green” career – a goal which, until only recently, almost inevitably demanded a lot of luck and the willingness to sacrifice any hope of a decent salary.

The British Wind Energy Association estimated that recent investment in UK wind energy alone could give rise to 5,000 new jobs in engineering and a further 19,000 in related fields by the end of the decade. It seems that things have never been better nor the future more assured for those looking to work in green energy, yet the same New Energy Finance report highlighted a significant talent shortage emerging which could threaten to slow further expansion.

Skills in demand

The growth in investment and the increasing maturity of some renewable technologies has triggered a rapid expansion of micro, small and medium sized enterprises (micro-SMEs). While each of these small businesses demands skilled employees, the explosion of small businesses does not in itself signal a recruitment crisis as these niche-sector businesses accept that ready-qualified employees are seldom to be expected.

The growth in small enterprises does, however, highlight the inherent recruitment difficulties of the green power industry. With its wide array of technology-types and broad range of company sizes, green energy demands a broad spread of skills and abilities.

In general, the skills base for installing and maintaining renewable applications are typical of many expanding high-tech industries at a similar stage of their evolution – principally calling for those with technical and engineering skills. With the likes of mechanical and electrical/electronic engineering skills in particular demand across the board, the general downturn in the number of students embarking on engineering degrees – 30% fewer over the last decade in the UK alone – means a the shortfall of trained engineers is set to affect many industries.

Multi-taskers wanted

But the fast-evolving and rapidly expanding industry also has a need for skills beyond traditional engineer number crunching. Project development and management is also vital, especially if emerging new business opportunities and innovative uses of technologies are to be fully exploited. In addition, contract management skills are also important, particularly for smaller companies, since various aspects of the business – from construction to maintenance – may require the use of third-party sub-contractors. Given the truly international appeal of the sector, good language skills are also becoming increasingly prized, giving bilingual or even “passable” speakers a definite advantage in the employment stakes.

Many of the skills needed by clean technology firms are essentially the same as those required by traditional power companies but, particularly when it comes to the smaller green players, individual employees are often given greater responsibility to exercise their skills. When the number of employees at a firm is small, even technical employees often get significant opportunities to take the initiative, more than would be possible in a larger enterprise, which allows them to broaden their skills.

This is particularly true in respect of the more general business skills. Lacking the budget to support teams of non-technical personnel, small green power enterprises may place responsibility for whole areas like finance and sales in the hands of a single person. But this state of affairs won’t last forever. The long-run growth of a sustainable green power sector from today’s nascent industries is dependent on attracting employees with skills in accountancy, business development, marketing and sales . As Paul Gosling, group manager for the environmental team at Allen & York recruitment agency, comments “a commercial mindset is needed if the sector is going to achieve its growth objectives.”

Trouble at the top

When it comes to high-level appointments, there isn’t a huge difference between clean and “dirty” power skill-sets, yet clean power executive roles seem to be harder to fill. The New Energy Finance study revealed that green power companies have found chief technical officer and CEO posts particularly hard to fill, as well as experiencing great difficulty in recruiting senior project managers.

As a result, many firms have been looking outside of the renewable arena to fill these vacancies. Slightly less than a third of those appointed have significant experience in clean energy, roughly the same percentage who come from other high tech industries.The majority of executives cross over from the traditional energy sphere, according to the study, which also predicts that finding top level personnel to drive growth will continue as a key challenge for the next 12-18 months.

Filling the gap

Training may be the key to filling the skills gap. As Paul Cheng – one of a growing number of independent renewable consultants – points out, “adequate training, whether that’s university-based or on-the-job, is the only way to stop the gap getting bigger; you can’t have staff with the necessary skills any other way.”
Many universities clearly agree – with the Illinois State University’s bachelor’s degree in renewable energy, launched in November of last year, joining a range of similar courses offered by various institutions across the world, including the UK, US, Sweden and Australia. A number of M.Sc. programmes are also on offer – perhaps most notably the European master's degree in renewable energy, established with the collaboration of a number of EU academic establishments. A number of the larger energy companies also have graduate training schemes.

On the job training, free of charge

The industry itself seems more than willing to shoulder its share of the responsibility for training as well. Many of the smaller companies typically have an engineering or scientific founder who appreciated the need for sector-specific education. Still, engineers are not educators so there is often a lack of a formalised approach, with training being somewhat ad hoc. However, as enterprises grow a more structured training programme tends to emerge.

On the job training addresses two important concerns of smaller operations – the prioritisation of specific practical skills and the need to minimise costs. In addition to the efforts of individual businesses, equipment manufacturers and distributors meet a significant part of the industry’s training needs. There is a vested interest in equipping as many people as possible to fit their systems, if only to guarantee their own business development, but the effect has been to make good quality instruction widely available, free of charge.

Key qualifications: aptitude and motivation

Roles in green power companies demand identifiable skills, although there currently appears to be less insistence on specific pre-requisite qualifications, especially in the smaller enterprises,, Though as the green power landscape matures, this situation is unlikely to persist and more formal requirements will ultimately become established.

For the moment at least, aptitude and motivation to work in the industry seem to have the edge, presenting a great opportunity for candidates looking to get in on the ground industry of a growing sector.