Why more renewable energy career stories need to be told

A big push is needed to highlight the varied career opportunities the renewable industry offers and the possibilities that open up from learning a trade.

The need for attractive apprenticeships

Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management and automation, receives 60 applications a year for five places on its electrical apprenticeship programme in Ireland. There are currently 16 young people going through the programme at various stages.

“Our apprentices are gaining experience in engineering much more than a standard trainee electrician would. They are commissioning large power systems and working on automation lines at pharmaceutical plants. We rotate them throughout the business and our managers fight over them when they come out of the programme,” says Chris Collins, Country President Ireland, Schneider Electrical.

Chris Collins
Country President Ireland, Schneider Electric

Untapped apprenticeship talent

“In Ireland, only about 6% of electrical engineering roles are held by women, yet in the last two years, we have managed to achieve a 50:50 gender balance each year on our apprenticeship programme. Female participation in apprenticeships is an untapped area and a way for the industry to accelerate the growth of the workforce,” explains Collins.

“Ireland needs to step up its game in apprenticeship training to develop a skilled workforce for the energy transition. As an industry, we need to do a better job of telling the story of the vast career opportunities that come from learning a trade.”

Solar panel installers in high demand

A particular area of opportunity for electricians is the growing demand for solar panel installation from businesses and individuals. Midsummer Renewables, a distributor of renewable energy systems and products in Ireland and Northern Ireland, is currently supplying to around 800 installers from one-man operations to companies delivering big solar projects.

“Finding registered tradespeople with the knowledge of how to install photovoltaic panels to a decent standard is a huge problem for the industry at the moment,” says Katie Popplestone, Sales and Marketing Manager, Midsummer Renewables, which offers a range of training programmes to support upskilling in this area.

We need a national programme
to retrain electricians.

Promoting renewable trade careers

“We need a national programme to retrain electricians so they can segue into areas such as solar installation or wind energy development and be fast-tracked into the renewable energy industry. To meet the demand into the future, we have to encourage more secondary-school children to enter the trades and consider careers in renewable energy,” adds Popplestone.

With this in mind, Wind Energy Ireland’s ‘Work in Wind’ campaign has recently started engaging with social media influencers to push its message of ‘Be anything you want. Be part of the solution.’ “We identified jobs that don’t require a college degree, such as ecologists, electricity traders and turbine technicians,” explains Justin Moran, Director of External Affairs, Wind Energy Ireland.

“The response was phenomenal, and we are doing school trade fairs on the back of it. We are trying to get across that this is an industry where you can have a good career and prospects but also be part of something enormous to tell the grandchildren about. We would love to do the campaign at a much larger scale,” says Moran.

International renewables experience

The career of Tony McGuinness, Head of Origination, Market Entry and Storage at Aer Soléir, illustrates the variety and international experience working in renewable energy can result in. “I came out of college at the peak of the financial crash. ESB (Electricity Supply Board) was the only company at the time offering graduate internships in engineering, and I was accepted. One of my first projects was commissioning coal plants in Vietnam. I went on to be a global commissioning engineer at ESB, developing energy-from-waste, hydro and thermal projects across Europe, Africa and Asia. I also worked in energy trading for a long time,” he says.

“Now, at Aer Soléir, I source and negotiate all of our corporate power-purchase agreements and bid all our assets into our renewable auctions. We are only Europe-based, so I look at any new opportunities to expand from our core markets. I am in charge of growing our storage business as well.”

Tony McGuinness
Head of Origination, Market Entry and Storage, Aer Soléir

Transferable skills

Conall Bolger, Chief Executive Officer, Irish Solar Energy Association, notes that he has experience working in wind development in the UK, Poland and Canada. “A lot of skills are transferable between wind and solar energy and from other industries into the renewable sector. There is a great opportunity for us collectively as an ecosystem to promote careers within the entire industry. A huge amount of work on this has been done already across Europe by the likes of EIT InnoEnergy and SolarPower Europe.”