Can the Supply Chain Meet the Demand for Renewable Energy?

Having worked in renewable energy for ten years, it's hard not to forget the historical challenges of solar supply chains. While I'm traditionally an optimist, I'm less optimistic about the supply chain being able to sustain the growth given the demand in front of us. Or maybe that means I'm a realist? While I love President Biden's initiative and goals, I counter the idea that the industry can keep up with supply and demand, as we're already challenged from a human capital standpoint. There is simply not enough qualified talent working in clean energy to meet the demand.

10 million jobs!

In the US, there are three million people who work in sustainable energy (wind, solar, energy storage, energy efficiency, and electric vehicles). With President Biden's $2.3T Infrastructure Plan, he plans on creating 10 million more jobs in renewable energy. Amazing, right?! Well, in theory, yes, job creation is typically the top talking point for all presidents, but is this feasible? Where is the talent going to come from in an industry that is already experiencing a talent shortage? Obviously, some candidates will rise up through the educational channels, and some will be sourced from other industries with transferable skills, but I always worry about an industry that hires TOO fast (check your history on the .com boom and bust). Trust me -- EnergeiaWorks will be at the forefront of this growth, so my skepticism is strictly surrounding the talent pool.

Urgency. Speed. Hire!

While I've been seeing a noticeable demand shift for six months, the industry, as a whole, now recognizes this too. How do I know? I'm a numbers guy and we drive EnergeiaWorks through KPIs. One noticeable shift is the percentage of resumes to interviews. On average, we see a 65-70% chance of a candidate resume turning into a client interview. In March, we saw a dramatic increase where this conversion hit 86%! Same with April! What exactly does this mean? It means that if an active candidate checks 'most' of the boxes, then an interview is requested. There's no more reading the resume 2 or 3 times to assure the candidate checks 'all' the boxes before a decision is made. It means that when a resume hits our client's inbox, they are acting! They are acting because they've lost quality candidates throughout the hiring process and are seeing less candidates for each position. They are acting because they have products or services demand from their customers. I call this the trickle-down effect of human capital.

If you are currently exploring a new job in your renewable energy career, we invite you to have a look at our careers portal. If you're looking to hire top talent in manufacturing, project development, finance, construction, operations, or energy asset management professionals, reach out to us today.

What's a birthday celebration without gifts?!

Thank you all for the kind notes about our ten year anniversary. To celebrate (and to thank you!), we're giving away 10 EnergeiaWorks solar backpacks over the next 10 months. Keep an eye on our upcoming emails and social media channels for your chance to win each month.

Congratulations, Harika!

EnergeiaWorks is proud to announce April's backpack winner. We used a random number generator to pick the winner from the likes and retweets on our pinned Twitter giveaway post. And the winner of the fourth Birksun Solar Backpack is... Harika: @GajjalaHarika1 Congratulations, Harika!

Thank you to everyone who participated in April's giveaway - our May giveaway starts tomorrow, click here to follow @EnergeiaWorks on LinkedIn to learn more about how to enter.

Are you ready to network again?

It's been 13 months since Renewables UnWind hosted a live event, due to the pandemic. As in-person conferences and tradeshows begin hitting the calendar for later in 2021, we're also thinking through and looking ahead to our next Renewables UnWind. When the time is right, we will open our events safely. But we haven't been hibernating. We've been improving! We're proud to announce we've received an official Trademark status on Renewables UnWind through the US Patent and Trademark Office. We've also launched a new video so you too can get excited for our next live event. See here!