High-quality workforce training at scale can address the energy industry’s labor gaps.
Imagine a future powered by abundant clean energy: affordable, reliable, and renewable electricity distributed through resilient infrastructure; clean air and water nourishing healthy communities; affordable electric vehicles charging quickly on roadways and in neighborhoods. Energy independence could empower countries, states, and cities to diversify their economies, powered by resilient, decentralized infrastructure built to withstand powerful storms and spikes in demand. This vision of our energy future is accelerating and becoming more urgent; realizing it will prevent the most disruptive impacts of climate change, enable future technological innovation, and unlock economic prosperity.
This future is within reach, but America has a long way to go. Achieving it will require a skilled workforce that can modernize existing infrastructure and expand capacity to meet rapidly growing demand. To decarbonize its economy, the U.S. must electrify approximately 1 billion machines — from automobiles and washing machines to ovens and heating systems. Adding to the pressure, the rise of artificial intelligence is driving massive energy consumption. In the United States, data centers for AI are expected to require 35 gigawatts of electricity by 2030, up from 17 gigawatts in 2022. As older electricity infrastructure is retiring, the system is barely keeping up with existing demand and is not on track to meet anticipated growth.
Energy infrastructure does not build itself. Progress is only possible because of millions of skilled workers — engineers, welders, electricians, solar panel installers, wind turbine technicians, machinists, accountants, investors, and more. And the clean energy industry is key to economic growth: Jobs in clean energy are growing twice as fast as jobs in the overall U.S. economy, but the workforce is not keeping pace. According to one analysis, the skills gap in the green economy will grow to 7 million by 2030, with the most acute labor shortages in solar, wind, and biofuels technology. Field technicians, installers, and other critical trades are in high demand, but technical expertise in data science, cybersecurity, and automation is also in short supply. The energy workforce is shrinking, and as experienced workers retire, organizations are losing critical knowledge and skills. Aging demographics and other labor market shifts are creating a significant gap that new hiring alone cannot address.
A prepared workforce starts in the classroom: access to high-quality, hands-on training will build the foundation for a skilled workforce that can create an abundant supply of clean energy. To achieve this, the public and private sectors will need to support training and reskilling programs, explore new technologies to deliver high-quality training, and to raise awareness of energy career opportunities.
Invest in and expand training and reskilling programs that work
The current educational and workforce development landscape is diverse but fragmented; the effective job-training initiatives needed to address the growing skills gap in the energy sector often struggle to scale or expand beyond local offerings. At the state level, governors and other elected officials are doubling down on existing apprenticeship programs that cultivate the next generation of clean energy leaders. Last year, the U.S. Climate Alliance launched the Governor’s Climate Ready Workforce Initiative to grow career pathways in climate and clean energy fields. This bipartisan commitment representing 24 governors seeks to collectively train 1 million new registered apprentices in the next decade. The initiative will spur multistate cohorts that expand career pathways for in-demand, climate-ready fields; for example, Michigan and New Jersey are collaborating to advance careers in clean energy, fuels, and technologies.
In addition to government action, academic institutions have expanded their specialized training programs in the energy sector, often in collaboration with government or private-sector supporters. Binghamton University’s New Energy New York Battery Academy will provide microcredentials for careers in energy storage, addressing persistent labor shortages in that industry. At the high school level, career and technical education (CTE) programs also play a critical role in preparing students for energy careers. More than half of U.S. states have already established CTE pathways or programs of study in green careers; many of these include coursework focused on clean energy. Last fall, Luminary Labs produced the Power Your Future Challenge, which invited high school CTE students to submit action plans that advanced the use of clean energy in their schools and communities — and helped students envision clean energy careers.
But education providers can’t implement these programs alone; the most effective programs bring together schools, employers, and state and local governments to develop comprehensive skills-training programs with clear pathways to reliable careers. The New York Community Colleges Energy Equity Consortium coordinates community colleges, employers, community organizations, unions, faith leaders, and state and local governments to develop statewide skills training to prepare New Yorkers for energy jobs. In Georgia, the Quick Start program has helped the state capitalize on the rapidly growing solar, battery, and EV industries. The program operates within the state’s technical college system and offers customized job-training programs free-of-charge to qualified companies; the majority of its recent clients are clean energy companies and their suppliers. These multisector efforts collectively aim to address the technical skills gap and equity challenges facing the energy sector, while capitalizing on the economic opportunity of the transition to abundant renewable energy.
Identify and pilot new models to empower students and workers
The urgency and speed of the energy transition requires new ways of thinking about job skills and qualifications. A “skills-first” framework could enable rapid workforce transformation. This approach emphasizes a person’s skills and competencies, rather than degrees, job histories, or job titles. In the clean energy sector, where many career paths are still nascent but open roles will increase sharply, directly applicable work experience will be in short supply. Emphasizing skills and competencies over degrees and job titles will help attract workers from adjacent industries, and even from individuals who have not participated in the traditional labor market.
Innovation in digital learning and employment records (LERs) and credentials wallets — essentially digital resumes with verified records of people’s skills, educational experiences, and work histories — can play a key role helping qualified workers access relevant opportunities and make the most of microcredentials that demonstrate employer-valued certification in industry-relevant skills. A recent survey found that 75% of jobseekers polled said they would find a credentials wallet helpful in their job searches. To be effective, these digital tools will need to develop verification systems that build trust with employers. These tools will also need to be adopted widely so that employers and workers converge on common definitions of skills. If learning and employment records achieve scale, they could prove transformative in advancing worker mobility across many industries.
New technologies and tools may be able to scale effective educational approaches, enabling otherwise limited energy training programs to achieve greater reach. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) create immersive, low-risk training environments where technicians can practice maintenance on sensitive equipment without physical dangers and at lower costs than traditional on-site training. Companies like VR Vision and EON Reality are already providing VR- and AR-based training for priority jobs in the sustainable energy sector. And artificial intelligence and machine learning provide even more opportunities to scale and improve learning. AI-powered adaptive learning systems that personalize training paths based on individual aptitude and learning styles can expand access to quality training.
Together, innovative learning technologies and improved approaches to credentialing could move the needle in efforts to address critical job shortages in the energy sector. These solutions could also prove broadly applicable, providing the template for rapid workforce development in other sectors requiring rapid transformation and workforce development, such as applied AI, climate technology, and manufacturing.
Amplify energy career opportunities to recruit a diverse workforce
The best workforce programs will only be successful if they can attract and engage diverse cohorts of students. In the U.S., the energy sector is older, more male, and more white than the population as a whole. Some of these trends persist across the clean energy and storage industries; for example, women comprise just 30% of the solar workforce. Though the clean energy workforce skews younger than the workforce as a whole, early-career workers hold misconceptions about clean energy careers, believing that those career opportunities require engineering and science degrees. In reality, many career opportunities in clean energy do not require technical or advanced degrees. The clean energy sector employs a diverse workforce of individuals with a breadth of educational and professional experience and targeted training programs can help ensure energy workers have the skills they need to excel and advance in their careers.
The clean energy industry may benefit from recent shifts in attitudes toward and interest in building trades overall: The number of students enrolled in vocational-focused community colleges increased by 16% from 2022 to 2023. Many young people are opting out of college and pursuing careers in the skilled trades, citing the rising cost of college, the possibility that white-collar jobs will be vulnerable in an AI-powered economy, and strong wages for skilled trades. This offers an opening for the clean energy industry, where solar installers, HVAC technicians, and electricians can earn six-figure salaries and benefit from union protections that prioritize safety and career stability.
The future requires collaboration
Achieving a prosperous and equitable energy transition requires a bold investment in preparing and mobilizing a workforce that meets the moment. This investment must span sectors: Private employers, government agencies, academic institutions, community organizations, and labor unions must collaborate to effectively prepare a workforce large and skilled enough to transform our energy industry and secure a just energy future.
Do you have thoughts on what’s needed to upskill our workforce for the energy transition? We would love to hear from you: Connect with us on LinkedIn or send us an email. The programs cited here only scratch the surface: in communities across America, local leaders, entrepreneurs, and educators are cultivating their own solutions that address discrete local energy needs. If you have encountered inspiring solutions, or if you have ideas for what it will take to upskill our workforce for the energy transition, we invite you to share them with us.
