How to create the skilled workforce of 2030
Interchange Recharged
Wood Mackenzie
4.8 • 535 Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2024
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Half of the energy workforce is employed in clean energy technologies. By 2030, over 10 million new jobs will need to be filled as the energy transition continues. China, for example, employs 3 million workers in clean energy manufacturing – accounting for 80% of solar PV and EV battery manufacturing jobs globally. Skill shortages are as significant a bottleneck as lack of investment or supply chain constraints, so how can the industry ensure there’s enough people to build, maintain and design clean energy infrastructure?
On the show today, we are joined by Caleigh Andrews, Energy Analyst and Modeller at the International Energy Agency. The IEA emphasises the need for clear policies that drive demand for clean technologies, in order to attract and retain skilled labor. Reskilling and attracting new people to the energy workforce require a combination of market incentives and political will, so what are these incentives? And what can governments do to incentivise reskilling?
AI can play a role in easing the skilling burden and establishing standardised credentials, but with manufacturing and maintenance a large part of it, are the use cases for AI limited?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wood McKenzie's Solar Energy and Storage Summit is back in Denver on the 29th and 30th of April, |
| 0:06.2 | 2026. It's co-located with the brand new North American Power and Renewables Forum, |
| 0:11.9 | which features senior speakers from across the U.S. power sector. Come and join over 450 senior |
| 0:18.2 | leaders from U.S. power developers, utilities, and independent power producers |
| 0:23.3 | to tackle the industry's biggest challenges. From navigating life after tax credits to capturing |
| 0:29.7 | the load growth boom, discover how the energy mix is evolving and how the U.S. is going to meet |
| 0:34.9 | that power demand. Seats are limited, so register now at woodmack.com. |
| 0:40.4 | This is the interchange recharge. |
| 0:43.5 | A Wood McKenzie production. |
| 0:45.4 | I'm David Banmiller. |
| 0:48.2 | The shift to renewable energy is creating a huge demand for skilled workers. |
| 0:52.5 | As we continue the rollout of renewable energy infrastructure, |
| 0:56.0 | the energy sector is changing fast. |
| 0:58.0 | By 2050, the renewable energy industry could provide over 14 million new jobs. |
| 1:03.0 | But there's a catch. We need people with the right skills. |
| 1:06.0 | Right now, we're short on experts in solar and wind tech, battery storage, and smart grids. |
| 1:11.8 | The World Economic Forum says energy jobs are getting more complex and tech-focused, which |
| 1:16.9 | means we need a workforce that's quick to adapt and tech-savvy. |
| 1:20.3 | So retraining workers from the declining fossil fuel industry is crucial. |
| 1:24.1 | They need new skills to join the growing renewable sector. |
| 1:27.0 | For example, the U.S. Bureau of |
| 1:28.7 | Labor Statistics says jobs for solar panel installers and wind turbine technicians will skyrocket |
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