Fail to prepare; prepare to fail

The US renewable energy build-out is accelerating on a scale that will test not only manufacturing capacity, project finance, and permitting systems, but also the country’s ability to develop the engineers and technical workers needed to sustain it. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that developers and operators plan to add a record 86 GW of utility scale generating capacity in 2026. Solar represents 51% of the planned additions, followed by battery storage at 28% and wind at 14%.¹

Growth in generation is expected to follow. The EIA also forecasts that the combined share of US electricity supplied by wind and solar will increase from approximately 18% in 2025 to 21% in 2027. Over the same period, utility scale solar generation is projected to rise from 290 billion kWh to 424 billion kWh.²

Every gigawatt requires people: engineers, technicians, skilled trades, construction and commissioning teams, grid operators, manufacturing specialists, and supply chain professionals. The U.S. Department of Energy’s 2025 U.S. Energy and Employment Report counted approximately 8.5 million American energy workers in 2024, representing 5.4% of US employment. That total included 934 000 workers in electric power generation and 1.46 million in transmission, distribution, and storage.³

Employers are already experiencing difficulty finding the people they need. The Department of Energy’s Energy Workforce Advisory Board reported that 76% of US energy employers experienced some difficulty hiring qualified workers.⁴ At the same time, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that wind turbine service technicians and solar photovoltaic installers will be the country’s two fastest-growing occupations between 2024 – 2034, with employment expected to increase by 49.9% and 42.1%, respectively.⁵ These occupations represent only part of the workforce the sector requires, but their growth illustrates how quickly technical needs are changing.

The pipeline is won or lost early

Career and technical education (CTE) helps students connect classroom learning to careers. While 86% of US public high schools offer CTE, students, particularly those from historically underserved backgrounds, do not have equal access to those opportunities.⁶

Availability also does not guarantee meaningful exposure to engineering. A school may offer technical coursework without opportunities to meet practicing engineers, understand energy careers, or see how classroom concepts apply to real-world problems.

Research from the National Academy of Engineering recommends presenting engineering as an inherently creative profession concerned with human welfare and capable of providing emotionally satisfying work.⁷ That framing is more accurate than the familiar stereotype and more likely to help students understand why technical knowledge matters. The need to broaden participation remains clear. Women account for only 16% of the engineering workforce.⁸ Black workers represented 8% of the overall STEM workforce in 2021, compared with 11% of the total US workforce, while Hispanic workers represented 15% of STEM workers and 18% of the total workforce.⁹ Racial and socioeconomic barriers persist.

The challenge is ensuring that more students encounter the profession before they conclude that it is inaccessible or not intended for them.

Purpose makes technical difficulty legible

Students are often described as avoiding the difficult mathematics and science associated with engineering. Hands-on experience through Engineering Tomorrow’s high school laboratory events suggests a more useful interpretation: students may disengage from technical difficulty when its purpose is invisible. Once a calculation determines whether a wind blade turns efficiently enough to illuminate a structure, whether a solar system produces enough power to race a vehicle, or whether a successful bridge design meets a cost constraint, mathematics becomes a tool rather than an abstract obstacle.

A well-designed secondary school laboratory reproduces the logic of professional practice at an accessible scale. In Engineering Tomorrow’s Renewable Energy Lab, students build wind and solar prototypes, collect performance data, compare design alternatives, and work within a defined budget. They analyse a real-world problem, collect and interpret data, carry out test designs, and explain how the engineering process shaped their final solutions.

Practicing engineers bring classroom concepts to life by showing students how science, mathematics, and teamwork come together to solve real energy challenges. They also help students understand the societal impact, collaboration, and creativity that define modern engineering careers.

Together, these forms of exposure can counter the persistent myth of the engineer working alone. Renewable energy projects are both technical and human systems, requiring teams to integrate design, finance, construction, operations, regulation, community engagement, and supply chains. Students should encounter that collaborative reality and understand that engineering offers many different ways to build a rewarding career while contributing to work that benefits society.

Building the human infrastructure

The US energy sector’s hiring challenge cannot be solved solely at the back end of the talent pipeline. University recruitment, apprenticeships, and worker retraining will remain necessary, but they must be accompanied by meaningful engineering exposure while students are still deciding what they are capable of becoming – combining standards-aligned, hands-on engineering laboratories with direct access to practicing engineers who can explain not only how renewable energy systems work, but also why the work matters.

That exposure must reach students in established engineering centres and in communities far removed from them. Students need opportunities to meet engineers, test ideas, learn from unsuccessful designs, and discover that technical careers are developed through practice rather than reserved for those with innate brilliance. The renewable energy workforce will be stronger when more students have built something that works, understood why it matters, and recognised engineering as a collaborative, purposeful, and personally fulfilling career.

References

1 - ‘New U.S. Electric Generating Capacity Expected to Reach a Record High in 2026’, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), (20 February 2026), www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67205

2 - ‘Solar Power Generation Drives Electricity Generation Growth over the Next Two Years’, EIA, (16 January 2026), www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67005

3 - ‘2025 U.S. Energy and Employment Report’, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), (2025), www.energy.gov/policy/2025-us-energy-employment-report-useer

4 - ‘21st Century Energy Workforce Advisory Board’, DOE, (9 July 2025), www.energy.gov/policy/21st-century-energy-workforce-advisory-board-ewab

5 - ‘Wind Turbine Service Technicians Employment Projected to Grow 49.9 Percent from 2024 to 2034’, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, (13 July 2026), www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2025/employment-for-wind-turbine-service-technicians-expected-to-increase-49-9-percent-by-2034.htm

6 - ‘Unlocking College and Career Success: How the RELs Are Making a Difference in Access, Enrollment, and Completion’, Institute of Education Sciences citing National Center for Education Statistics data, (8 July 2024), https://ies.ed.gov/learn/blog/unlocking-college-and-career-success-how-rels-are-making-difference-access-enrollment-and-completion

7 - ‘Messaging for Engineering: From Research to Action (2013)’, National Academies Press, (2013), www.nationalacademies.org/read/13463/chapter/5

8 - ‘Science and Engineering Labor Force’, U.S. National Science Foundation | National Science Board and National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), (2019), https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20198

9 - ‘The STEM Labor Force: Scientists, Engineers, and Skilled Technical Workers’, U.S. National Science Foundation | National Science Board and NCSES, (2024), https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20245/data

Read the article online at: https://www.energyglobal.com/special-reports/16092026/fail-to-prepare-prepare-to-fail/