Workforce Analysis

NREL is uniquely positioned to combine clean energy technology, workforce, and economic development expertise to research and assess quantitative and qualitative impacts on the clean energy workforce.

NREL's workforce analysis activities provide an understanding of workforce trends, needs and challenges, and opportunities across clean energy technologies. Core research pillars include job quality, economic development, increasing access to clean energy jobs, and ensuring the clean energy industry has qualified workers. NREL conducts clean energy workforce assessments at the national, regional, state, and local levels. NREL's workforce analysis informs policies, markets, and technology adoption and provides an understanding of the supply and demand for workers to achieve decarbonization goals across sectors and at multiple levels of jurisdictions.

Capabilities

Modeling and Analysis

NREL's suite of workforce models support the analysis of current and future workforce needs for a range of energy technologies. To assess impacts, NREL develops technology-specific demand and supply models. Workforce analysts use publicly available data to power data-driven analysis projects. NREL also develops new datasets to advance workforce development in the clean energy industry, such as creating occupational maps and cataloging clean energy education and training. NREL's workforce modeling and analysis is flexible and continues to adapt to the dynamic needs of the clean energy sector.

Jobs and Economic Development Impact Models (JEDI)

International Jobs and Economic Development Impacts Model (I-JEDI)

Environmentally-extended Multi-regional Projection of Lifecycle and Occupational energY futures (EMPLOY)

System Dynamics Workforce Model

State Clean Energy Employment Projections

Outreach and Engagement

NREL's workforce modeling and analysis activities are grounded in the knowledge and perspectives of key stakeholders. NREL leads outreach and survey efforts to collect insights and needs from workforce stakeholder groups, including industry, educators and trainers, current workers, students, and community members. This data collection and feedback from energy sector and community partners informs workforce analysis and shares insights into the latest workforce trends across clean energy technology areas.

Highlighted Projects

Since 2019, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office, NREL has conducted outreach and analysis of U.S. marine energy and hydropower workforce needs and trends through partnerships with these industries. This work combines quantitative modeling with qualitative stakeholder-driven insights to develop resources and programs to strengthen the water power industry workforce. Some of this work includes web portals on OpenEI for hydropower and marine energy, educational applications such as REDi island, and American-Made challenges such as the Hydropower Collegiate Competition and Marine Energy Collegiate Competition.

NREL has been a prominent leader in wind workforce analysis, publishing several research reports since 2012 to understand the gaps and opportunities in U.S. wind energy. Most recently, the DOE Wind Energy Technologies Office sponsored two national-level assessments to document the needs, gaps, and opportunities in the wind industry including a trend tracking National Wind Energy Workforce Assessment and the foundational U.S. Offshore Wind Workforce Assessment. The research approach combines quantitative modeling and qualitative stakeholder-driven insights to provide critical information to industry. The research has developed resources and programs on OpenEI to support the wind industry, and informed DOE to address the wind energy workforce gap.

The I-JEDI model was developed to estimate gross economic impacts from wind, solar, biopower, and geothermal energy projects around the world. I-JEDI has been used to estimate employment, earnings, gross domestic product, and output from the construction and operation of renewable energy projects and across the domestic supply chain. This information helps align renewable energy action with key economic development goals. The tool has been developed and applied in several countries—including Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, the Philippines, and Zambia—and can be applied to more countries around the world.