Workforce Community and Industry Engagement

For almost two decades, NREL has engaged directly with the network of DOE’s Weatherization Assistance Program workers and trainers to provide technical assistance and research that supports quality work and qualified workers in the weatherization and home performance industry. Engagement has included technical assistance, continuous improvement workshops, webinars and conference presentations with network partners, and the development and maintenance of resources that support the Guidelines for Home Energy Professionals industry credentials and certifications.

DOE’s Communities Local Energy Action Program aims to facilitate sustained communitywide economic and environmental benefits through technical assistance to disadvantaged communities interested in or experiencing energy transitions. During the pilot, NREL provided workforce technical assistance to eight communities. Support included employment baseline and impact analysis, workforce programming gap analysis, as well as the development of generalized resources to support local contractor development efforts.

The Wind Energy Workforce Network Initiative on OpenEI is a tiered network approach to convene and coordinate land-based and offshore wind energy workforce stakeholders at the national and regional level and provide targeted technical assistance and focus group support for regional network priorities. This collaborative ecosystem will also encourage concrete actions aimed at completing workforce pathways from training to careers, focusing on marginalized communities’ access to wind industry opportunities.

The American-Made Upskill Prize for the Solar Manufacturing Workforce is a $5 million prize designed to accelerate the expansion of the U.S. solar manufacturing workforce and equip workers with the skills necessary to revitalize the domestic solar manufacturing supply chain. This prize targets various facets of the U.S. solar photovoltaics module supply chain, addressing critical workforce needs.

DOE launched the American-Made Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Clean Energy Education Prize to help develop advanced clean energy programming opportunities and connections for HBCUs across the United States. The prize focuses on: inspiring K-12 and community college students to engage with and learn about clean energy subjects through HBCU-hosted educational programs; initiating partnerships between HBCUs and other universities with proven clean energy focused programs to build new cross-university curriculum enhancements or exchange programs, along with degree and certificate programs; integrating and building programming between university and industry partners to advance career opportunities for HBCU students in the clean energy field.

Women remain significantly underrepresented in technical and leadership positions within the power sector. To address this disparity, the Women in Power System Transformation initiative, launched by the USAID-NREL Partnership and the Global Power System Transformation Consortium, offers comprehensive technical training, research opportunities, and professional development aimed at empowering women from diverse backgrounds in utilities, system operations, and related fields.

Net Zero World was launched in November 2021 and serves as a partnership between countries working to implement their climate ambition pledges and accelerate transitions to net zero, resilient, and inclusive energy systems. Net Zero World is providing Chile with technical assistance and capacity building related to replacement/retrofit options for closing coal plants in order to spur economic development, create jobs, and retain youth in the coal-dependent community of Tocopilla, a city of 25,000 in north Chile. The project also provides capacity building and technical assistance for Tocopilla through a sister-city relationship with Lawrence, Kansas.