Consider a Career in the Clean Energy Industry

Install or repair heating, central air conditioning, or refrigeration systems, including oil burners, hot-air furnaces, and heating stoves.

Line and cover structures with insulating materials. May work with batt, roll, or blown insulation materials.

Perform tasks involving physical labor at construction sites. May operate hand and power tools of all types. May clean and prepare sites, dig trenches, set braces to support the sides of excavations, erect scaffolding, and clean up rubble, debris and other waste materials. May assist other craft workers.

Conduct energy audits of buildings, building systems, or process systems. May also conduct investment grade audits of buildings or systems.

Perform a variety of activities to weatherize homes and make them more energy efficient. Duties include repairing windows, insulating ducts, and performing heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) work. May perform energy audits and advise clients on energy conservation measures.

Perform site-specific engineering analysis or evaluation of energy efficiency and solar projects involving residential, commercial, or industrial customers. Design solar domestic hot water and space heating systems for new and existing structures, applying knowledge of structural energy requirements, local climates, solar technology, and thermodynamics.

Direct work crews installing residential or commercial solar photovoltaic or thermal systems.

Design underground or overhead wind farm collector systems and prepare and develop site specifications.

Inspect, diagnose, adjust, or repair wind turbines. Perform maintenance on wind turbine equipment including resolving electrical, mechanical, and hydraulic malfunctions.

Project Managers lead or manage the development and evaluation of potential wind energy business opportunities, including environmental studies, permitting, and proposals. Operations Managers manage wind field operations, including personnel, maintenance activities, financial activities, and planning.

Assemble or modify electrical or electronic equipment, such as solar panels, inverters, HVAC controls, and more.

Install or repair cables or wires used in electrical power or distribution systems. May erect poles and light or heavy duty transmission towers.

Operate trucks to transport wind energy and other renewable energy parts.

Design, integrate, or improve manufacturing systems or related processes. May work with commercial or industrial designers to refine product designs to increase producibility and decrease costs.

Making any variety of products in a manufacturing facility, like vehicles and HVAC equipment.

Calculate, measure, load, mix, and process refined feedstock with additives in fermentation or reaction process vessels and monitor production process. Perform, and keep records of, plant maintenance, repairs, and safety inspections.

Manage biofuels production and plant operations. Collect and process information on plant production and performance, diagnose problems, and design corrective procedures.

Control and monitor biomass plant activities and perform maintenance as needed.

Control, operate, or maintain machinery to generate electric power. Includes auxiliary equipment operators.

Advanced transportation is Minnesota’s third-largest clean energy sector with 3,345 jobs. The manufacture, sale, and maintenance of hybrid electric vehicles, battery electric vehicles, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles dominate the category, and  other sub-sectors include alternative fuels vehicles and fuel cell vehicles.

Advanced grid is the fourth-largest clean energy employer in the state. The sector includes jobs in energy storage, smart grid, microgrid, and other grid modernization work.