Careers in Renewable Energy Richard Perez After the day's work was done at the recent Solar Technology Institute PV seminars, we'd gather at the local pub for food, brew, and mostly for talk. These BS sessions turned out some incredibly fruitful information. The best of the lot concerned the business aspects of renewable energy. Everyone saw an industry emerging from infancy. Everyone wondered where the opportunities were for immediate and meaningful work. In days gone by A renewable energy industry was a dream ten years ago. A dream kept alive by the dedication of Mom & Pop Solar Companies, a few rural systems, and a hopelessly hi-tech scientific establishment. The RE products performed poorly or not at all. Everything was far too expensive. The watchword was, "The energy of the futureÉ" Well much has changed in ten years. Products have developed from expensive curiosities into cost-effective alternatives to nonrenewable energy sources. We learned much from ten years of applying these systems. We have high-efficiency devices like inverters, power point trackers, and controls. We have long-lived batteries, and super- efficient appliances. Each small breakthrough by itself may seem trivial, but the sum of all these small victories has given us working, reliable, and affordable RE systems. We have the technology to make renewable energy work today. The tech level of the RE industry reached critical mass about five years ago with the development of the 90%+ efficient inverter. It was the grass-roots users who put it all together into workable, affordable systems. Each manufacturer, designer, and dealer saw only part of the picture. It took some thirty to fifty thousand users to really find out what worked and what didn't. Over time a dream became a real industry. Mom & Pop Solar grew. They grew from one partner working out to support the dream into having several employees. The RE Biz Scene Now There are now somewhere between thirty and fifty thousand nongrid connected renewable energy systems inside the USA. New systems are growing 30% annually. This means around ten thousand new, nongrid connected, RE systems next year. Next year's system buyers will spend over seventy million dollars on RE equipment and services. Sounds like a market looking for an industry to me. Once again, the users are light years ahead of the industry that supplies them. There are three major reasons why people buy and use home-sized RE systems: they are located an unaffordable distance from the utility grid, they don't like how the utility makes the power, or they want the self-sufficiency offered by an RE system. The best deals in country real estate are located beyond the end of the power lines. This fact alone has driven incredible expansion in RE businesses located on the U.S. west coast. People are objecting to the fossil and nuclear fuels (and their inevitable pollutions) used by the utilities. Concern for our environment is an increasingly popular reason for using renewable energy. Electric power has become essential in our lives and the idea of owning a renewable source is irresistible. Market demand and technology have produced an industry serving RE users. It may be as small an item as a PV-powered walk light, to a mega system for telecommunications, to a fully electrified country home. The market is as diverse as the individual who use the power and their appliances. This industry contains both old and new companies. Some folks have been in the biz as long as twenty years now. Others have started up this year. Our "in the RE business" database at Home Power shows 867 businesses now active in renewable energy. The industry can be broken down into four types of businesses: original equipment manufacturers (OEM), distributors, dealers, and service businesses. Let's look at each in turn and see where the opportunities lie. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) These folks make the equipment we use in our RE systems. The list of equipment is long: PV modules, inverters, controls, batteries, wind turbines, hydro turbines, instruments, efficient refrigerators/freezers, efficient lights, load centers and other products. With the exception of photovoltaic manufacturers, most of these companies would be considered small to miniscule by Wall Street standards. Many are still managed by their start-up crews. Just about every company with a useful, working product at a reasonable price is growing. There are opportunities for employment within these established companies. Company workstyle varies from informal to ultrarigid depending on the company. In very general terms, most of these OEMs are new enough to still enjoy their work. This makes these companies exciting prospects for techies who want a career in renewable energy. And techie is the key word here. Many of the most successful companies are heavily involved with electronics. A BSEE or equivalent knowledge will just get you in the tech dept.'s door at most makers of photovoltaics, inverters, controls, or instruments. If hard science is not your thing, then consider the myriad of other jobs in these companies. There are jobs like providing customer support in the form of documentation and on-line advice, the ever present job of sales, and the office grunt work from which no business can escape. If joining an established manufacturing company doesn't appeal to you, then start your own. Many of the big names in this industry started on a dream in someone's garage. Names like Trace, Sun Frost, Heliotrope, Bobier, Bergey, World Power Tech, and Solarjack spring to mind. If you have invented a viable product, then think of manufacturing it yourself. See the article about Bernie Haines and his Solar Pathfinder for an excellent example of a small manufacturing business in the RE industry. In many cases, the product is not a new invention, but a new way of combining old ideas into new, specialized modes. Consider the 12 VDC load centers used in many PV systems. These load centers are custom made by small businesses for specific applications. They use off the shelf components assembled for a new and specific job. The renewable energy market abounds with product niches yearning to be filled. Products are finding new applications daily. For example, recreational vehicles can greatly benefit from PV and inverter technologies. Outdoor security lighting is now much less expensive if PV powered. Don't let the fact that there is a dominant product already in the market scare you away. There is always radical room for product improvement as well as making it less expensive. We are no where close to the ultimate PV, inverter, battery, or control. New products from new companies keep RE technologies growing and vibrant. Distributors These businesses stockpile RE equipment in large quantities and distribute it to dealers and installers around the world. In some cases distributors also carry on product testing, offer engineering services, and provide technical support. A distributor may have from several to dozens of dealers who then in turn sell and install the products to the end users. In some cases, a distributor will sell only to his official dealers, and in other cases, a distributor will sell to the general public. The fact is the RE industry is just now getting out of diapers and into training pants. Five years ago the distinction between distributors and dealers didn't exist. There were too few businesses spread over too large an area to require specialization. Now with the RE industry growing, many of the larger dealers are evolving into distributors. These are rapidly growing, labor intensive businesses. A distributor is a great place to learn from the experiences of many dealers who buy from that distributor. A distributor's employment requirements vary from technical, to computer, to office skills. Above all, the ability to effectively communicate is essential. If you don't like dealing with people, then this level of RE career is probably not for you. Starting a distributorship from scratch is difficult. First of all, the startup is heavily capital intensive and requires experience within the industryÐexperience that takes years to get. The most successful distributors started out as dealers. As dealers, they have amassed the capital and experience necessary to become a distributor. Many of these pioneering dealers slid into becoming distributors without hardly realizing it. Dealers The dealers sell RE hardware to the end users. There are two types of RE dealers, those who install what they sell and those who don't install what they sell. An installing dealer will not only sell the system's components, but will also survey the site, estimate the system's loads, specify the type and quantity of hardware, and last but certainly not least, actually install the hardware. Home-sized RE systems were invented by do-it-yourselfers and back to the landers. These folks installed their own systems. Now that the pioneers have blazed the way, many people want to follow. Trailblazers are always a distinct minority. Most of the systems sold and installed by dealers in the immediate future will be installed systems. The majority of folks are no more likely to install their own RE system as they are to install their own plumbing. At ground zero, where the hardware finds its final home, the RE dealership is changing from a sales business into a service business. Dealers who realize this will be years ahead of those that don't. While there will always be a dedicated crew of homebrewers and do- it-yourselfers buying from mail-order businesses and from noninstalling dealers, most Americans will go for the service. The installing dealer offers far more than a cheap deal on hardware. He offers his customer service. He travels to the customer's location and surveys the site for RE potentials. He discusses and notes each and every device that requires power from the system. He advises his customer how to conserve power and thereby reducing system size and cost. After thoroughly surveying the load, the dealer then estimates the quantity and type of power the customer needs. The installing dealer then specifies a specific set of RE hardware which will use renewable resources to generate the required power. Only then, do installing dealers sell their customers the hardware and install the hardware on site. The dealer works with his customer, showing him (or her) how to use and maintain the system. The dealer supports his customer should anything go wrong. In many cases, the installing dealer is a state certified, electrical contractor and will help pass the system with the local electrical inspectors. If you are serious about selling and installing RE systems, then an electrical contractors license is mandatory. The phrase "installing dealer" used to mean a single person business. Folks who started this way five years ago now have companies employing from three to dozens of people. Becoming an intern at an installing dealership is the best and fastest way to learn this business. Installing dealerships are so busy now that many will not hire those without hands-on RE experience. These companies are simply too busy to teach their employees the basics involved. Hands- on means just that, that you have installed several and/or lived with RE systems. If you don't have direct experience, then a job is hard to get (a BSEE doesn't help either). If you need an intensive course in the basics, then consider attending STI and getting their certification. The installing dealerships are the backbone of the RE industry. The future of renewable energy is determined by these installing dealers. The major question now is not whether we will use RE sources, but how these sources will be used. We could rent RE produced power by the kWh from a centralized utility, or we can have our own power company on site. If the decentralized path is our choice, then we need thousands of new installing dealers inside USA alone. We need to be able to open the phone book in any town and find a choice of dealers who will sell and install a system. If you can't find work with an established dealer, then become one on your own. This is how virtually every dealer gets started, he just starts. This industry is legendary for low-capital start-ups, so lack of gobs of money is not a problem. The field of RE is still so open that dealerships are easily obtained for just about any product. And the places to setup shop are endless. Currently the areas of Northern California, Washington State, Oregon, Alaska, Utah, Upstate New York, Western Massachusetts, Vermont, and Hawaii are all areas with far more users than dealers. Inside the USA, most systems are being installed in rural areas so look for a location were remote land is available. Internationally, Australia is developing its own RE industries and interest is high in this immense country. Europeans are buying more RE equipment than ever before. All developing nations need access to RE technology. To this end, your customer may be a government agency making RE technology available to developing countries. Small things like solar cookers can make very big differences in people's lives and our planet. Finding new customers is easy for an installing dealer. Your best source of new customers are the neighbors of the last system you installed. Your satisfied customers are your best salesmen. Start advertising with continual (don't miss an issue), small ads in the local buy/sell shopping paper that's given away free almost everywhere. Put an ad in the Yellow Pages of the local phone book. Go down to the local Hall of Records and get the names and access data for everyone who bought powerless rural property. Talk with local real estate agents who handle property beyond the powerlines. Service Businesses Much of the immediate work to be done is informational. Providing information is a service business, just as much as watering the batteries and greasing the wind turbine. Informational services are needed by the government, utilities, and aid organizations, not to mention the RE industry and users themselves. Renewables can now do far more than the public realizes. The industry could grow even faster if more people knew what is now possible with renewable energy. This is the type of informational job we have taken on at Home Power Magazine. As RE becomes more mature, schools will make it part of their programs. We need textbooks, instruction manuals, and educational videos that make children more aware of renewable energy sources. OEMs need market researchers to tell them what the consumer wants in a product. Dealers need information that leads them to new markets and customers. Both could use detailed information about their customers. Doing a good job of marketing demographics for the RE market is a full time time job that has yet to be filled. As more professionally installed RE systems are sold, more folks will also buy maintenance contracts for their systems. Servicing and expanding existing systems will become a service business of its own. In the FutureÉ We've reached the point right now where a solar walklight is cheaper than hiring an electrician to wire in a grid-powered light. Solar bus stop lighting is being done cheaper than running in the power. Utilities are looking into large scale implementation of all types of renewables. And home power systems are being installed faster than ever before. The potential of renewable energy is limited only by our imaginations. I don't have a crystal ball. I can only look back over the last twenty years and see where we have been, and plot the course to where we are now. I see that we have the answers to serious energy, economic, and environmental problems. I see a powerful industry growing with each sunrise; I see a good place for a life's work. Access Author: Richard Perez, C/O Home Power, POB 130, Hornbrook, CA 96044 ¥ 916-475-3179. Please let us at Home Power know what your RE business is doing. If we can help out, we will. Special thanks go to Alan Sindelar who stayed sober enough to actually transcribe the BS session that generated this article. Thanks also to Charlie Cowden, Chas Pinchney, and Kirk Herander who contributed ideas to this article. Resources: the following books are recommended for those starting a business. Reading these books can save you from making many mistakes. Small Time Operator by Don Lancaster. So, You Want to Start a Business and Why Small Businesses Fail by William Delaney. How to Make 1,000 Mistakes in Business and Still Succeed by Harold Wright.