Renewable Energy Engineer

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Renewable Energy Engineer develops engineering and systems for energy produced from renewable sources such as solar energy, wind energy and hydropower.

Job Outlook

There were 39 Renewable Energy Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 1096 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Energy Engineer industry, which includes the Renewable Energy Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:

Salary

Many new Renewable Energy Engineer jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.

National

The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $98,758.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $98,758.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Renewable Energy Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $85,570.

Education and Experience

Posted Renewable Energy Engineer jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.

Education Level	Percentage
Associate's Degree	0.73%
Bachelor's Degree	69.89%
Master's Degree	28.38%
Doctoral Degree	4.11%
Other	2.19%

Posted Renewable Energy Engineer jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Years of Experience	Percentage
0 to 2 years	16.55%
3 to 5 years	35.13%
6 to 8 years	14.03%
9+ years	34.29%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Renewable Energy Engineer positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.

Baseline Skills

A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.

Communication (46.17%)
Operations (37.41%)
Writing (32.94%)
Planning (31.11%)
Research (25.27%)
Management (23.72%)
Leadership (23.08%)
Coordinating (22.35%)
Problem Solving (17.34%)
Interpersonal Communications (16.15%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Project Management (48.08%)
Renewable Energy (44.73%)
Electrical Engineering (49.71%)
Fuel Cells (15.04%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Thought Leadership (16%)
Market Trend (15.13%)
Engineering Design Process (18.2%)
Control Systems (8.43%)
PVsyst (8.81%)
Financial Modeling (16.57%)
Construction (15.04%)
Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) (11.02%)
Business Modeling (14.85%)
Short Circuits (7.95%)
Energy Market (1.53%)
Distributed Generation (9.96%)
Feasibility Studies (8.05%)
Commissioning (4.79%)
Program Development (15.13%)
Business Software (14.75%)
ETAP (9.96%)
Project Engineering (18.68%)
Business Process Modeling (14.94%)
Quantitative Analysis (14.85%)
Load Flow Analysis (7.38%)
Procurement (12.16%)
Project Implementation (14.56%)
Computer-Aided Design (18.49%)
Financial Planning (15.04%)
AutoCAD (14.85%)
Real-Time Operating Systems (4.12%)
Electric Vehicles (16.19%)
Transmission (5.65%)
Business Development (18.3%)
Mechanical Engineering (8.05%)
Electronic Engineering (15.23%)
Civil Engineering (9.48%)
Electrical Systems (8.43%)
Renewable Energy Systems (6.61%)
Power System Simulator For Engineering (5.46%)
Electric Power Systems (15.61%)

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.

Electrical Engineering (66.62%)
Renewable Energy (59.95%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Renewable Energy Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Power Systems Engineer
Project Engineer
Renewable Energy Manager
Renewable Energy Development Manager
Renewable Energy Intern
Engineer
Site Operator
Controls Engineer
Renewable Energy Consultant

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Renewable Energy Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

CDM Smith (160)
Black & Veatch (66)
Jacobs Engineering Group (38)
Sargent & Lundy (34)
Actalent (25)
Tetra Tech (24)
Power Engineers (21)
Primoris Services (19)
RWE (17)
Invenergy (17)

North Carolina

Black & Veatch (6)
CDM Smith (6)
HDR (4)
Ramboll (3)
Actalent (2)
Duke Energy (2)
Rrc Power & Energy (2)
Job Juncture (2)
Belcan (1)
Pine Gate Renewables (1)

NC State Programs Relevant to this Career

If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!

Engineering – 2+2 Undergraduate Degrees

All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.

Engineering