Engineering
Solar Engineer
Career Area: Engineering
Occupation Group: Civil and Safety Engineering
Salary
Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.
An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.
A typical Solar Engineer earns the following wages (national and state):
State
The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $74,454
National
The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $71,767
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
Designs and develops technologies that produce and store energy from solar power.
Employment Trends
The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.
Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:
| Growth | ||
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 12 | +13% |
| Nationwide | 251 | +6.4% |
Skills
A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:
Baseline Skills
The following are baseline skills every Solar Engineer is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:
- Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
- Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.
- Microsoft Excel: Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications.
- Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
- Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
Specialized Skills
These skills are specific to working in this career:
- Photovoltaic (PV) Systems: A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is a power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics.
- Project Management: Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.
- Solar Energy: Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, solar architecture, molten salt power plants and artificial photosynthesis.
- PVsyst: PVsyst is a PC software package for the study, sizing, simulation and data analysis of complete PV systems.
- Renewable Energy: Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat.
Distinguishing Skills
Any Solar Engineer that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:
- Solar Photovoltaic Design: A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is a power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics.
- Solar Development: Working experience of Solar Development, which is the steps that go into moving a solar project from idea to electricity.
- Equipment Selection:
- ETAP Software: Working experience of ETAP Software. ETAP is a full spectrum analytical engineering software company specializing in the analysis, simulation, monitoring, control, optimization, and automation of electrical power systems.
- Energy Modeling: Energy modeling or energy system modeling is the process of building computer models of energy systems in order to analyze them.
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills:
- Energy Efficiency Technologies: Many currently available vehicles boast new, performance-enhancing, fuel-saving technologies that can save you money.
- Energy Systems: An energy system is a system primarily designed to supply energy-services to end-users.
- Energy Efficiency: Efficient energy use, sometimes simply calledenergy efficiency, is the goal to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services.
- Photovoltaic Energy: Photovoltaics (PV) is a term which covers the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry.
- Sustainable Energy: Sustainable energy is energy that is consumed at insignificant rates compared to its supply and with manageable collateral effects, especially environmental effects.
Education
This career typically requires the following level of education. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
.| Education Level | % |
| Bachelor's Degree | 18% |
| Master's Degree | 82% |
| Doctoral Degree | 0% |
Experience
This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Experience Required | % |
| 0 to 2 years | 30% |
| 3 to 5 years | 53% |
| 6 to 8 years | 11% |
Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.
Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.
Common Job Titles
It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:
- Solar Engineer
- Senior Solar Engineer
- Solar Development Engineer
- Staff Renewable Development Engineer
- Senior Renewable Development Engineer
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring similar occupations, you may want to research the following job titles:
The wage and employment trend information shown here represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is downloaded regularly from Burning Glass Technologies. For more information about how they gather data and what it represents, see Burning Glass Technologies - Frequently Asked Questions.