Where the Clean Energy Jobs Are

A data-driven guide to the skills you need and the opportunities you'll find

- ANDREW THOMPSON

TRENDS IN THE LABOR MARKET COME and go, tech changes, and industries disappear. But putting an electron on the grid without harming the planet is something that will never fully go out of fashion.

Indeed, despite cooling corporate enthusiasm for electric vehicles, some struggling cleantech companies, and the largely successful counterassault on corporate ESG frameworks, the demand for workers who know how to generate, sell, and trade carbon-free electricity remains strong. At the beginning of 2024, one in 16 of all new jobs was in the clean energy industry, according to E2, a clean energy trade association, and the sector grew three times faster than the job market overall in 2023. In September, LinkedIn reported that the hiring rate for U.S. workers with climate-related skills was 80% above the national average.

The trend may change under a second Trump administration. But runaway investment in AI has forced tech companies to build their own sources of energy to power resource-intensive computation at scale while still striving to meet their own carbon targets. Running a home on solar panels has only become more costefficient. And scientists are still chasing a future powered by hydrogen and fusion.

For those curious about entering the world's most important industry (or navigating within it), we're here to help. Fast Company analyzed more than 26,000 Google job listings between June and August 2024 across 10 fields and for eight energy types (plus the broader designation of "clean"). We examined everything from what you can earn to how much experience you'll need (if any). And take heart: Unlike all that time you might have spent learning Solidity to get in on blockchain or working on a SaaS app of dubious usefulness, any work you put in here is likely to actually matter to the planet as well as your career.