Building a Diverse Marine Energy Workforce Pipeline

Introduction

Marine energy technologies play an important role in the growing renewable energy industry. To spur innovation and promote growth in this exciting technology area, the industry needs to inspire the next generation of marine energy workers and recruit new talent.

Project Overview & Methodology

In order to maintain the critical innovation and interest needed, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), is working to understand marine energy workforce needs while developing information and educational resources to advance the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) workforce pipeline.

For this ongoing STEM to Workforce project, NREL performed analysis through a series of industry, academia, and student surveys seeking to understand challenges and perspectives on working in the marine energy industry. Our research found that there is strong interest in marine energy, but it is limited by a lack of awareness about the industry, few post-secondary courses on marine energy, and unclear career pathways. Professors do not have sufficient funding to integrate marine energy into their curricula or research. Further, marine companies indicate that many workforce entrants lack necessary industry knowledge.

To address these challenges, NREL supports the development of new educational resources where gaps currently exist, including curricula and training, to support an evolving marine energy workforce and increase awareness of marine energy opportunities. Key resources developed to date include:

• Marine Energy Collegiate Competition (MECC): An annual competition to challenge undergraduate and graduate students to develop and test marine energy devices. Now going into its fifth year, MECC has exposed approximately 500 students from over 40 universities, including twelve minority-serving institutions and six international schools, to marine energy.
• Marine Energy STEM Portal: A one-stop-shop for marine energy educational materials and career resources.
• Renewable Energy Discovery (REDi) Island: An interactive educational web-based app featuring a virtual world powered entirely by water power technologies and potential careers.

NREL continues to evaluate the effectiveness of all aspects of the STEM to Workforce project through a metrics tracking program and our work will continue to be driven by industry and academia needs.

Conclusion

Despite increasing interest in marine energy, the nascent stage of the industry presents workforce pipeline challenges, including a lack of worker with experience, a lack of awareness of the roles in the industry, and competition with other industries for workers. NREL would love the opportunity to share our education and outreach efforts at the 2024 UMERC and METS Conference, present initial results from the soon to be published U.S. Marine Energy Workforce Report, and engage with university and research audiences to broaden program impact and reach.