Talent shortage threatens growth of clean energy sector

The world’s fast-growing clean energy industry is facing a new obstacle to its further expansion – a shortage of human capital, especially experienced business leaders. This is the message of a study of top-level recruitment in the clean energy sector, produced jointly by New Energy Finance, a clean energy investment analysis provider, and Heidrick & Struggles, an international executive search firm.
The two companies conducted a survey of senior executives in the alternative and renewable energy sector to gauge the seriousness of the “War For Talent” and pinpoint the areas where recruitment difficulties are greatest. The issue is rising up the agenda in sub-sectors such as wind and solar energy and biofuels, as investment in specialist businesses climbs rapidly. New Energy Finance figures show that new investment in clean energy worldwide in 2007 reached $148.4 billion, up 60 percent on the previous year.

The central finding of the research is that business leaders regard the recruitment issue facing the sector as a serious challenge. Some 37 percent of respondents said they saw the recruitment challenge as “very serious”, and a further 59 percent described it as “moderately serious”. Only 4 percent said it was “not serious”. Senior managers said that finding executives to drive the growth of their businesses was a key challenge for the next 12 to 18 months, at least comparable with other concerns such as the availability of projects and assets, capital availability and cost, and government and regulatory support.

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