Wave producer

Engineers and technicians for the renewables sector are very much needed if the world is going to transition away from a reliance on fossil fuels. Think of all the people needed to design and build solar panels and wind turbines to generate the electricity we use.

According to the IRENA report, jobs in solar energy are leading the way in terms of growth, with 3.8 million jobs in the sector worldwide, a third of the total renewable energy jobs they identified.

A less common form of renewable energy is tidal power, but it is being developed. Being a windy island, the government in the UK is particularly keen and has said power generated by waves could one day provide 20% of the country’s energy needs.

In 2011 the world’s first commercial-scale marine device to produce energy for the national grid from waves was set up off Scotland’s Orkney Islands, one of 30 devices that have been tested there by the European Marine Energy Centre.

According to the BBC another device, installed in 2017, typically produces 7% of Orkney’s electricity. So, “wave producer” sounds like a pretty cool role to potentially add to the CV one day.