The Competencies of Project Managers in Renewable Energy

Fast progress of renewable energy technology leads to structural transformation of national energy markets. Many new projects are regularly started and implemented. It can be expected, that this will in turn increase the demand for project managers with some specific competencies, which are relevant to certain professional requirements. The identification of such competencies is crucial for the training of specialists in this area. This research examines renewable energy project manager competencies required by USA labor market using the analyses of project manager Internet job advertisements. It was implemented by collecting and coding the requirements from the job advertisements in April 2017 and 2018. From the data obtained by advertisement analyses, the pool of job candidate’s competencies required by the market was compiled. The most common requirements were compared with IPMA competency standard for project managers. The research shows that companies are seeking a candidate with bachelor degree in engineering, project management and specific sectorial certificates, 6 years of professional experience related to project management. Some competencies coincide with the standards and the other are referred to specific RE skills. At the end of the research some recommendations for renewable energy project managers training and career were given.