ENERGY EFFICIENCY HANGS OUT THE HELP WANTED SIGN

Energy Efficiency Services Sector: Workforce Education and Training Needs
Charles A. Goldman, Jane S. Peters, Nathaniel Albers, Elizabeth Stuart and Merrian C. Fuller, March 2010 (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Research Into Action, Inc.)

THE POINT
Van Jones says it is the work that most needs to be done and it can be done by the people who most need the work. It is likely the key to success in the world’s fight against global climate change.

Installing solar panels? No. Great thing to do but not the key. Building wind turbines? Do it with both hands. But that's not it. Emissions trading in the Cap&Trade markets? Not even close. What is it? Energy Efficiency, the turning of houses, office buildings and factories into negawatt generators.

Negawatts are the watts saved from not being used. Not only are they the cheapest source of New Energy but investing in them saves $2-to-$3 dollars for every dollar that is spent, savings that can be invested in New Energy megawatts.

One small problem: As reported in Energy Efficiency Services Sector: Workforce Education and Training Needs from researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), there aren’t nearly enough people trained in doing Energy Efficiency to get the job done.

That small problem, however, presents an enormous opportunity. Thanks in part to a new awareness of savings opportunities and in part to funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, Energy Efficiency began growing last year and is expected to continue expanding in the U.S. over the next 10 years as fast as the nation can deploy training and education programs for the Energy Efficiency services sector (EESS) workforce.

The EESS currently has ~120,000 full-time equivalent workers, calculated in the LBNL study as person-year equivalents (PYE). Total employment in the sector is ~400,000 people, many that do not do EESS full-time. Through 2020, employment in EESSs could grow as much as 11% per year. It is expected to at least double and possibly grow 4 times over to employ 220,000-to-380,000 PYE, which is ~1.3 million people.

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Professional occupations (engineers, architects, managers, program planners, program evaluators) will provide ~25-35% of the future EESS workforce and building and construction contractors and trades will provide the other 65-75%.

But: Of 492 higher education and training programs studied by the LBNL researchers, only 43 had engineering, architecture, policy, building trades technical training, and/or interdisciplinary programs with a minimum curricular emphasis on Energy Efficiency.

In this detailed academic study rigorous with definitions and categorizations for which most are not going to have much patience, there is a buried message of crucial urgency to a nation hungry for new opportunity.

The message is that the New Energy economy is coming and it is bringing with it something else along with the much more exotic solar power plants on acres of mirror-covered deserts and the grand wind turbine installations marching across the countryside. It is also something much less noticeable in the neighborhood but just as important as rooftop solar panels.

What is coming with the New Energy economy is an Energy Efficiency sector that will find work in every house in every neighborhood from Harlem to Hunters Point, from Cambridge to La Jolla and from Tampa to Tacoma. It will find work in the shops on Main Street, the farmhouses and barns of the heartlands and the factories on the other side of the tracks. It needs every strong arm, every mechanical mind and every smart planner it can find.

The job market may be the economic recovery's lagging indicator but this study shows that the Energy Efficiency sector is ahead of the curve on a whole new world of opportunity. If the nation gets busy and takes advantage of it.

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THE DETAILS
The LBNL study began in 2008, before the passage of the Recovery Act.

The Energy Efficiency services sector (EESS) has 4 basic types of jobs:
(1) Program administrators who plan and manage energy efficiency projects and programs;
(2) Energy efficiency consulting firms who assess facility energy use and recommend efficiency retrofits, implement energy efficiency programs, or who design homes and facilities to be energy-efficient;
(3) Construction and installation firms and tradespeople who build new, or retrofit existing homes and buildings for energy efficiency; and
(4) Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) who develop and construct comprehensive energy efficiency projects, and monitor and verify that energy efficiency retrofits deliver energy savings. (The LBNL study does not include (1) building maintenance and operations people, (2) companies that design, make and sell Energy Efficiency equipment or (3) the New Energy workforce, because efficiency is only part of those job categories.)

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The study is based on interviews with 350+ program administrators, education and training providers, implementation contractors, energy services companies (ESCO), representatives of professional and trade associations and sector experts (including major building trade unions, industry associations, professional groups (architects, engineers) and building and construction technicians (sheet metal workers, electrical, HVAC contractors).

The three primary bottlenecks:
(1) A shortage of trained, experienced energy efficiency program managers: Without senior management, with its years of experience, there is no mentoring. It leaves the next generation floundering for guidance.

(2) A shortage of experienced energy efficiency engineers: There is lack of training programs, leaving engineers unaware of Energy Efficiency as a career path option. Training for mechanical and electrical engineers does not include any emphasis on efficiency in systems like HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) or any training in why it is important to design for efficiency.

(3) A lack of awareness of what is coming in EESS by building and construction trades and contractors and a concommitant failure to prepare for it, resulting in a shortfall in today's workforce, an aging workforce, an absence of training programs and an inadequate preparation of the next generation of teachers and workers.

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The 2 main paths to work in the EESS:
(1) Existing occupations (HVAC technicians, lighting contractors, construction trades, project managers) that turn into more EESS-focused positions when the realization of new opportunity leads to new training.
(2) Emerging occupations (home energy raters, commissioning services, energy/home performance services, energy auditors) more or less unique to the EESS.

It is widely assumed that as the EESS expands, new hires will come with certificate and degree programs offered at community and technical colleges & universities or get initial training through apprenticeship and/or retraining rograms.

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Current EESS educational requirements, hiring and training practices:
(1) Management and professional positions (energy efficiency engineers, architects,
energy efficiency program managers) require a 4-year college degree+ and many building and construction trades require at least technical training.
(2) Program administrators, program implementation contractors and ESCOs use a variety of after-hire training resources because so few EESS-trained people are available. EESS-knowledgeable engineers are in greatest demand and there is stiff competition between employers for them, though engineering graduates remain widely unaware of the opportunities.
(3) Residential EESS programs (low-income weatherization and retrofits) typically hire trades workers without EESS-specific skills and retrain them through organizations certified by Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) or through the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP).
(4) Most building and construction contractors and workers in the building and construction trades who do EESS work have no specific training except possibly for some union-obtained advanced journeyman training.
(5) EESS administrators and contractors see on-the-job training as the most valuable training available.

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Training can come from professional trade associations and unions for building and construction contractors and trades, utility ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs, third-party and trade association programs, community and technical colleges, universities, and third-party certificate and accreditation programs.

(1) Buildings and construction contractors and tradespeople (electrician, HVAC contractor) start in union apprenticeship training programs, technical schools or community colleges, where they also get continuing education for professional development or licensure. LBNL found most courses are inadequate because they lack an EESS-specific focus.

(2) Third-party and trade association programs provide EESS-specific professional development and certification courses: (a) the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE), (b) the Building Performance Institute (BPI), (c) RESNET, (4) WAP, (5) the Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP).

Note: AESP enrollment is expected to go from ~350 in 2008 to 1,000-to-2,000 in 2010. BPI certified ~300 residential retrofit contractors in 2005, saw a 5-fold increase from 2005-to-2008, a tripling from 2008-to-2009 and is expected to certify ~12,000 by 2011-2012. WAP expects to need 700 new trainers by summer 2010.

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(3) Ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs collaborate with community and
technical colleges and the trade associations and professional organizations. Utility programs also give EESS trainings for the development of professionals (architects, lighting designers, engineers and building and construction contractors).

(4) Community and technical colleges also train energy managers, HVAC technicians, energy auditors and raters, and building performance analysts. The paper contains specific info from 5 cutting edge community college programs (Lane Community
College, Hudson Valley Community College, Laney College, Iowa Lakes Community
College, and Oakland Community College). Demand for these programs exceeds capacity and have waiting lists which include 4-year graduates seeking EESS-specific training.

Note: Core faculty members in these community/technical college programs are near retirement age, putting the programs at risk.

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(5) 28 four-year colleges and universities were found with architecture, engineering,
policy, planning or interdisciplinary EESS-specific degree programs in 2008. LBNL estimated that ~5,100 students are currently in EESS courses, ~1,200 per year graduate. (Recall: A minimum of 220,000 PYEs are expected through 2020.)

Universities are overcrowded, underfunded and cannot ramp up quickly. Community colleges can expand more quickly but are even more overburdened and underfunded. The best solution is to integrate university and community college resources into existing union and trade programs.

There is an EESS imbalance among states. In California, New England and the Pacific Northwest, where there have long been energy efficiency programs, there is better training and more of the construction trades are trained in EESS projects. Elsewhere, states are just beginning to develop EESS programs.

Examples of existing programs: The Northwest Energy Efficiency Task Force (NEET), the Center of Excellence for Energy Technology at Centralia College and the California community colleges’ Centers of Excellence.

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The study makes 5 recommendations:
(1) Increase EESS education and training, especially in the building and construction trades. ~65%-to-75% of EESS employment is in the building and construction trades. At the same time, the building and construction trades demonstrate a high degree of obliviousness to the huge opportunities they are missing. This is especially true in states where there has not been an effective push of Energy Efficiency measures funded by utility ratepayers. More education directed at these trades is needed in conjunction with more effort to integrate building and industrial process system efficiency into existing eductional programs.

(2) Coordinate and track intrastate training and expand interstate training best practices. Some states have long had programs to advance EESSs. Others have barely begun to see the value. With funding through ARRA, states are starting or ramping programs and the worker training needed to service the programs, both of which bring ARRA money into the state. The challenge is to identify and build the EESS-specific training and education programs that will succeed and make EESS work. A systematic tracking of efforts will illuminate this challenge.

(3) Increase short, hands-on and on-the-job EESS training programs. The most familiar and accessible mode of upgrading any workforce is through hands-on and on-the-job training. EESS has a workforce for which this is a serviceable option and new entrants with applicable skills can be effectively upgraded to EESS work. In a field in which technologies are still rapidly advancing, hands-on and on-the-job training can meet the demand for up-to-date training. Conferences (from the Association of Energy Service Professionals and the Certified Energy Manager certificate program/Association of Energy Engineers) can bring mid- and senior-level engineers and managers up to speed.

(4) Increase train-the-trainers programs. The combination of steep anticipated growth, vastly inadequate existing programs and an aging group of experienced managers and teachers makes the need to build the supply of teachers, trainers and mentors nothing short of urgent. Many community colleges report that key instructors are nearing retirement. Growth rates are expected to strain the capacity of existing trainers. Some utility and government EESS funding should go for programs to train the next generation of EESS trainers.

(5) Expand programs to reach the next generation of EESS professionals. Most professional EESS roles require at least a 4-year degree, but few colleges or universities offer EESS-specific tracks or studies and those get limited support. New and expanded EESS-related programs must be funded. Industrial Assessment Centers provide EESS to industry and train engineering students and can be developed in collaboration with college-based engineering, architecture, planning, and policy programs.

The LBNL study was funded by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Weatherization and Intergovernmental Program, and Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Permitting, Siting and Analysis.

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QUOTES
- Charles H. Goldman, report lead author & scientist, Environmental Energy Technologies Division/Lawrence Berkeley National Lab: “The narrow focus of this study is designed to allow us to estimate the size of the workforce that provides energy efficiency services…and determine whether the education and training programs designed to retrain existing workers and train new workers in this market segment are adequate to meet the coming demand… There is a shortage of formal training programs in energy efficiency, and an extremely high demand right now, thanks to the infusion of funding for energy efficiency from the growth in ratepayer-funded utility programs and federal and state budgets devoted to efficiency, for example, in programs funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act…”

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- From the LBNL study of EESS jobs: “Our research indicates that diverse solutions will be necessary, including expanding both the number and capacity of formal community college and four-year energy efficiency-related education programs and encouraging the expansion of less formal, shorter duration energy efficiency trainings for the building and
construction trades…New education and training programs should be developed and implemented quickly to increase the skills of those already active in the field and to help prepare new EESS employees. The schools and organizations we identified as serving construction contractors and tradespeople enroll about 8,000 to 9,000 students per year, while those providing training for the professional efficiency occupations enroll about 6,000 students per year. This existing capability is unlikely to produce enough educated and trained EESS professionals and tradespeople to meet a projected four-fold increase by 2020 in the demand for a skilled, job-ready workforce.”

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- From the LBNL study of EESS jobs: “There is significant pent-up demand for energy efficiency education and training programs; most programs indicated that they have waiting lists. Demand for hiring graduates with energy efficiency education is also strong; respondents at community colleges and universities all report easily placing graduates. However, the challenge of responding to this demand is different for different parts of the workforce…[U]niversities indicated that existing energy-efficiency-related programs are currently approaching capacity and universities typically take many years to develop new programs. Moreover, in many cases, public funding is not available to add faculty and/or space…Some universities plan to offer distance learning options as a partial solution, though they acknowledge that certain classes and equipment skills cannot be taught well online…Community colleges are able to more easily ramp up…but many still have waiting lists…Supporting training for the building and construction industry will be especially challenging for those states and regions that have limited energy efficiency services infrastructure…An alternative approach is to integrate building and industrial process system efficiency into existing curricula or union apprenticeship programs…[Though] this was beginning to happen in a few states, there appears to be an opportunity to make this happen on a much larger scale.”