The energy engineers are involved in designing, developing, and/or evaluating all energy related projects in an organization for cost reduction and improvement of energy efficiency. They are involved in designing and testing machineries, building new constructions, and/or remodeling the existing stages of construction for optimizing the energy supply in an efficient way. Apart from increasing energy efficiency, responsibilities of energy engineers also include creating and extracting energy from a variety of sources such as bio-fuels, nuclear power, hydro power, wind power, solar power, oil, gas, etc.
Key Responsibilities
Energy engineers play a very important role in maintaining the energy efficiency of an organization. Their major role in the organization is to generate new energy from renewable resources and provide clean and efficient energy supply with minimal environmental damage. Apart from this, energy engineers are also responsible for enhancing efficiency of existing energy resources by designing, developing, and improving current and new energy generating procedures. The major process of energy generation includes extraction, production, conversion, transmission, and distribution.
Key responsibilities of the energy engineer include:
Role of an energy engineer is quite multidimensional, and thus for being successful in this field, it requires one to have an up-to-date technical knowledge on the latest discoveries and inventions, industrial development trends, legislative and regulatory limitations, etc., needed for implementation of energy efficient systems.
Required Qualifications and Skills
For accomplishing the role of energy engineer successfully, one must have the required knowledge and expertise in the related field. The basic qualification required for this role is Bachelor's Degree in science related field, preferably in the field of environmental science, mechanics, or chemistry. Engineering graduates are preferred for this job, though other science graduates are also considered for this role.
Specialist degree in energy engineering, sustainable energy, and climate change is available for students interested in getting higher position for this job profile. Post graduate courses on renewable energy engineering, sustainable energy systems, and energy future are also available, providing equal career opportunity in this field for graduates with non-relevant degree.
Apart from educational qualifications, interpersonal skills, oral and written communications, and organizational skills are also considered. Basic computer knowledge is necessary for this job. Considering the involvement of bureaucratic authorities and legislation in the sector of energy markets, candidates with relevant information on working of legislative authorities are preferred for this position. Professionals with an MBA degree, along with required graduation, can have additional advantage, considering the extent of management skills required for this job.
Salary Compensation
Based on educational qualification, work experience, company, and industrial location, the average salary of an energy engineer falls between $65,000 to $110,000 annually. Every year, there are around 5000 new openings for the post of energy engineers in the United States, and as per the current market scenario, it is expected to remain stable until the next decade.
Work Schedule and Location
Work schedule and location of an energy engineer varies as per the industrial requirements. Usually, the work timings see no alteration in Monday to Friday, nine to five shifts; but the employees in the power plant industry may have to work in seven days' shift system. Apart from working in offices, energy engineers may have to work in the laboratory or on-site depending upon the responsibilities assigned to them. Sometimes they may have to work in isolated locations and could also get overseas travel opportunity for the same.
Since the responsibilities of an energy engineer are so dynamic, they can work full-time, part-time, or as a freelance, based on the company requirements. They may have to work in teams or solitary. Career opportunities exist throughout the country for freshers, experienced professionals, and self-employed professionals. Wide range of progressive career development opportunities are available in this field.