A survey by the Energy Systems Catapult has revealed that 40% of businesses in the energy sector found it very difficult to hire data scientists with the right skills.
The survey also found that 68% of data science teams had been created within the last 5 years, and that 39% of teams had four members or less.
The results show that as the renewable energy sector increases capacity, it is likely to encounter problems in hiring staff to meet demands, particularly in data analysis roles.
Dr Stephen Haben, digital and data consultant at Energy Systems Catapult, noted that, “We expect that as the opportunities from the energy sector become more evident, there will be a rapid uptick in organisations trying to build their data capabilities. We have already witnessed the gradual occurrence of this over the last five years, and as this is ramped up, it will put further stress on recruitment and training.”
According to the Energy Systems Catapult, “domain knowledge and coding skills are two of the most prominent weaknesses and are hindering efforts to produce operational implementation of the algorithms data scientists develop.”
As well as the ability to code in Python and use Excel, skills which are largely already present in the sector, more diverse skills are required such as natural language processing and data engineering.
“If we do not demonstrate the exciting challenges facing the industry or provide the necessary upskilling to the next generation of data scientists, then the energy industry risks losing out to other sectors such as social media and FinTech”, Dr Stephen Haben said.
The findings were presented by the Energy Systems Catapult in a useful infographic.
Earlier this month, the New Economics Foundation reported that the UK was “unprepared” to upskill the number of people required to create a low carbon economy. Public spending on both higher education and on adult education has fallen dramatically since 2010.
The energy industry more widely is experiencing a period of flux, as transition to a decarbonised system is leading to a surge in demand for those in clean energy profession. A report by the Global Energy Talent Index in February suggested a number of measures to hire and retain managers in the renewable energy sector.
Fundamentally, demand from the green energy sector is outstripping supply, with a report from PwC showing that green jobs are currently growing at four times the rate of the overall UK employment market with the number of jobs advertised in 2022 growing by around 300% to 336,000 positions.
A similar increase can be seen in the demand for solar installers, with positions growing by 315%, according to data from hiring platform Indeed.
