Building a diverse and equitable distributed wind workforce: a strategic approach to collaborator selection

Abstract

The demand for a skilled distributed wind (DW) workforce is rising with industry growth and recent federal support for technology adoption. However, challenges persist in scaling the industry. For example, DW installers have reported difficulties in hiring, and workforce development opportunities have not been fully realized in rural and remote disadvantaged communities with economically viable DW potential. According to the US Energy and Employment Report (USEER), the wind energy workforce continues to have below-average representation of women, people of color, and other marginalized groups. The transition to a cleaner energy future is an opportunity to change that. As more renewables, including DW, come online, scaling workforce capacity can be done in tandem with supporting workforce diversity. Moreover, to promote fair and equitable outcomes in workforce development, efforts to address limited workforce capacity should encourage participation from under-resourced and underrepresented populations. Engaging underrepresented populations helps close skill gaps and ensures that the wind energy sector benefits from diverse perspectives, driving innovation and more effective solutions. Additionally, prioritizing workforce diversity ensures that marginalized communities share in the benefits of the clean energy transition, ultimately supporting the long-term sustainability and inclusivity of the industry. This work presents a replicable equity-driven rubric to identify potential industry and academic collaborators for workforce development programming. The rubric identifies and considers workforce partners outside of traditional networks across locational, institutional, and socioeconomic criteria to advance new partnership-building opportunities in areas favorable for DW. These collaborative opportunities can serve as case studies for improving the future scale-up of equitable clean energy workforce partnerships.