What people are talking about

EDPR completed its global restructuring to a 3-region model: Europe & Latin America, North America, and Asia Pacific, each with its own COO: Duarte Bello, Pedro Vasoncelos, and Sandhya Ganapthy respectively.

Blackstone invested USD 3B of equity into US-based Invenergy Renewables. As of January 2022, Invenergy has developed 25GW of renewable energy projects globally and has a pipeline of 350MW+ of projects in Japan. Invenergy and CDPQ will remain majority shareholders.

Singapore-based Kairos Renewables, a subsidiary of Modern Energy Management, has entered into a JV with Canadian IPP JCM Power to develop 500MW of utility-scale wind projects in the Philippines and Vietnam.

Philippines’s PetroGreen Energy, the renewable energy arm of oil and gas company PetroEnergy, announced plans to build three offshore wind farms at GW-scale domestically.

Triconti Windkraft Group, a Filipino-Swiss-Germany developer, has entered an agreement with Iberdrola to develop 5 x offshore wind farms in the Philippines totaling 3.5GW and with Swiss company Stream Invest Holding to fund the projects.

Singapore’s G8 Subsea and Korea’s Holim Tech partner to build a 1.5GW offshore wind farm plus battery storage project in South Korea.

Atlantique Offshore Energy developed and launched a hydrogen-powered back-up energy solution for offshore substations capable of supplying 18-hours of power to replace diesel generators.

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What we are currently working on

For the full job descriptions regarding the roles below, please contact us directly.

• Commercial Acquisitions Manager, Solar, South Korea

• Investment Manager, Solar & Wind, Singapore, HK, or Taiwan

• Development Manager, Solar, South Korea

• Junior Development Manager, Solar, Taiwan

• Land Acquisition & Real Estate Manager, South Korea

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Trends in Renewable Energy in 2022

Gong Xi Fa Cai! With Lunar New Year now in the rear-view mirror, we can really start talking about what is in store for APAC Renewables in 2022. While there is a lot going on and we could fill a manuscript with projections for 2022, we will share just our Top 5 for now. We would love to hear your opinion of what you think the hottest trends will be for 2022. Reach out to me, Amy Marietta, to chat!

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1. Shifting Winds for Offshore Wind:

While Taiwan had an initial advantage building itself as an APAC hub for offshore wind by having attractive feed-in-tariff rates and auctions early on, from what we are hearing, Taiwan may be challenged to keep the interest of developers, suppliers, and other vendors because of lower FiT rates in the coming years, greater localization requirements, and liquidity concerns for the NTD (New Taiwan Dollars). Already, we have seen many developers explore other markets such as Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, India, Australia, and the Philippines.

What this means for Renewable Energy Recruitment

We believe that experienced offshore wind employees who are willing to relocate regionally will be in high demand if governments start to loosen restrictions on the employment of foreign workers. If not, we foresee employers being forced to be flexible in their hiring decisions by retraining employees from oil & gas or other sectors.

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2. Corporate Energy Purchasing

We have observed an increase in demand over the past year for in-house energy strategists and energy purchasing managers within corporates, industrials, and other companies. With unique demands depending on the company’s size, locations, and energy consumption, some energy strategists are given a mandate to reduce energy operating costs however they can while others are given targets for renewable consumption while others are given even broader mandates of reducing overall emissions or carbon footprint. Similarly, within IPPs, utilities, and developers, we also saw more demand for commercially-minded business developers to seek corporate offtakers for the power generated by their projects or for the RECs generated.

How this Impacts Renewable Energy Jobs

We forecast both types of positions will continue to be in demand in 2022. Because in-house energy strategists tend to need a broad knowledge base across countries and technologies, often these hires come from technical consultancies So, we do expect to see some disruptions to consultancies as consultant to director-level talent are lured away by corporates and industrials.

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3. Will Green Hydrogen finally get the jolt it needs?

There is certainly plenty of passion and interest around this topic from both sides of the aisle – those who believe we are on the cusp of successfully employing green hydrogen with just a bit more time, infrastructure investment, and offtake agreements secured and those who believe that green hydrogen will never be as economical as its competitors such as green ammonia and hence, should be abandoned in order to free up capital for other endeavors. We will be watching this sector in 2022.

What this means for Renewable Energy Recruitment

Given how early green hydrogen is in the development lifecycle, we foresee the highest hiring demand to be in consulting and advisory capacities in order to help investors and developers set up the supply chain, commercial framework, and global strategy for businesses that may want to produce or consume hydrogen. We predict that business development positions focused on finding offtakers for hydrogen will also be in demand. We also believe business developers within EPCs who want to bid to build hydrogen infrastructure will be next.

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4. Solar and Wind Waste Crisis

Currently, most solar panels and wind turbine blades end up in landfills at the end of their useful lifecycle, releasing toxic materials such as lead into soil and water supplies. In order for the renewable energy transition to be successful, manufacturers, recyclers, and investors are going to need to work together to create products that are easier to separate into their high-value components, a market to sell these products into, and reduce transportation costs from project sites to recycling centers.

How this Affects Renewable Energy Jobs

We hope OEMs create demand to hire innovative design engineers who will have recycling in mind at the point of product conception, such as what Siemens-Gamesa did in 2021 to develop a recyclable wind turbine blade. We also foresee asset managers and O&M providers adding responsibility to their commercial managers to seek out recycling partners and high-value component offtakers in order to drive profits from raw materials such as aluminum, copper, and silver. We may even see demand for employees with commodity trading backgrounds to join renewable players.

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5. Collaboration across ASEAN

Already in the past few years, we have seen many instances of projects in one country selling their power to offtakers in another. A couple of examples are Mitsubishi developing a 600MW wind farm in Laos which will sell its power to EVN in Vietnam, the first time Laos has signed a wind export deal; Sun Cable bringing power from Australia through Indonesia to Singapore, and Singapore acquiring power from projects in Malaysia and Indonesia.

How this Impacts Renewable Energy Recruitment

With ASEAN setting a target for 23% of primary energy to come from renewables by 2025, we think more cross-border transactions are to come and that employees with experience negotiating commercial terms and obtaining financing for these types of cross-border projects will be in high demand.

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Market Moves​

We always look forward to keeping in touch and exchanging ideas, insights, and opinions. If you are a company considering hiring renewable energy, we welcome the opportunity to present our services and capabilities. If you are a candidate, please check our jobs page or reach out to us to discuss our renewable energy recruitment capabilities, your background, skills, and future aspirations.

Amy Marietta Consultant, Power Generation, Asia Aurex Singapore Pte Ltd amy.marietta@aurexgroup.com +65 9424 0023 12 Marina View, #11-01 Asia Square Tower 2, Singapore 018961 EA 18S9493 | R1878463