An increasing number of workers are leaving the fossil fuels industry to produce renewable energy, the New York Times reports. Many find their skill sets transfer easily to the renewable energy sector, while others are seeking to leave behind an industry whose best days are over, where even the good days were subject to volatile boom/bust cycles of rapid growth and massive layoffs.
“The basics are the same,” Miguel Febres, an oil industry veteran who is now a planner for wind and solar projects at Enel, told The Times. “We install foundations, we install turbines, we build roads, we lay cables.” Increasing concern over climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, is also influencing workers’ decisions. “There are a lot of people coming from oil and gas, and they’re saying, ‘Hey, I’m ready for a change,’” said Anthony Cervantes, himself a former oil consultant who is now director of IT at Sunnova. “It’s nice to have a purpose in your job.” (New York Times $)