The best time to get into climate technology was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.

Want to hear a true story about the growth happening in renewable energy? 

In 2005 Dan Leary and Will Thompson – two veterans – started a solar company called Nexamp in North Andover, Massachusetts. Committed to expanding access to clean energy, the company grew out of Dan’s garage and today employs 275 people, building and owning solar projects across the country.

As early as 2009, Dan approached me about building ‘Nexamp University’, because an educated workforce was so critical to the long-term success of the business. Today, everybody at Nexamp has access to training and certification through our ‘HeatSpring for Teams’ program.

The craziest part of this story? Nexamp’s 13,650% growth isn’t all that unique in the solar industry. And everybody’s growth projections just got way bigger.

Bigger Than Previously Imagined: Why Now is a Good Time to Join

The solar industry grew at a 33% average annual rate over the past decade as installation costs fell. Those were amazingly good years for the solar industry.

But look at how those years pale in comparison to projected growth over the next decade. This chart reminds me of the movie “Independence Day”, when the spacecraft hovers over Manhattan and it’s bigger than anything you could have imagined.

Why do the projections get so huge, so fast? On August 18, 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which funds a rapid transition to clean energy. It’s a two-decade roadmap for moving our economy away from fossil fuels starting now. 

This is why I think you should spend the rest of your professional life in climate tech. Whatever your skillset, you are needed.

Where Can You Have a Bigger Impact?

So where do you fit in? Well, probably wherever you want. Almost every clean energy company I know is hiring.

Maybe HeatSpring will be your place. Almost 100,000 people have used our learning platform over the past sixteen years. With hundreds of hours of training content and more than 200 professional development courses, we’re a leading provider of clean energy certifications.  And yet, HeatSpring is basically a startup all over again.

We’re going big in 2023. Looking at opportunities with fresh eyes. Soon we’ll be hiring for multiple roles, so if you think HeatSpring might be a good fit, please reach out right away.

Teams like Nexamp will be at the heart of everything we do. We’re building enterprise tools to help make employee learning something that happens every day, not just on special occasions. 

Here are some things we need your help building:

• Apprenticeships as a service
• The ultimate course catalog 
• Enterprise software and reporting tools
• Annual all-you-can-learn contracts for teams
• More accreditations and certifications
• A sales and marketing engine that enables us to be everywhere

If HeatSpring isn’t the right fit, let me introduce you to one of the thousands of companies we do business with. Software companies like Aurora Solar or Residential Energy Dynamics, LLC. Non-profits like GRID Alternatives . B-Corporations like ReVision Energy or Namaste Solar. Manufacturers like IronRidge or Fronius International or UNIRAC, Inc.. Vertically integrated geothermal companies like Dandelion Energy.

This feels like our moment to grow up. What does that look like for Nexamp? For HeatSpring? For our communities? For you in your career? I hope we can figure it out together in 2023.