What are the best ways to improve your skills as a renewable energy project manager?

Mentorship and coaching is one critical areas we can leverage on learning from experts. You can also learn by attending webinars, workshops, conferences, or courses that cover the latest trends, best practices, and innovations in renewable energy project management.

The renewable energy industry is changing rapidly both in terms of technology and the market conditions. As a project manager, one needs to be farsighted and vigilant of these advancements and take informed decisions for the project. Research articles (majorly review articles), white papers are valuable sources to understand technology advancements. Continuous interactions with peers, developers, investor and different stakeholders in the project provides a broad understanding on the different perspectives with which each stakeholder look at the project. This will help the Project manager to navigate the project to provide desired outcome for each stakeholder

To improve your skills as a renewable energy project manager, consider these strategies: Education and Training - Keep updating to latest trends Networking - Connect & Build a Strong Professional Network Experience - Gain knowledge by attempting in different projects Communication - Stay informed across all levels Project Management Tools - Digitisalisation / Softwares will increase database management and increase productivity Risk management - Identify and mitigate Budget and Finance - Control budget and ensure proper cash flow Environmental & Sustainability - Stay informed about the environment regulations and sustainable practices. Leadership Skills - Cultivate leadership qualities to inspire and lead

Aligning expectations with the Project Sponsor or Steering Committee is also important. From the very early stage of the project, make sure you have identified risks, opportunities and treats and discussed them with the Project Sponsor. This figure is there to guide you in delivering a successful project, meeting internal goals and Customer’s expectations.

*Training and practices *Time Management *Discipline *Obtain feedback *Open to learn from any group irrespective to age and department. *Use project management tools and software *Research project management practices. *Learn from successful project manager and leaders *Team building exercise *Update with latest industry news and related policies *Lesson learn and improvement.

Reading industry publications, reports, blogs, newsletters, or podcasts that provide relevant and reliable information on renewable energy project management makes you stay updated.

Looking at todays commitment and the future it is essential every industry every household should invest in renewable energy. Our commitment to Net zero emission by 2070 can only be fulfilled by contribution by every sector. Here I would say the Govt needs to be innovative get the pitfalls addressed mainly in lack of clarity and also bring in motivating measures for every one to invest in. This could be by way of incentives and carbon credits.

Renewable Energy is a continuously growing field and has the potential to change every year and because of its influence on climate change, it is widly seen as one key parameter on determining the economy and international reputation of a country. Hence, one should follow the policies and conference briefs to understand what happened exactly and what may happen in near future to get aligned to the need. The experts in renewable energy is not necessarily a person from stem background, anyone who has the capacity to influence the track of renewable energy installation and investment should be considered as expert and their contribution should be watched keenly to understand the future aspects of the renewable energy.

"Learn from Locals" There are some locational risks that you have to learn from local people such as the whirlwind that can lift your solar panels during construction, unpredicted flood from less water received area due to the growth of communities near your plant recently, and so on ... One easy way is to hire local people as resident project staff or service vendors.

Obviously it is necessary to be permanently updated since these technologies change very quickly so periodically reviewing new technologies their costs their applications is essential as well as periodically participating in these events guarantees to improve our skills in renewable energies.

Certification in renewable energy is a requirement by many authorities. By getting certified, you can demonstrate your competence, credibility, and commitment to your profession and your skills.

Seriously consider achieving certifications such as OSHA-30, NFPA-70 and even a Fork Lift certification. All of which will prove to be most useful in your project management roll.

Be diverse in haves a knowledgeable base.on different types of infrastructures that require alternative energy technologies and storage capacity technologies.

Consider achieving and carrying the same certifications to those of your construction and operational team members. Certs such as NFPA70, OSHA-30 and even 'Fork Lift' certifications will be most advantageous since there will be times when the workforce has left the job and specific duties need to be handled.

Getting certified by professional institutions is normally for experienced professionals, not fresh graduates. Fresh graduates have to take some courses and receive on-the-job training by mentors or job supervisors in order to gain experience.

Feedback is the most efficient way to grow as a Project Manager. Don’t forget also to have a self assessment on the work done, what you think you have done well and where you could improve.

Application of feedback from your stakeholders, clients, team members, or supervisors improves skills in a renewable energy project. You do this by soliciting and listening to their opinions, suggestions, or complaints about your projects and your skills. You also use tools, methods, or metrics to measure and evaluate your performance and outcomes.

Experienced professionals have their own values in their companies. It is not always necessary for them to be open to his colleagues. Sometimes they only tell others some parts of it, but not the remaining parts. In some extreme cases, such professionals may even lie to his colleagues. Therefore it is important to use our brains to judge everything received or heard by us.

Anyone of us applies feedback from all involved parties to his present and future jobs, that is a general characteristic of any good professional. In renewable energy is more important than other fields since the accrued experience is less (at the bottom line, we are really working on the field from less than 20 years)

Feedback are very important. Do not take nothing personal, use them to improve your personal and working skills. A good PM is a Good listener

Seeking challenges that can stretch your abilities and test your limits. You can do this by taking on new or complex projects that require you to use different or advanced skills, such as managing multiple or diverse stakeholders, integrating different or emerging technologies, or complying with different or stringent regulations.

Sometimes it is not you but your boss who could choose the projects you would be in charge or the role you would be in each project. You may try to talk to your boss, but you have to understand that it is not you who could always control everything.

Challenge yourself by volunteering for roles, tasks, or initiatives that can expose you to new or different aspects of renewable energy project management, such as research, innovation, or advocacy. Most important GIVE VALUE

The project Manager of offshore wind turbine foundations requires some special abilities like - techno commercial understanding of all aspects starting from design to installations - requires to balance between design upgrades and improvements vise versa the manufacturing friendlyness - variations due to cultural differences at multiple work sites which can be located in multiple countries - special attention if it has also a different continents which increases challanges due to vast culture changes - quick decision making for unexpected challanges at all stages of project And offcourse the normal managerial requirements like thorough planning, quick and efficient feedback systems and the most important - delegation where it's possible.

GET IN THE TRENCHES Its important to get out of the office and stay in touch with your work crews by frequent visits to the job site. Join in occasionally whenever possible, your crews will be astonished by your participation. Its important to understand exactly what is going on in the field within each scope of work. Your 'on the job' knowledge will grow and you will receive better respect from your workforce. MAINTAIN IMPECCABLE DAILY AND WEEKLY REPORTS. Though this should be a given for a project manager, I have often seen great looking reports that don't reflect exactly what is going on within the inner veins of the project (whats really happening in the field).

For any profession I believe we need some basic attributes and certain specific skill sets. According to me the former such as attitude and aptitude, having strong learner attribute, the working principles learned through varied experience ( went through rational self assessment and lessons learnt objectives) in real project environment of large infrastructure projects are strong base for any project manager to fit in renewable space. Remains is specific knowledge base related to specific technology or applications and can get done by engaging specific skill based experts. I think this philosophy applies to any Renewable or offshore wind or any other Industry. The main ingredient is passion which has to reflect in basic attributes.

Often, on-site experiences are not documented, particularly, how a problem was solved. This gets communicated orally to peers. A Project Manager should institutionalize documentation of such events as this forms, in a way, IP or trade secret for the company. During training, this information is an important tool for building skills of problem solving.

Become resilient. While Renewable Energy is a promising industry their are many challenges in project development that range from the type of energy to the country of implementation; and if we are able to adapt and navigate through this challenges we definitely will improve our skill of being resilient.