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17-2199.11 - Solar Energy Systems Engineers


Perform site-specific engineering analysis or evaluation of energy efficiency and solar projects involving residential, commercial, or industrial customers. Design solar domestic hot water and space heating systems for new and existing structures, applying knowledge of structural energy requirements, local climates, solar technology, and thermodynamics.


Key Facts
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Bright Outlook
1
Career Details
Green Job
Career Details
Current Employment
136,900
Estimate
Forecasted Employment
142,300
Estimate
Change in Employment
+5,500
Estimate
Change in Employment %
+4%
Estimate
Tasks
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Tasks
The tasks listed below can be performed to prepare you for a career in this field.
Core
  • Test or evaluate photovoltaic (PV) cells or modules.
  • Review specifications and recommend engineering or manufacturing changes to achieve solar design objectives.
  • Perform thermal, stress, or cost reduction analyses for solar systems.
  • Develop standard operation procedures and quality or safety standards for solar installation work.
  • Provide technical direction or support to installation teams during installation, start-up, testing, system commissioning, or performance monitoring.
  • Perform computer simulation of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation system performance or energy production to optimize efficiency.
  • Develop design specifications and functional requirements for residential, commercial, or industrial solar energy systems or components.
  • Create plans for solar energy system development, monitoring, and evaluation activities.
  • Create electrical single-line diagrams, panel schedules, or connection diagrams for solar electric systems, using computer-aided design (CAD) software.
  • Create checklists for review or inspection of completed solar installation projects.
  • Design or coordinate design of photovoltaic (PV) or solar thermal systems, including system components, for residential and commercial buildings.
  • Conduct engineering site audits to collect structural, electrical, and related site information for use in the design of residential or commercial solar power systems.
Supplemental
  • Design or develop vacuum tube collector systems for solar applications.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Knowledge
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Knowledge

The items listed below are organized into sections that contain knowledge useful for pursuing a career in this field. Each section also contains a "Percentage of Importance" statistic that shows how relevant an item is to the occupation.
 Engineering and Technology
  • 86%
    Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
 Design
  • 80%
    Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
 Mathematics
  • 73%
    Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
 Building and Construction
  • 70%
    Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
 Physics
  • 65%
    Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub- atomic structures and processes.
 Computers and Electronics
  • 65%
    Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
 English Language
  • 64%
    Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
 Mechanical
  • 62%
    Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
 Customer and Personal Service
  • 60%
    Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
 Education and Training
  • 57%
    Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
 Administration and Management
  • 56%
    Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
 Sales and Marketing
  • 56%
    Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
 Law and Government
  • 55%
    Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
 Public Safety and Security
  • 51%
    Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Tools
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Tools
The tools listed below include machines, equipment, tools, and software that is useful for individuals who are interested in this career.
 Metals and metallurgy and structural materials testing instruments
  • Abrasion testers
  • Adhesion testers
  • Compression testers
  • Creep testers
  • Fatigue testers
  • Flexure testers
  • Hardness testers
  • Impact testers
  • Load frames
  • Shear testers
  • Surface profilometers
  • Tensile testers
 Laboratory ovens and accessories
  • Accelerated weathering machines
  • Bench ovens
  • Humidity ovens
  • Solar simulators
  • Vacuum ovens
 Electronic and communication measuring and testing instruments
  • Apparent power meters
  • Lifetime testers
  • Power quality meters
  • Reactive power meters
 Spectroscopic equipment
  • Atomic absorption spectrometers
  • Auger electron spectrometers
  • Electron energy loss spectrometers
  • Energy dispersive x-ray spectrometers EDS
  • Fluorescence spectrophotometers
  • Fourier transform infrared FTIR spectrometers
  • Mass spectrometers
  • Photoluminescence spectrometers
  • Raman spectrometers
  • Reflectance spectrometers
  • Spectrophotometers
  • X-ray photoelectron spectrometers
 Electrical measuring and testing equipment and accessories
  • Chronopotentiometers
  • Electrometers
  • Inductance capacitance resistance LCR meters
  • Meggers
  • Photovoltaic array simulators
  • Picoammeters
  • Potentiostats
  • Recording ammeters
  • Voltmeters
 Duplicating machines
  • Copy machines
  • Laser facsimile machines
 Laboratory electron and solid state physics equipment
  • Coulometers
  • Flow coulometric detectors
 Indicating and recording instruments
  • Current versus voltage IV curve tracers
 Computer data input devices
  • Data loggers
  • Graphics tablets
  • Optical scanners
 Temperature and heat measuring instruments
  • Differential scanning calorimeters
  • Digital resistance thermometers
  • Thermocouples
  • Thermopiles
 Viewing and observing instruments and accessories
  • Digital imaging microscopes
  • Field emission scanning electron microscopes FESEM
  • Optical compound microscopes
  • Scanning electron microscopes SEM
  • Scanning probe microscopes SPM
  • Transmission electron microscopes TEM
 Light and wave generating and measuring equipment
  • Digital pattern generators
  • Infrared cameras
  • Lasers
  • Phase angle meters
  • Polarographic analyzers
  • Spectrocolorimeters
 Electric direct current DC motors
  • Direct current DC power supplies
 Laboratory decanting and distilling and evaporating and extracting equipment and supplies
  • Electron beam evaporators
  • Vacuum evaporators
 Laboratory environmental conditioning equipment
  • Environmental chambers
  • Inert atmosphere glove boxes
 Rubber and plastic processing machinery and equipment and supplies
  • Film extruders
 Electronic manufacturing and processing machinery
  • Focused ion beam FIB systems
  • Ion beam assisted deposition IBAD systems
  • Ion mills
  • Mask aligners
  • Micromanipulators
  • Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition PECVD systems
  • Spin coaters
  • Sputtering systems
 Medical exam size measuring devices
  • Goniometers
 Calculating machines and accessories
  • Hand calculators
 Weight measuring instruments
  • High-precision balances
 Production systems equipment
  • Hipot testers
 Meteorological instruments
  • Irradiance detectors
  • Pyranometers
 Laboratory furnaces and accessories
  • Laboratory tube furnaces
 Computer printers
  • Laser printers
  • Plotters
 Chromatographic measuring instruments and accessories
  • Liquid chromatographs LC
 Laboratory mixing and stirring and shaking equipment and supplies
  • Mechanical shakers
 Humidity and moisture measuring instruments
  • Moisture analyzers
 Gas analyzers and monitors
  • Permeation testers
 Computers
  • Personal computers
 Electrochemical measuring instruments and accessories
  • pH meters
 Pulling tools
  • Pull testers
 Liquid and gas flow measuring and observing instruments
  • Rheometers
 Length and thickness and distance measuring instruments
  • Spectroscopic ellipsometers
  • Strain gauges
 Laboratory heating and drying equipment
  • Thermal cyclers
  • Ultraviolet UV exposure units
 Chemical evaluation instruments and supplies
  • Thermogravimetric analyzers
 Disinfecting or presterilization cleaning equipment and solutions
  • Ultrasonic cleaners
 Binding and lamination machines
  • Vacuum laminators
 Cameras
  • Video cameras
 Crystallography equipment
  • X ray diffractometers
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Technology
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Technology
The technologies listed below include machines, equipment, tools, and software that is useful for individuals who are interested in this career.
 Industry specific software
  • ANSYS FLUENT
  • Autodesk AutoCADHOT
  • Autodesk AutoCAD LTHOT
  • Autodesk RevitHOT
  • Computer aided design and drafting CADD softwareHOT
  • Dassault Systemes SolidWorksHOT
  • Data acquisition software
  • Data visualization software
  • Energy-10
  • ETAP
  • Finite element method FEM software
  • HOMER Micropower Optimization Model
  • National Instruments Compact FieldPoint System
  • Optical Physics Technologies SUN_CHART
  • PV Optics
  • PVsyst
  • Regional Energy Deployment System ReEDS
  • RETScreen
  • Simple Model of the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer of Sunshine SMARTS
  • Simulation software
  • Solar Advisor Model
  • Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment SWERA
  • SOLAR-2
  • SolTrace
  • Supervisory control and data acquisition SCADA softwareHOT
  • The MathWorks MATLABHOT
  • Trimble SketchUp ProHOT
  • TurboCAD IMSIHOT
 Operating environment software
  • BashHOT
  • LinuxHOT
 Development software
  • C++HOT
  • Debugging software
  • JavaScriptHOT
  • Microsoft Visual BasicHOT
  • Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications VBAHOT
  • National Instruments LabVIEWHOT
  • PythonHOT
  • RHOT
  • Software development tools
 Data management and query software
  • Database software
  • Microsoft AccessHOT
  • Salesforce
  • Structured query language SQLHOT
 Information exchange software
  • Global positioning system GPS software
  • Microsoft OutlookHOT
 Content authoring and editing software
  • Microsoft ExcelHOT
  • Microsoft PowerPointHOT
  • Microsoft VisioHOT
  • Microsoft WordHOT
 Business function specific software
  • Microsoft OfficeHOT
  • Microsoft ProjectHOT
 Finance accounting and enterprise resource planning ERP software
  • Oracle HyperionHOT
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Certifications
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Certifications
The certifications listed below are useful to pursue if you are interested in a career in this field.
 Specialty
 Advanced
 Core
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Licensing
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Licensing
The licensing information below is organized into sections and is useful for pursuing if you are interested in a career in this field.
No specific licensing information is listed for this occupation in the area you have selected.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Related Programs
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Online Programs related to this career, offered by participating institution(s), are listed below.

Clicking on the Degree programs in the list below will take you away from the Careers page.
INSTITUTION
PROGRAMS
Central Virginia Community College
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J Sargeant Reynolds Community College
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Mountain Empire Community College
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New River Community College
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Piedmont Virginia Community College
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Rappahannock Community College
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Southwest Virginia Community College
 Programs
Wytheville Community College
 Programs