Seeing the Light: How Laura Hastings Became a Wind Energy Workforce Champion

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Five years ago, Laura Hastings had a near-death experience.

Hastings was then working as a grant advisor for the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training. Having recently inherited a portfolio focused on environmentally sustainable economic growth, she attended an event focused on the offshore wind energy supply chain and then went to stay with a friend.

"I got up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water," recalled Hastings. "I slipped and fell down the stairs. I didn't realize it right that moment, but I broke multiple ribs in multiple places and my lung started to collapse."

The next day, at a visit to urgent care, doctors determined her injuries were severe enough that she needed to go to the emergency room. And when she got to the ER, the doctors started operating on her right in the waiting room.

"It was like a battlefield surgery," said Hastings. "I was seeing the light, as they say, and I kept thinking, 'If I survive this, what am I doing with my life? My kids are growing up, and I want to make sure they have a world to grow up in. Now is the time to choose my next path.'"

That path, Hastings decided, was to use her background to help build up the wind and renewable energy workforce.

After she recovered from her brush with death, she poured herself into this work and eventually landed the role of deputy program director of the Real Jobs Rhode Island program. A few years later, she moved from the government to the nonprofit sector, taking a job at the Business Network for Offshore Wind, where she climbed from director of programs and events to director of workforce development and health, safety, and environment. In early 2023, she landed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) leading workforce development efforts.

How to Close the U.S. Wind Energy Workforce Gap

Wind energy is now the largest source of renewable power in the United States, and the U.S. wind energy industry currently employs over 120,000 Americans. With the nation's goals of 100% clean electricity by 2035 and a net-zero economy by 2050, wind energy in the United States is expected to keep growing. To support this growth, the nation’s wind energy industry will need qualified workers to fill many different roles.

However, employers in the wind energy industry report that they struggle to find qualified applicants to fill open positions. At the same time, recent college graduates report that they struggle to find jobs in the wind energy industry. This phenomenon, known as the "wind energy workforce gap," highlights a need for a stronger school-to-wind-industry pipeline.

One way to build that pipeline is to raise students' awareness of the wide range of types of roles available in the wind energy industry.

"You can't be what you don't see," Hastings said. "That's why it’s so important to show young people that, first, wind energy is an industry that exists, and second, it's an industry with room for all kinds of talents. It's not just turbine engineers—though that's a vital role. You need supply chain analysts, lawyers, public relations specialists, and even office managers."

In addition to making students aware of all the different ways they can contribute to the wind energy industry, schools, companies, and partners like DOE need to work together to create opportunities for students to gain experience with wind energy.

"Students need exposure to the wind industry, and the industry needs people who have had exposure," Hastings said. "While schools need to make students aware that they can work in the wind industry, the industry needs to be loud about the qualifications workers need."

Such collaboration between schools and industry, Hastings asserts, will help schools design curriculums that develop those qualifications. Finally, governments can support both schools and industry by helping create and promote opportunities for students to gain the knowledge that companies need workers to have.

The U.S. Department of Energy Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC) is one such example of this type of opportunity. Launched in 2014, the annual competition helps prepare undergraduate college students for jobs in wind and renewable energy through real-world experience with wind energy technology, project development, and outreach.

"The CWC not only creates those opportunities for students to gain crucial exposure to wind energy; its multidisciplinary structure gives them exposure to the multifaceted nature of the industry," said Hastings, who presented the team awards at the competition's 2023 final event last May. "By engaging the diverse talents of the next generation of wind energy workers, the CWC helps create an equitable clean energy future for the nation."

How WETO Is Bridging the Wind Energy Workforce Gap

WETO works to close the wind energy workforce gap through programs and resources dedicated to fostering the next generation of wind energy professionals. In addition, WETO provides information on wind energy education and training programs throughout the United States on the DOE WINDExchange platform. Finally, WETO supports research on wind energy workforce trends and needs. To learn more, check out the following WETO-funded National Renewable Energy Laboratory studies:

• The Wind Energy Workforce in the United States: Training, Hiring, and Future Needs, which offers insight into the current size and composition of the nation’s wind energy workforce, as well as recommendations for preparing the future workforce to meet the U.S. wind industry’s continued growth
• Defining the Wind Energy Workforce Gap, which explores the reasons and offers recommendations for mending the disconnect between wind industry jobs, job seekers, and employers
• Defining Wind Energy Experience, which analyzes wind industry job requirement data to help readers better understand why job seekers experience difficulty finding relevant entry-level positions, as well as insights into company practices and wind energy industry career pathways
• The U.S. Offshore Wind Workforce Assessment, a first-of-its-kind study that examines future U.S. offshore wind workforce growth and identifies future workforce development needs.