Project Management in Photovoltaics: Fast Track Your Project Management Career

The renewables sector, and the PV industry in particular, have experienced an incredible boom over the past several years, especially thanks to the environmental concerns of public opinion, government support, subsidies-centered policies, and the subsequent attention of banks, funds, and investors, and it is still growing worldwide (Solar Energy Report, 2013; PV Status Report, 2012). From Europe to the United States, from China to India, from Japan to South Africa, the newborn PV industry has required the involvement of an experienced workforce of professionals, coming from several consolidated industries (civil construction, electrical engineering, real estate, finance), with the challenge of a dynamic working approach and a specific new balance of constraints, which is unusual in parallel sectors. Project managers have also had to put in place a peculiar mix of skills to be a successful focal point in this new industry.

CONTEXT

The feed-in-tariffs (FITs) and other incentives/subsidies schemes have been delivered worldwide, with terms and conditions that vary from country to country, to financiallyincentive the production of electricity by renewable sources, such as photovoltaic. The incentives are a way to help accelerate the investments on a not yet mature technology until it reaches the due economy of scale to compete with other sources of electricity (…