What the Solar Skills Gap Means for Project Quality

Insights from Mark Wakeford, Chairman of EvoEnergy, who has chaired the skills group for the UK Solar Roadmap and the Solar Energy UK skills group.

 

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TL;DR

 

The solar skills gap is better described as a competency gap. Competency is the combination of knowledge, skills, experience and behaviours, and skills alone account for only a quarter of it.

 

The gap looks manageable today because UK solar deployment is relatively quiet. It will stretch sharply the moment activity picks up, because companies are not currently confident enough to recruit and train ahead of demand.

 

The UK Solar Roadmap points to around 35,000 jobs in the solar sector by 2030, roughly double the current workforce. The sharpest pressure point is experience, not qualifications, because no training programme yet replicates time on site.

 

For businesses buying solar, this matters because appointing a competent contractor is a statutory duty under the CDM Regulations 2015 and the Building Safety Act 2022, not a procurement preference.

 

How serious is the UK solar skills gap?

 

The gap is currently modest because the industry is running below capacity, but it will widen rapidly as deployment accelerates. Mark Wakeford is direct about the underlying problem: the industry is not doing much to fill it.

 

The UK Solar Roadmap, published by the Solar Taskforce, projects the sector supporting around 35,000 direct and indirect jobs in Great Britain by 2030, close to double today’s workforce. Mark puts the additional recruitment requirement at roughly 19,000 people, before accounting for hiring that has taken place since the forecast was made.

 

The dynamic behind the number matters more than the number itself. The count of companies able to do the work barely changes with market conditions. What changes is how thinly each company’s competent people are spread. A busy contractor stretches its experienced staff across more sites.

 

When a business is confident about its pipeline, it recruits and trains to close that gap. When confidence is low, as it is across much of the sector now, that investment stops. The result is a workforce that is adequate for a quiet market and structurally unprepared for a busy one.

 

Why is “competency gap” a more accurate term than “skills gap”?

 

Because competency is the sum of knowledge, skills, experience and behaviours, and using skills as shorthand for the whole thing understates what a solar project actually requires.

 

This is not semantics. The Building Safety Act 2022 defines a competence requirement in almost exactly these terms: the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours of an individual, plus the capability of an organisation to perform its functions.

 

 

Solar has an additional complication. The sector has very few qualifications that certify an individual can do solar work, so the industry has to rely on demonstrating competency rather than pointing to a certificate.

 

Businesses then assemble teams from individuals with different competency profiles. A genuinely competent team can be built from people who are individually strong in different quarters of that definition. That only works if the employer understands what each role actually requires.

 

Where are the biggest pressure points in the solar workforce?

 

Experience is the sharpest shortage, because no current training programme can manufacture it. Knowledge can be taught and skills can be trained, but experience has to be accumulated on live projects. The shortage runs across all three delivery environments:

 

 

It also runs across all three project phases: design, delivery, and operations and maintenance.

 

O&M deserves particular attention. Maintenance teams are small, and the engineer sent to site is often working alone. That individual needs the full competency set, including the experience and behaviours required to diagnose a fault that does not match the textbook. There is nobody on site to check their thinking. If you are considering long-term asset support, our aftercare and optimisation services are staffed accordingly.

 

How does the skills gap affect project quality?

 

Weak competency shows up as quality failure, programme slippage and cost escalation, and quality failure is the one that persists. Poor workmanship on a solar asset produces problems that surface over years, not weeks.

 

Mark’s illustration is intentionally basic. Put a team on a roof that does not properly understand panel orientation and connection, and you immediately have three problems.

 

 

The panels may not be correctly collected or wired. The installation quality drops. And the supervision cost required to correct it rises sharply, eroding the margin that made the project viable.

 

Electrical standards are where the long-term consequences live. Without work delivered to recognised electrical standards, and without materials manufactured to known standards, there is no basis for confidence in long-term performance.

 

The failure modes are specific: shorting, faulting and arcing. These are the mechanisms behind the fire incidents that have affected UK solar installations, and they are overwhelmingly installation and workmanship issues rather than technology failures. For an asset expected to generate for 35 years or more, competency and standards are the only route to reliable long-term performance.

 

Which skills matter most as solar projects get larger?

 

As projects scale, the critical skills shift from technical delivery to large-project management, process design and governance. This is counterintuitive, and Mark flags it as the answer people least expect.

 

 

A large project is not several small projects added together. It is an order of magnitude more sophisticated, and it demands a correspondingly broader base of experience. Three capabilities become decisive:

 

1. Breadth of technical awareness. Larger sites present a far wider range of things that need checking, across structures, electrical infrastructure, grid interface and site logistics.
2. People management at scale. Coordinating a large workforce across a site is a distinct discipline from supervising a small crew.
3. Process creation and governance. Larger projects carry more gateways, more checks and more balances, and someone has to invent, implement and manage them.

 

The purpose of that governance is to catch problems while they are still cheap. As Mark puts it, if a crew member stopped turning up six weeks ago, that is a problem the moment it happens, not a fact you discover during a post-project review of why handover was late. Quality has to be checked as you go, not at the end. That is a process capability, and it is in short supply.

 

What should clients look for in a contractor?

 

Look for evidenced experience, verifiable track record, client testimonials, a structure that retains technical capability, and individual accountability. Clients appoint contractors precisely because they are not the experts, which makes the assessment harder. Mark highlights a revealing inconsistency. Most organisations operate strict roof access policies, often requiring a permit or prohibiting access entirely.

 

Yet when a solar contractor arrives, the same organisation frequently waves them onto the roof with none of the checks it would apply to its own staff. That instinct to defer is understandable. It is also where risk enters.

 

Accessibility and accountability

 

Look for people who are both accessible and accountable. Scale is useful, but only if the organisation remains reachable at every level.

 

The test Mark applies is whether the people you are talking to are personally accountable for the decisions and recommendations they make. Finding that accountability is a strong early indicator that you have the right partner.

 

If you feel out of your depth technically, independent consultants can support you through the process. EvoEnergy also provides consultancy services covering feasibility, technical advisory and project development.

 

This is a statutory duty, not a preference

 

Appointing a competent contractor is a legal obligation. Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and the Building Safety Act 2022, clients must take reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that appointees are competent to plan, manage and monitor the work.

 

Part 2A of the Building Regulations, in force since 1 October 2023, extends duties covering competence and behaviour to all clients, designers and contractors on regulated building work. Solar installation on a commercial building is regulated building work. The duty applies.

 

What does the industry need to do next?

 

Mark has spent close to four years chairing skills groups, first for the Solar Roadmap and then for Solar Energy UK. His opening observation is stark: he has yet to meet anyone who believes the existing training infrastructure serving the solar sector is fit for purpose.

 

Government is aware of the problem. It has not solved it, most likely because a generational review of training takes longer than a parliamentary term. Six priorities follow from that starting point.

 

1. Make the sector genuinely attractive to new recruits

 

Solar competes for talent with aerospace, manufacturing, defence and every other technical sector, drawing from the same limited annual cohort. The industry needs better case studies and far better visibility of what a solar career actually looks like.

 

Practical actions include work experience placements, engagement with schools and colleges, and coordinated career fairs. That reach should extend to the Department for Work and Pensions, covering people retraining into the sector, which Mark identifies as a consistently neglected route. EvoEnergy lists current openings on our careers page.

 

2. Align with FE colleges rather than universities

 

Further education colleges are where the industry can actually influence outcomes. Every university is independent, which makes it impractical for a trade body to shape curriculum at sector scale.

 

FE colleges hold collective responsibility for delivering nationally recognised apprenticeships and training courses. That makes them the higher-leverage relationship.

 

Mark expects this to become the next battleground, as employers recognise they can influence FE outputs and recruit people who are not carrying significant student debt. His recommendation to any solar business is specific: find your local FE college, assess whether it serves your needs, and if not, find the nearest one that does. Then offer support, whether that is interview practice, industry talks, work experience, or engagement with T Level qualifications.

 

3. Define competencies role by role

 

Agreed competency definitions are the foundation everything else is built on. Define what a domestic PV designer does, what a commercial and industrial PV designer does, and what a solar farm project manager does.

 

Job descriptions flow from those competencies. Qualifications then follow, because training providers can finally see what they are training toward.

 

Just as importantly, agreed competencies produce a visible career structure. Young people entering the industry, and people moving across from other sectors, have a reasonable expectation of knowing what path they are joining.

 

4. Support the emerging competency platform

 

A sector competency platform is close to becoming available, and industry backing will determine whether it works.

 

For employers, it provides a mechanism to demonstrate that the people they employ are competent. For employees, it shows where they currently sit on a career path and what is required to progress or to maintain their level.

 

5. Invest in training to reduce client risk

 

Business success depends on staff competence, and in a rapidly changing sector, investment in staff is rarely wasted.

 

Training can be structured or unstructured. What matters is that responsibility for it is shared between employers and individuals, because individuals often have the clearest view of where they will be most effective in the role they will hold tomorrow. The commercial framing is straightforward: better-trained staff reduce the risk of failing your customers.

 

6. Take continuing professional development seriously

 

CPD is what keeps a professional relevant. Professional bodies have structured arrangements for this, and businesses should ensure everyone is developing, whether or not they belong to a body.

 

Mark’s closing point is that this is personal as well as corporate. Lifelong learning is the condition of staying relevant in any sector.

 

What does this mean for businesses buying solar?

 

The competency gap is an industry problem, but it becomes your problem at the point of appointment. Three practical steps follow.

 

Ask about competency, not just accreditation. Request evidence of experience on comparable projects, in the same environment and at the same scale.

 

Ask who is actually on site. Understand which work is delivered in-house and which is subcontracted, and what oversight exists over subcontracted crews.

 

Ask about the long tail. O&M engineers work alone. Ask how the contractor ensures those individuals carry the full competency set.

 

Talk to a team that invests in competency

 

The solar skills gap is not an abstract workforce statistic. It shows up on your roof, in your commissioning documentation, and in your generation figures a decade from now.

 

EvoEnergy has delivered renewable energy projects since 2007, with over 10,000 completed projects and more than 3,500 assets under management, supported by in-house teams across consultancy, installation, aftercare and optimisation. The company holds ISO 14001 accreditation and is a member of Solar Energy UK.

 

If you want to understand how competency is maintained across the team that would deliver your project, make an enquiry. You can also review our case studies or explore the Education Centre for further guidance.

 

Frequently asked questions

 

What is the solar skills gap? 

It is the shortfall between the workforce the UK solar sector currently has and the workforce it needs to deliver planned deployment. The UK Solar Roadmap points to around 35,000 jobs by 2030, roughly double the present workforce.

 

Why do industry experts prefer the term competency gap? 

Because competency comprises knowledge, skills, experience and behaviours. Skills alone are one component, so describing the problem as a skills gap understates what solar delivery requires and what regulation now demands.

 

How does the solar skills gap affect installation quality?

Insufficient competency produces workmanship faults that surface over years, including electrical faulting, arcing and reduced output. It also raises supervision costs during delivery and extends programmes.

 

Is a client legally required to appoint a competent solar contractor? 

Yes. Under the CDM Regulations 2015 and the Building Safety Act 2022, clients must take reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that the contractors and designers they appoint are competent to carry out the work.

 

What experience should I ask a solar contractor to evidence? 

Comparable projects in the same environment, whether rooftop, ground mount or carport, at a similar scale, plus evidence of how technical capability is retained within the organisation and who is accountable for technical decisions.

 

Which solar roles are hardest to recruit for? 

Roles requiring accumulated site experience, particularly large-project management, design judgement, and operations and maintenance engineering, where individuals frequently work alone and must diagnose faults without support.