Renewables
Renewable Energy Recruitment & Executive Search
Specialist retained search across renewable generation, project development, energy storage, PPAs, commercial origination and clean energy investment.
Renewable energy has moved well beyond the point where it can be treated as a niche corner of the power sector.
Utility-scale solar and wind now sit alongside major infrastructure platforms, institutional investors, utilities, developers and trading businesses. Battery storage has become a commercial discipline in its own right. PPAs and route-to-market structures have become increasingly sophisticated. Capital is being deployed across projects that can take years to develop and billions to build.
Imperium works across international energy markets on retained assignments spanning solar, onshore wind, offshore wind, battery energy storage, project development, PPAs, origination, asset management, investment and senior commercial leadership.
Our strongest exposure sits around the commercial side of those markets: senior traders and brokers, PPA origination, Guarantees of Origin (GoOs), renewable certificates, structured power, commercial origination and the development of new trading and origination platforms.
Our work can involve renewable developers, utilities, IPPs, infrastructure funds, private equity firms, trading houses, energy companies, asset managers and technology-led platforms.
Renewables also has a different talent dynamic to traditional commodities.
Many of the strongest people sit at the intersection of energy, infrastructure, finance, development and regulation, which means the right background is often shaped as much by project type and commercial model as by job title.
Understanding the Renewable Energy Market
Generation is only one part of the story.
A renewable asset has to be developed, permitted, financed, connected, contracted and operated before a single megawatt-hour reaches the grid.
That creates several distinct talent markets.
Solar Energy
Solar has become one of the fastest-growing areas of global power investment.
Commercial and development roles can span utility-scale solar, distributed generation, project origination, land acquisition, permitting, grid connection, EPC, PPAs and asset management.
Experience often differs sharply between early-stage development, construction and operational portfolios.
Onshore & Offshore Wind
Wind combines project development with highly specialised technical and commercial requirements.
Onshore wind can involve land, planning, grid and community engagement, while offshore wind adds another layer of complexity around seabed leasing, marine infrastructure, turbines, cables, ports and long-term project finance.
The talent pools overlap, but they are not identical.
Battery Energy Storage
BESS has quickly become one of the most commercially interesting parts of the energy system.
Storage projects can generate value through arbitrage, balancing, ancillary services, capacity markets and renewable integration, creating demand for people who understand both infrastructure and power-market economics.
Relevant backgrounds can span development, optimisation, trading, commercial strategy and investment.
Project Development & Origination
Before capital can be deployed, somebody has to create the opportunity.
Renewable developers work across site identification, land, permitting, grid access, environmental approvals, partnerships and project pipelines.
Strong developers often build deep regional networks because permitting and connection processes can vary dramatically from one market to another.
PPAs, Route-to-Market & Commercial Origination
Selling renewable power is increasingly sophisticated.
Developers and generators may use corporate PPAs, utility PPAs, merchant exposure, CfDs, hedging structures and hybrid arrangements to secure revenue and manage risk.
That has created a strong market for commercial people who understand both project economics and the buyers on the other side of the contract.
Renewable Trading, Certificates & Market Development
Renewable generation has created increasingly active commercial markets around the attributes attached to the power itself.
Roles can span renewable power trading, Guarantees of Origin (GoOs), Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), I-RECs, PPA trading, brokerage, structured products, origination and commercial platform development.
Some professionals operate inside established utilities and trading houses. Others are hired specifically to build new desks, products, customer books or regional market capability.
Renewable Energy Is Really Several Industries Growing at Once
Solar developers, offshore wind specialists, BESS optimisers and infrastructure investors may all sit under the renewable-energy banner.
Their day-to-day worlds can look completely different.
That breadth is one of the reasons the sector has become such an interesting search market: the hiring challenge is often less about finding “renewables experience” and more about understanding which part of the value chain actually matters for the role.
The Global Renewable Energy Market
Renewable generation is no longer being added at the margins of the power system. It now accounts for most new generating capacity built worldwide.
Global renewable power capacity reached 5.15 terawatts at the end of 2025, after another record year of development.
IRENA recorded 692 GW of net renewable capacity additions during the year, with solar and wind overwhelmingly responsible for the expansion. Renewables represented 85.6% of all new power-generating capacity added globally in 2025.
Renewable Capacity Added in 2025
| Technology | New Capacity |
|---|---|
| Solar | 511.2 GW |
| Wind | 158.7 GW |
| Hydropower | 18.4 GW |
| Bioenergy | 3.4 GW |
| Geothermal | 0.3 GW |
| Total Renewables | 692 GW |
Source: IRENA, Renewable Capacity Statistics 2026. Solar and wind together accounted for 96.8% of net renewable additions during 2025.
More Renewable Power Means More Commercial Complexity
Building generation is only half the story.
Hundreds of gigawatts of additional solar and wind create new questions around how power is sold, when it is produced, who carries the price risk and what the environmental attributes attached to that generation are worth.
Solar generation can flood a market during the middle of the day and disappear rapidly towards evening. Wind output can move dramatically with weather. High renewable penetration is already contributing to periods of very low or negative electricity prices in some markets, increasing the value of storage, optimisation, flexible generation and sophisticated route-to-market strategies. Ember
That puts growing commercial importance on PPAs, structured power, Guarantees of Origin, RECs and I-RECs, balancing, hedging and renewable origination.
It also creates opportunities for businesses to build entirely new desks and platforms around those markets.
The renewable build-out may be happening in steel, silicon and turbines. An increasing amount of the value is being decided at the trading desk.
85.6%
Of All New Power Capacity
More than five out of every six gigawatts of new generating capacity added worldwide in 2025 came from renewable sources.
33.8%
Of Global Electricity Generation
Renewables supplied more than a third of the world’s electricity in 2025 and, for the first time in the modern power system, generated more electricity globally than coal.
90%+
Are Cheaper Than New Fossil Generation
More than 90% of utility-scale renewable projects commissioned in 2025 produced electricity at a lower cost than the cheapest new fossil-fuel alternative available in their market.
Solar generation increased by 636 TWh in 2025, enough on its own to meet three-quarters of the increase in global electricity demand.
Major Renewable Energy Companies & Market Participants
The sector is increasingly defined by businesses that can build renewable assets and then commercialise the power, certificates and flexibility they produce.
Some of the most important players own vast generation portfolios. Others sit closer to the market, structuring PPAs, trading renewable power, managing GoOs and RECs, optimising storage or building new origination platforms.
That split is useful from a recruitment perspective because the talent often develops in very different environments.
Developers, Utilities & Renewable Generators
RWE
One of Europe’s largest renewable generators and developers, with major positions across offshore wind, onshore wind, solar and battery storage. Its scale also gives it a strong connection between physical generation and sophisticated energy trading.
Ørsted
A major global offshore wind developer, with deep experience across project development, power contracting, PPAs and the commercialisation of large renewable assets.
Iberdrola
One of the world’s largest renewable utilities, operating across wind, solar, hydro, networks and electricity supply. Its footprint spans Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific.
NextEra Energy
A major North American renewable power participant through its development and generation businesses, with substantial exposure to wind, solar and battery storage.
Trading, Origination & Commercial Platforms
Statkraft
Particularly relevant to the market Imperium recruits into. Statkraft is active across renewable power trading, PPAs, origination, market access and route-to-market services, alongside its large generation portfolio.
Axpo
A major European energy trader and one of the better examples of how renewable generation connects into structured power, PPAs, origination, certificates and cross-border energy trading.
ENGIE
Operates across renewable generation, energy trading and customer solutions, with significant activity in corporate PPAs, power origination, risk management and renewable energy supply.
Shell Energy / Shell Trading
The wider Shell energy platform connects renewable generation and power markets with trading, optimisation, structured products and corporate energy solutions, providing a useful example of traditional energy-market capability moving into renewables.
Source: Company annual reports, investor materials and official corporate information from RWE, Ørsted, Iberdrola, NextEra Energy, Statkraft, Axpo, ENGIE and Shell. Company activities and market descriptions reflect the latest publicly available information at time of publication.
Market context: Companies are included as examples of significant participants in global renewable energy markets. Inclusion does not imply a commercial relationship with or endorsement of Imperium Commodity Search.
Owning the Asset and Monetising It Are Different Skills
A renewable developer can be excellent at creating projects without having the trading capability to manage merchant exposure.
A utility may have both.
A specialist trading business might own very few generating assets but be extremely strong in PPAs, certificates, hedging and market access.
That is one of the most interesting things about renewable-energy recruitment: value is being created both in the field and on the desk.
Wind, sun and water have always moved the world. Now they move markets too.
Renewable Energy Talent Across Global Markets
Renewable energy is global, but the commercial markets developing around it look very different from one region to another.
The strongest talent pools tend to form where renewable build-out meets active power markets, corporate demand, certificate trading and sophisticated route-to-market structures.
For Imperium, that often means looking beyond where projects are being built and focusing on where the commercial decisions around those assets are made.
UK & Europe
London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo, Hamburg, Madrid, Geneva and major European power markets
Europe has one of the world’s deepest renewable commercial ecosystems.
High penetration of wind and solar, established wholesale power markets and increasingly sophisticated corporate procurement have created substantial demand for people across PPAs, GoOs, renewable power trading, origination, structured products, BESS optimisation and route-to-market.
The region also supports a particularly active brokerage and intermediary market around power and environmental attributes.
US & Canada
Houston, New York, Chicago, California, Texas and major North American power markets
North America combines enormous renewable development pipelines with highly regional power-market structures.
Commercial experience can span renewable power, corporate PPAs, RECs, project origination, storage, ERCOT, CAISO, PJM and other ISO/RTO markets, alongside the continued growth of merchant and hybrid renewable portfolios.
The market also produces strong talent in new desk build-out, origination platforms and structured customer solutions.
APAC & Emerging Renewable Hubs
Singapore, Australia, Japan, South Korea, India and developing Asian markets
APAC combines mature electricity markets with some of the fastest renewable investment growth in the world.
Australia has developed an active market around renewable PPAs, certificates, storage and merchant generation, while Singapore is an important regional base for energy trading, origination and environmental markets.
Japan, Korea and India add very different regulatory, corporate procurement and development dynamics.
The Best Talent Is Not Always Sitting Next to the Asset
A solar farm may be in Spain while its PPA is structured from London. A portfolio in Australia may be optimised by a trading team in Sydney or Melbourne. GoOs generated in one European market can be commercially managed somewhere else entirely.
For international search, the trading hub can matter just as much as the project location.
Who We Search for in Renewable Energy
Commercial talent across renewable power, PPAs, certificates, brokerage, origination and platform development.
The people Imperium typically encounters in renewables are usually sitting close to the market rather than the construction site.
They are pricing risk, structuring PPAs, trading environmental attributes, originating customers, building new desks or helping energy businesses turn renewable generation into a commercial proposition.
Renewable Power Trading & Brokerage
Trading teams sit at the intersection of generation, wholesale power and market risk.
Experience can include renewable power trading, short-term markets, structured power, balancing, cross-border markets, brokerage and merchant exposure.
Typical searches include:
Renewable Power Trader · Senior Power Trader · Power Broker · Renewable Trader · Structured Power Trader · Trading Manager · Head of Trading
PPAs & Commercial Origination
PPAs have become one of the most important commercial disciplines in renewables.
Roles can span corporate PPAs, utility PPAs, route-to-market, structured offtake, pricing, contract negotiation and customer origination.
Typical searches include:
PPA Trader · PPA Originator · Corporate PPA Originator · Senior Originator · Structured Energy Originator · Commercial Manager · Head of Origination
GoOs, RECs & Environmental Attributes
The environmental value attached to renewable generation has created specialist markets of its own.
Commercial teams can trade and broker Guarantees of Origin, Renewable Energy Certificates, I-RECs and other renewable attributes, often alongside physical power and corporate energy procurement.
Typical searches include:
GoO Trader · GoO Broker · REC Trader · I-REC Trader · Certificates Broker · Environmental Products Trader · Renewable Products Manager
Platform Development & Commercial Leadership
Some of the most interesting mandates are not replacements at all.
They involve businesses entering a new market, launching a trading desk, building an origination capability or expanding a renewable commercial platform into a new geography.
These searches often require people who can bring strategy, relationships, product knowledge and the credibility to build a business around them.
Typical searches include:
Head of Renewables · Head of Trading · Head of Origination · Commercial Director · Business Development Director · Platform Lead · Managing Director · Regional Head
Some of the Best Hires Build the Market Around Them
A senior trader can inherit a book.
A strong originator can inherit a client base.
But the people who can create a desk, open a geography or turn a new product into a functioning commercial business are rarer.
That is often where retained search becomes most valuable.
A Focused Approach to Renewable Energy Search
Renewable markets move quickly. The best people often move before the wider market catches up.
A successful search in renewables is rarely just about sector experience.
It might require a trader with the right power-market exposure, a PPA originator with genuine corporate relationships, a GoO specialist who understands both pricing and flow, or a senior commercial hire capable of building a new desk from scratch.
Imperium works on a retained basis and deliberately limits the number of clients we represent within any specialist market at one time.
That gives us the space to map the right utilities, trading houses, renewable platforms, brokers, developers, energy majors and specialist commercial teams properly, rather than treating renewable energy as one giant talent pool.
For Clients
If you are hiring across renewable power trading, PPAs, GoOs, RECs, I-RECs, brokerage, commercial origination, structured energy or platform development, we can shape the search around the market, geography and commercial relationships that actually matter.
For Professionals
We work selectively across renewable and wider energy markets rather than carrying large volumes of vacancies. If your background is in renewable trading, brokerage, PPAs, certificates, origination, structured power or commercial leadership, we are always open to a confidential conversation where there may be a strong fit with current or future retained work.
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