Scatec dominates senior staff new hires

From the newsletter

The top ten companies in the African renewables space hired 26 new senior staff in the past month, according to LinkedIn data. Scatec accounted for 12 of these. ACWA Power, AMEA Power, JA Solar and Mulilo Energy each had three hires. Distributed Power Africa was the only company to experience a net loss, with a reduction of three senior staff members.

• The total senior staff count for the top ten companies reached 1,626 in June. The number of total sales staff remained constant.

• Scatec continues its dominance with new hires, having recruited 156 senior staff in the past year. This month, it advertised for more than 10 roles, mainly in South Africa, where it recently won a bid for a battery energy storage project.

More details

• Norway-based renewable energy company Scatec has a total of 481 senior staff in Africa, with 32% of these having been hired in the last year. The company has witnessed significant growth, leading the development of several projects across Africa. It is building the 1.1 GW solar plant in Egypt and yesterday signed a 900 MW Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for a wind project, also in Egypt.

• South Africa-based energy company Mulilo Energy hired 64 people in the last 12 months, coming second to Scatec. The company won four battery energy storage projects totalling 1,972 MWh for battery energy storage systems in South Africa. That's approximately 80% of the total capacity sought in the third bid window of the battery storage program. This month, it has advertised for more than 10 roles.

• ACWA Power emerged third in hiring with 19 new hires. It was followed by Chinese solar manufacturer JA Solar, which hired 16 senior staff over one year. The company partnered with South Africa's ARTSolar to locally manufacture solar panels, and this month rolled out the first batch of production, which will be supplied to the 216 MW Hydra project being developed by TotalEnergies.

• Another Chinese solar manufacturer, Jinko Solar, had 11 new hires. This month, the company won the bid to supply solar panels to the 80 MW Quilemba Solar project in Zambia.

Our take

• The renewables sector continues to attract significant funding in both confirmed investments and pledges. In May, approximately $17.7 billion was announced, though commitments represent a larger share of this total. Once disbursed, these funds are expected to lead to an increase in new hires.

• The nature of roles for new hires is also evolving, demanding fresh skill sets, particularly in battery energy storage systems. These roles are likely to increase in companies such as Scatec, Mulilo Energy, and AMEA Power, given their project pipelines.

• However, the rapid pace of project completions, with some finishing ahead of schedule, means certain roles will become redundant. Only skills required for post-construction phases will remain relevant, while those specific to construction will transition to new projects if they materialise. If new projects do not arise, this could unfortunately lead to staff reductions and a decrease in overall staff numbers.