New energy, new hazards: why generalist HSE needs to upskill for renewable settings

Australia's clean energy workforce has grown by 120% over the last decade, yet according to ARENA and Accenture's Skilling Australian Industry for the Energy Transition report, 85,000 workers will be needed in renewables by 2030 – with more than half of those roles in occupations already facing critical shortages. The boom has quietly outpaced the traditional HSE talent pool and the gap between the complexity of new energy infrastructure and the professionals hired to keep it safe is widening.

To ensure operational safety, renewable businesses need a new generation of contemporised HSE professionals – and a recruitment partner who knows exactly how to find them.

Transitioning to green energy doesn't just change a site's output – it fundamentally rewrites the risk profile. For example, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) carry the threat of thermal runaway – a self-sustaining, cascading chemical reaction that conventional fire suppression cannot extinguish.

The scale of this risk is already making headlines. A fire at the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California (then the world's largest battery storage plant) in January 2025 destroyed 300 megawatts of energy storage, forced 1,200 residents to evacuate and resulted in a US$900 million insurance claim. In Australia, lithium-ion batteries were responsible for more than 1,000 fires in a single year – more than three per day!

But the risk profile extends far beyond land-based storage. We are seeing a major influx of projects requiring highly technical safety expertise for underwater cable systems transferring renewable power across regions. Simultaneously, there is a surging demand for specialised Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) managers to oversee power plants dedicated exclusively to the storage of renewably-generated power, as well as safety advisors embedded within Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to oversee the highly regulated process of manufacturing these utility-scale batteries.

Australia's evolving regulatory environment is only intensifying these safety challenges.  Jobs and Skills Australia identifies 38 occupations critical to the clean energy transition, yet the regulatory frameworks governing many of them are still catching up to the technology. In practice, this means a HSE lead on a grid-scale renewable energy project is doing far more than applying an existing safety playbook. In many cases they are helping to define it in real time – developing new risk controls, shaping procedures and adapting to new hazards as they emerge.

Safety is not an area that should ever involve compromise. Ensuring that you have the right people with relevant experience is critical. A safety professional who has only worked in standard commercial construction may be an expert in falls from heights, but if that person was placed in charge of a subsea cable deployment or a high-voltage OEM battery manufacturing plant, they would be operating outside their depth. 

The energy transition has created a hybrid professional who sits at the intersection of engineering, compliance and ESG accountability.

The most effective HSE leaders in this space possess a combination of three distinct capabilities:

• Foundational safety discipline: Compliance rigour, incident response experience and site leadership that no technical credential can replace.
• Process engineering literacy: A genuine understanding of the chemical volatilities of BESS networks, manufacturing protocols for battery OEMs, or the marine risks inherent to subsea power transfers.
• Adaptive governance: The ability to architect safety frameworks for technologies that don't yet have 50 years of regulatory history behind them.

Beyond credentials, the most important differentiator in this market isn't years of experience – it's the velocity of learning. Australia alone needs an additional 42,000 qualified energy trade workers by 2030, and an estimated 194,000 people will require upskilling across solar, wind and storage sectors. In a sector evolving this fast, the professional who has already pivoted from traditional combustibles to new energy risk management is worth far more than one with two additional decades in a static environment.

Australia’s utilities sector alone has seen demand for HSE professionals grow by 311% over the past decade, yet the most sought-after safety specialists in renewables aren’t actively searching job boards – they’re already embedded in critical projects and meaningful long-term roles, delivering results.

Engaging with the right recruitment partner is critical – getting it wrong can cost businesses financially, jeopardise their licence to operate, and in the most serious cases, put lives at risk. If your recruitment partner cannot explain the unique regulatory differences between state jurisdictions in Australia, or the specific safety hazards of an offshore cable transfer versus an onshore substation, they are unlikely to accurately assess the safety leadership required for a complex renewable energy project. You need a specialist recruiter who understands the difference between a compliance-focused safety coordinator and a true safety culture change agent – someone capable of identifying leaders who are able to navigate emerging technologies, evolving regulations and high-risk operational environments.

Recruiters filling these roles also need to have established talent pools and speak the language of the industry – or risk losing credibility, trust and ultimately the candidate themselves. 

The gap between traditional and new energy HSE profiles is not a question of seniority. It is a question of discipline alignment.

Businesses entering or scaling in the renewables sector need to treat the hiring of their HSE lead as a strategic decision, not an administrative one. The profile has changed. The sourcing strategy must change with it.

In the race to net-zero, the most valuable asset on a renewable energy site isn't the technology – it's the person responsible for keeping it safe. A poor HSE hire in new energy is a financial risk and a threat to an organisation's operating licence, community relationships and project viability. Australia’s goal to generate 82% of electricity from renewable sources by 2030, using $427 billion in committed capital expenditure means serious scrutiny is required. Underestimating or failing to address the growing HSE talent gap could have significant consequences.

Highly skilled HSE professionals with the expertise to keep renewable energy projects operating safely and efficiently are in high demand. The question for organisations is whether their recruitment partner has the networks, technical understanding and industry credibility to identify, assess and secure them before competitors do.

If you are ready to find your next HSE leader, partner with a team who speaks the language of new energy. Connect with Brunel's energy specialists today.