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Energy Technician

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Are you intrigued by where our energy comes from? Do you love tinkering to make sure contraptions work well? If you have a technical mind and want to put your skills towards a service that almost everyone in the UK benefits from, working as a technician in the energy sector could be perfect for you.

If you're interested in what technicians are, and what the role might entail, keep reading! You can also explore which energy and infrastructure and engineering sector jobs are available right now. 

Types of energy technician

Since the energy industry is so varied, there are many types of energy that you can specialise in when working as a technician. All technicians, regardless of the type of energy they work with, are responsible for assembling the hardware that makes the energy, and maintaining it and troubleshooting if any problems arise in the future. Here are some of the primary types of technician in the energy sector:

  • Solar energy technician
  • Wind energy technician
  • Geothermal energy technician
  • Tidal energy technician
  • Oil rig technician

What do energy technicians do?

As an energy technician, you’re responsible for the setup and maintenance of energy-producing hardware. Here is a typical technician job description:

  • Learn about the requirements that a client has for the energy and recommend energy-producing hardware that is necessary for the job
  • Go to the site and assemble the hardware for the client, following guidelines to make sure the hardware is set up properly without any risk to your own safety or the safety of clients if it were to become unstable
  • Attend sites and repair hardware
  • Check how safe the systems are and whether any improvements can be made
  • Write maintenance reports on what you changed, why you changed it and whether any further action is required

Energy technician career path

The career paths for technicians in the energy sector are relatively similar but will vary according to the type of energy you’re working with. Here is the standard career path for an energy technician:

Entry level

Many technician careers begin with an installer role. This applies to solar, wind and geothermal energy. In this entry-level position, you’re responsible for installation of the hardware, usually working with a colleague or under some supervision. Some companies offer the title ‘technician’ or ‘assistant’ rather than ‘installer’ for entry-level positions, so be careful to read the job description carefully before applying to a job to make sure you know the particulars.

When working as an oil rig technician, or offshore maintenance technician, you live offshore for several months at a time. Your work includes installing new equipment and testing it to make sure it works well with the existing technology. You write reports on the work you’re doing to keep yourself accountable and use your diligence to prevent problems from occurring in the future.

Career progression

The next step for many energy technician jobs is working as a service technician. For solar and wind energy, this is often separated into residential and commercial work. If you work in the residential department, you deal with the installation and maintenance of systems in domestic houses. If you work in the commercial department, you deal with larger-scale installation, working with businesses and other organisations to set up their solar panels. Due to the greater energy requirement, commercial work often requires many more pieces of hardware to be installed, so you might work with, or even manage, a larger team. 

Future career

What are technicians’ options if they want to progress in their industry? One idea is to become a fleet manager. In terms of solar or wind power, a ‘fleet’ refers to the many solar panels or wind turbines that a company utilises for energy. In this role, you’d be the energy representative for a company, monitoring the output and requesting maintenance when needed.

When working on an oil rig, if you decide that you’d like to move away from the technical side and more towards working with people, you can become an offshore installation manager. It’s your job to make sure that the work on an oil rig goes smoothly without any problems. This might mean speaking to your colleagues and making sure they’re happy with their work and trying to make changes to accommodate them if they’re not. You organise the activities and make sure everything aligns with safety procedures. 

Energy technician salaries

  • Entry-level solar technicians earn from £31,500 per year, whereas wind turbine technicians earn around £30,000 per year
  • Mid-level solar, wind turbine and oil rig technicians can earn up to £40,000 per year
  • Senior jobs in the industry, primarily management positions, often offer higher salary levels. If you want to work as an offshore installation manager, you could earn anywhere between £60,000 and £85,000 per year, rising to £120,000 for those with more than ten years’ experience.

Qualifications and training 

Having the right skills and education gives you a headstart in working in your dream technician job. Here is the education and training that you need for a technician’s job:

Education

Most technician work doesn’t require a degree. You can get all the relevant skills and experience from other forms of education. However, having a degree in Engineering could give you the option of considering higher-paid technicial job profiles later on in your career.

One great option for working as an energy technician is an apprenticeship. Apprenticeships allow you to work with industry experts, learning about what technicians are and how to do the job, often while earning a moderate salary.

Another option is having a college diploma in technician work. Unlike with apprenticeships, you don’t earn a wage when doing a diploma. You also don’t have the opportunity to network and make connections within the sector. Getting a diploma gives you the opportunity to combine theoretical knowledge with practical experience.

Alongside training through an apprenticeship, degree or diploma, you need safety and emergency training to work on an oil rig to make sure you understand safety procedures and how to make sure there is no additional risk.

Energy technician skills

Alongside education, you need the right skills to work well as a technician. Here are the skills you need to succeed:

Hard skills

  • Maintenance skills. A basic requirement of all technician jobs is being able to maintain the hardware. This means understanding how the energy system works, what could possibly go wrong with it and how to fix it. You need to be able to fully assemble the hardware and troubleshoot it to find out what has gone wrong.

Soft skills

  • Resilience. You need to be resilient to work as a technician. Some of your work will be completed outside under all conditions. This is particularly relevant to tidal energy and oil rigs. Being able to live and work on an oil rig requires skills of its own, and making sure you’re happy with the lifestyle before you go and live on a rig will help you decide if it’s the right job for you.
  • Critical thinking and problem solving. To figure out what’s wrong with hardware when you’re doing maintenance checks, you need to have good critical thinking skills and be great at solving problems.
  • Teamwork. There may be many components to large energy production plants like geothermal, tidal and oil. Working collaboratively with your team helps you all complete the job efficiently. You should know the individual job that you have to do and how it fits in with the wider operation. 

Pros and cons of being an energy technician

From what you’ve just read, you might decide that working as a technician in the energy sector is the perfect job for you. However, there are certain positive and negative factors that you should consider before committing to the career.

Pros

  • Many technician jobs include some travel when going to potential construction sites where you build or maintain the equipment. Travelling can be a fun part of the job that shows you different parts of the country.
  • You don’t need high-level education to do the job, and you can do it very well without a degree
  • If you work with renewable energy, you are contributing to the sustainability of industries and the country as a whole

Cons

  • There may be travel involved in working as a technician. This can become frustrating if you’re travelling for multiple days and can make work less enjoyable and family life harder to manage.
  • Oil rig technicians often live offshore for several months at a time, which can be a very tricky environment to live in
  • If you decide to work as an oil rig technician, your work may have a limited lifespan due to the transition to sustainable sources of energy

Energy technician work–life balance

The work–life balance of your job depends on the type of energy you work with. For solar panel and wind turbine engineers, your work is usually during typical working hours of 9am to 5pm on Monday to Friday. You may work longer hours than these if you’re on a big project with many turbines or panels to be installed or maintained. This is primarily done on site.

Oil rig technicians work mostly standard office hours, but all their work is on an oil rig. This makes the working environment very different to that of other technicians, because you work where you live.

Typical employers hiring technicians

Finding the right employer for you helps you increase your job satisfaction and increase your productivity. Here are some of the companies that you could work for as a technician:

You can learn more about the top companies in the energy sector.

Related jobs to energy technician

More information

Do you like the energy sector but you’re not sure about the technician role? Learn about the types of roles available in energy and infrastructure. If sustainability is important to you, learn about the roles in renewable energy.

This article was last updated in January 2025.

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