Energy and labor: the transition is accelerating, but the real limit is skills

The energy transition is also having a concrete impact on the labor market.

The energy sector continues to grow in terms of employment, driven by the expansion of renewables , the electrification of buildings and the evolution of systems towards increasingly integrated solutions.

However, alongside this growth, a structural challenge emerges: the difficulty of finding professionals with adequate technical skills . This issue directly affects the HVAC industry, which today is called upon to operate within complex, digitalized, and performance-oriented energy systems.

Where jobs are growing and what skills are most in demand

Demand for employment in the energy sector is uneven, but is concentrated primarily in segments related to electricity generation from renewable sources, networks, energy efficiency, and intelligent building management.

Photovoltaics , in particular, continues to generate opportunities along the entire supply chain, from design to installation, up to the operational management of the systems.

At the same time, companies are reporting an increasing difficulty in finding professionals capable of meeting new technological demands. The most sought-after skills today are:

• design and installation of integrated HVAC-renewable systems;
• ability to work on electrified systems and high-efficiency heat pumps;
• use of energy regulation, automation and monitoring systems;
• reading and interpretation of the actual performance of the systems , also through digital data and tools.

This mismatch between supply and demand is not only quantitative, but qualitative: the market requires increasingly transversal technical figures, capable of combining plant, energy, and electronics skills.

The strategic role of HVAC in the employment challenge

For the HVAC sector, the topic of skills takes on strategic value.

Comfort technologies are no longer isolated systems, but central components of high-efficiency buildings, where air conditioning, energy production, storage and control must communicate coherently.

In the absence of adequate professionalism, the risk is that advanced solutions will be underutilized or installed in a suboptimal way, reducing the expected benefits in terms of efficiency and sustainability.

Employment growth in the energy sector can therefore only become a real opportunity if accompanied by a structural investment in technical training. The challenge lies not only in employment numbers, but also in the sector's ability to build solid skills that can sustain the quality of HVAC systems and the success of the energy transition over time.