Solar Design Summer Associate (Intern)

Company Description

Apex Clean Energy was founded with a singular focus: to accelerate the shift to clean energy. Through origination, construction, and operation of utility-scale wind, solar, and storage facilities, distributed energy resources, and green fuel technologies, Apex is expanding the renewable frontier across North America. Our mission-driven team of almost 400 professionals uses a data-focused approach and an unrivaled portfolio of projects to create solutions for the world’s most innovative and forward-thinking customers. For more information about how Apex is building the energy company of the future, visit apexcleanenergy.com.

Apex strives to excel in every phase of project realization, from origination and financing to construction and asset management. Our mission-driven team seeks determined, resolute individuals who strive to innovate and go above the call of duty, and who will relentlessly do their part to help accelerate the shift to America’s clean energy future. 

Job Description

Apex is seeking an analytically oriented Solar Design Summer Associate to play a critical role in developing our early-stage through late-stage solar projects. This position overlaps across two departments and reports to the Director of Solar Design and Director of Solar Technology. The Solar Design Summer Associate is responsible for analyzing high quality solar meteorological data, preparing energy analyses, early-stage design optimization, energy loss calculations, and providing general guidance through development, financing, construction, and operation of our solar projects. The position interacts with multiple departments to ensure relevant data and analysis drives decision making and will be exposed to all aspects of the solar asset management life cycle. The candidate for this position should be adaptable and capable of collaborating with an energetic team of professionals and should be familiar with basic principles of solar energy assessment. The ideal candidate will also have a programming background in Python or R.

The Solar Design Summer Associate position requires equally excellent communication and technical skills as well as the ability to work well under pressure, multitask, and have the flexibility to shift priorities on the go. A passion for renewable energy is essential to the success of this role.

Responsibilities:

• Solar photovoltaic energy assessment, preliminary plant design, and optimization to support the technical needs of projects in development, financing, construction, and operation.
• Secure, assimilate, and synthesize high quality data to conduct accurate resource and energy assessments and project designs.
• Manage and create spatial data in geographic information systems to support assessment, design, and optimization of projects.
• Design and optimize solar plants in the pre-construction phase of project development.
• Perform technical due diligence and qualification for supplier-provided module data including PAN files.
• Model utility and distributed-scale solar energy plant models in PVSyst and other software to produce energy predictions and associated energy deliverables such as PVsyst reports, 8760’s, 12x24 matrixes.
• Analyze and apply losses and uncertainty estimates for plant production estimates.
• Coordinate and evaluate consultants and independent engineers on 3rd party assessments as needed and to support financing or diligence from counterparties.
• Develop comprehensive layouts in AutoCAD, Civil 3D, or other CAD software that provide spatial guidance and configurations for our electrical, civil, project management, and finance teams.
• Support Asset Management in analysis and understanding of operating solar plant performance relative to pre-construction energy estimates.
• Develop automation programs in Python or R to assist with energy assessment, degradation, and design calculations

Qualifications

• Expected graduation date in December 2024 or May 2025.
• Bachelor's degree or higher (Master’s degree preferred) in Electrical Engineering, Atmospheric Science, Engineering, Statistics, Physics, Environmental Resource Engineering or the equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Software requirements: PVsyst, CAD, SAM, and Microsoft Office. Positive consideration given for candidates with experience in PlantPredict, pvlib, Visual Basic, Python, R, or other programming languages.
• Demonstrated ability to think creatively to solve scientific and technical problems is required.
• Demonstrated ability to work across cultures, business units, and with external parties.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Professional appearance and manner.
• High attention to detail.
• Expected graduation date in December 2024 or May 2025

Additional Information

• The summer associate program will run from June 3 through August 9 but we can be flexible with the start and end dates
• Hours: Full Time 
• Type: Non-Exempt
• Paid Internship: Undergraduate, $17/Hour; Graduate, $27/Hour
• Office Location: Our Charlottesville, VA headquarters or Remote

Apex Clean Energy, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer that recruits and hires qualified candidates without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, disability, or veteran status.