Since commencing work as services site manager at Coopers Gap Wind Farm in Queensland, Dr Liz Beavis’s career has scaled new heights, writes Gavin Dennett.
As Australia makes the transition to renewable energy, so does its workforce. With the current shortage of workers in the clean energy industry and thousands of future jobs to be filled, there has never been a better time to make a career switch to the booming sector.
For Dr Liz Beavis, a background in chemical engineering and a former vocation in coalfired power gave her a swag of transferable skills in her new career as services site manager at Coopers Gap Wind Farm in Boyneside, in rural southeast Queensland.
“I have come the long way around,” she tells EcoGeneration. “I studied chemical engineering in New Zealand and did some modules on energy and climate change.
“I did my PhD in Australia in coal gasification, but halfway through I realised it was rubbish. However, I wasn’t going to stop halfway through.
“Once I finished, in 2008, I got into consulting around national greenhouse and energy reporting. I ended up helping a lot of coalfired power stations set up their greenhouse and emissions reporting, and from that I got a job in efficiency at Tarong, Queensland’s largest coalfired power station.
“Then I worked for Origin Energy in the gas production space, before returning to Tarong as operations manager.”
When construction commenced on GE’s Coopers Gap Wind Farm in Dr Beavis’s local area, she saw a career opportunity beckon.
“It’s 50km from my house and I can see it as I drive down the highway,” she says.
“The job ad said they wanted someone with electrical engineering project management experience and although I didn’t match the criteria, I was a local manager keen on renewables and they took a chance on me.”
Coopers Gap Wind Farm is the largest of its kind in Queensland, meaning there are many components from Dr Beavis’s previous roles that are transferable to her current position.
“At a lot of other wind farms, it’s a matter of maintaining the turbines, but it’s a complex contract at Coopers Gap – we have the environmental portfolio, the civil, substation maintenance and the turbines,” she says.
“They liked that I had environmental experience and other things I could bring to the role.
“I have 10 technicians here, whereas all the other GE wind farms only have 30-40 turbines and three or four technicians so they needed someone with management expertise.”
Dr Beavis says her journey into clean energy should be a lesson to anyone aspiring to work in the industry.
“When I’m recruiting technicians, there’s hardly anyone who applies with 10 years’ experience in wind,” she says.
“I’m lucky if I get anyone with six months’ experience. Most people are new to the industry because it’s growing so fast and you have to take a chance on new people and figure out what skills are transferable.
“It’s a jobseekers’ market.”
To work at Coopers Gap Wind Farm, you need to be comfortable working in remote locations and at heights.
“The logistics of driving around [onsite] reminds me of the gas field work I did with Origin Energy, with challenging logistics and how you plan teams,” says Dr Beavis.
“We are a very big and complicated map, and it can take an hour of driving just to get to a turbine, which affects logistics of how to get the team out there.
“We have 20km of tracks, you’re driving at 40km/h and have to stop for lots of gates so I’m drawing on oil, gas and other industries to understand how we can plan things better.
“This job suits people who like working outside and aren’t afraid of heights.
“I tell people in job interviews they have to be able to work at the top of the turbines. But I’ve had new starters get up there and be scared, which leaves me thinking, ‘What are you doing here?’ (laughs).
“But others love it and take to it naturally.”