Energy economics jobs

Energy Markets & Economics Jobs in Renewable Energy

Energy market and economics professionals analyse how power, gas, carbon, and certificate markets set prices, then forecast prices and revenues so that developers, investors, retailers, and governments can decide what to build and how to sell its output.

The questions became harder once wind and solar started setting prices themselves. In Germany, a solar plant earned an average market value of 4.508 ct/kWh in 2025, about half the 8.932 ct/kWh average spot price, and down from 2024 even though the average price rose. The cause is simultaneity: when every panel produces at noon, midday prices collapse, and each new solar farm lowers the value of the ones already built. Measuring that effect, which analysts call cannibalisation or capture price erosion, and forecasting where it goes next is now central to the job.

What the work involves

Market fundamentals analysts build models of supply and demand, hour by hour and often for decades ahead: fuel and carbon prices, plant retirements, interconnector flows, demand growth from heat pumps and data centres, and the build-out of renewables and batteries. Their output, price curves and capture rates, feeds almost every commercial decision in the sector. Specialist firms sell these forecasts as a product; utilities and large developers build them in-house.

Commercial analysts turn the forecasts into money. They value a wind farm's revenues under different routes to market, compare a fixed-price contract with merchant exposure, and set the price at which a developer will sign a power purchase agreement. Pricing teams at retailers use the same logic in reverse, setting the tariffs customers see. Short-term forecasting, from day-ahead to intraday, sits closer to energy trading, where the forecast becomes a position within hours.

Policy economists work on market design itself: how capacity mechanisms, contracts for difference (fixed-price support contracts), and network charges should be structured. They work at regulators, system operators, think tanks, and the market policy teams of large utilities, and senior market policy managers appear regularly in our listings.

Negative prices change the questions

The signal is not subtle. The Bundesnetzagentur recorded negative wholesale prices in 573 hours of 2025, up from 457 in 2024. Each negative hour forces a question an economist has to answer: should the plant curtail, can a battery absorb the surplus, and does the support scheme still pay? Much of the new modelling work sits there, in storage and flexibility.

Who is hiring

Utilities and generators lead our listings: Vattenfall, Ørsted, EDP Renewables, AGL Energy, Clearway Energy Group, and Invenergy hire market and commercial analysts. Aurora Energy Research, the Oxford-founded market modelling firm, recruits analysts across Europe, Australia, and the Americas. Octopus Energy hires for pricing and wholesale teams, and Targray and OTC FLOW for commodity and certificate markets. Berlin, London, Hamburg, Houston, and Amsterdam lead the locations.

Most employers want an economics, engineering, physics, or mathematics degree plus fluent Python or a comparable modelling tool. What moves candidates ahead is the ability to explain a model's result to a commercial team in two sentences, and knowing enough about energy modelling and simulation to see when a forecast is wrong before the market proves it.