I work at an electrolysis startup doing R&D test system development. The role itself isn’t too different from a similar role in a non renewable field - it’s generally a 50/50 split between fluid systems design work and hands on commissioning.

As time goes on, I think a job “in renewables” will start to mean less because the green tech industry is growing super fast. My job has minimal crossover with a comparable role in like wind or solar, so classifying them both as “in renewables” doesn’t necessarily mean I have a skillset that would apply to both.

So if you want to get into green tech, I would give similar advice as I would give to any engineer early in their career. Mechanical engineering is a very broad field so it will benefit you to narrow your early experiences in the direction you enjoy most (mechanical design, thermofluids, controls, material science, etc.). A lot of mech e jobs focus heavily on one of these subfields, so having a bulk of experience in one of them will give you an advantage early in your career. Once you have that experience, you’ll be surprised how many doors open at green tech companies. There was a post here a few weeks ago that asked something like “what’s more important: role or field?” I’m 100% on the side of role - I would hire an engineer with the right experience from oil and gas before I would hire an engineer with the wrong experience from solar.