Energy Supply Student Internship: Renewable Energy

EPRI•Charlotte, NC

33d•Onsite

About The Position

EPRI was ranked the #4 internship program within the Energy & Renewables industry in 2025 according to Vault! EPRI’s Generation Sector focuses on a wide spectrum of research and development (R&D) across all thermal and renewables sources of power generation. The research supports EPRI’s mission of delivering independent, objective thought leadership and industry expertise to help the energy sector identify issues, technology gaps, and solutions for the benefit of society. Research may include materials science, water technologies, digitalization, cyber security, turbomachinery, wind, solar, or hydro power (renewables), energy storage (chemical, mechanical, and thermal), carbon capture and sequestration, hydrogen economies and technologies at-scale, environmental sciences, etc. Students working in the summer semester will typically work at the EPRI Charlotte location and, if onsite, take part in the summer internship program experience. The summer internship experience provides a technical mentor, training, and social and professional networking opportunities in addition to guided project-focused research work. This unique setting will provide students with rare, but essential practical insight to industry problems and issues and improve links to academic coursework. Other development and social activities in prior years have included: Lunch and learns with past interns, current EPRI employees Team building activities, for example a trip to the National Whitewater Center Tours of local power generation facilities EPRI lab tours Final presentations by summer student internship employees to their peers, mentors and other EPRI technical staff Students may be hired into one of many research programs in the Energy supply (Generation & Nuclear Sectors) to work over the timeframe of May to August. Students who demonstrate exemplary skillsets and learning over this ~12-week period may be asked to work part time after the summer period and/or be invited in subsequent years to extend their exposure to the Energy Sector. Candidates: EPRI is looking for talented science and engineering students wishing to gain experience in the power industry. Typical majors could include, but are not limited to the following: Engineering / Science - Mechanical, Electrical, Aerospace / Aeronautical, Materials, Environmental, Data Science, or similar fields

Requirements

Science / Engineering Graduate Student in final 1-2 years of MS or PhD degree track
Some studies or experience involving wind or solar energy
Familiarity with database schema and running data queries – SQL, python, PowerBI, etc.
Some lab/field work associated with wind turbines / solar photovoltaic systems such as inverters, PV modules, or other major mechanical or electrical components.
Group project work and desire to network (with peer student interns at EPRI)
Excellent written and oral communication skills.
Motivated to conduct independent research on assigned tasks, but with a want to interface with other peers and a technical mentor on a regular basis.

Responsibilities

Review and analyze wind and/or solar power plant condition monitoring, operational, or historic reliability data – data may be images / photos, time-series streaming / SCADA data, or from meteorological and other sensors
Work in a lab and field environment on wind/solar photovoltaic system such as inverters and PV modules.
Development of schema for automating translation processes for unstructured data
Visualize and present results in formats suitable for publication
Providing qualitative insights along with informative and quantitative results
Work with technical mentors to gain experience in addressing real-world challenges, drivers, and priorities that impact wind and/or solar power generation