The latest Renewable Energy and Jobs –
Annual Review 2017 report from the International Renewable Energy Agency
(IRENA), released at IRENA’s 13th Council meeting in Abu
Dhabi today, has revealed that a total of 9.8 million people worldwide
currently work in renewable energy.
By sector, solar PV is the
largest employer, boasting 3.1 million jobs globally, with IRENA’s
director-general Adnan Z. Amin revealing that the solar and wind
employment sectors have more than doubled over the past four years.
"Falling
costs and enabling policies have steadily driven up investment and
employment in renewable energy worldwide since IRENA’s first annual
assessment in 2012, when just over seven million people were working in
the sector,” said Amin.
The global employment figure with large
hydropower excluded is 8.3 million jobs, but with this sector added the
total climbs to almost 10 million. China, unsurprisingly, supports the
most renewable jobs with 3.64 million people working in the sector in
2016 – a 3.4% year-on-year increase.
In solar, the U.S., India and China lead the way for employment opportunities, with jobs in the U.S. increasing 17 times
faster than the national average. In the past 12 months, the U.S. added
260,000 new solar jobs – a 24.5% increase.
Asia
accounts for 62% of all renewable energy jobs globally, the report also
found. The continent is diversifying, too, with southeast Asian
manufacturing hubs in countries such as Malaysia and Thailand
increasingly becoming the global centers for solar PV fabrication.
"Renewables
are directly supporting broader socio-economic objectives, with
employment creation increasingly recognized as a central component in
the global energy transition,” Amin added. "As the scales continue to
tip in favor of renewables, we expect that the number of people working
in these sectors could reach 24 million by 2030, more than offsetting
fossil-fuel job losses and becoming a major economic driver around the
world.”
Brazil was another of the nations most prominent in
growing its renewable energy employment figures in 2016, while in
Africa, most of the 62,000 clean energy jobs are to be found at opposite
ends of the continent in North Africa and RSA.
The head of
IRENA’s policy unit, Rabia Ferroukhi, said that in some African
countries a combination of the correct resources and infrastructure will
result in more and more jobs emerging in manufacturing and installation
for utility-scale projects.
"For much of the continent, however,” Ferroukhi added, "distributed renewables like off-grid solar are bringing energy access and economic development. These off- and
mini-grid solutions are giving communities the chance to leapfrog
traditional electricity infrastructure development and create new jobs
in the process.”
(pv-magazine, May 24, 2017)