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Towards a green economy Estimated employment worldwide Denmark Germany


Technology Biofuels


Wind power


Solar hot water Solar PV


Biomass power Hydropower Geothermal Biogas


Solar thermal power Total


> 1,500,000 ~ 630,000 ~ 300,000 ~ 350,000 - - - -


~ 15,000 > 3,500,000


Notes: > : at least ~: approximately Estimates are rounded to nearest 1,000 or 10,000 as all numbers are rough estimates and not exact. Estimates come from different sources, detailed in REN21 (2011), some of which have been calculated based on installed capacity. There are significant uncertainties associated with most of the numbers presented here, related to such issues as accounting methods, industry definition and scope, direct vs. indirect jobs, and displaced jobs from other industries. Despite the existence of some national estimates for employment in biomass power, hydropower and geothermal, there are no reliable estimates of worldwide employment.


Table 8: Employment in renewable energy, by technology and by country Source: REN21 (2011)


Average emplyment over life of facility (Jobs per megawatt of average capacity)


Manufacturing, construction, instalation


Solar PV


Wind power Biomass Coal-fired


Natural gas-fired


5.76-6.21 0.43-2.51 0.40 0.27 0.25


Operating & maintenance/ fuel processing


1.20-4.80 0.27


0.38-2.44 0.74 0.70


Total


6.96-11.01 0.70-2.78 0.78-2.84 1.01 0.95


Note: Based on findings from a range of studies published in 2001-04. Assumed capacity factor is 21% for solar PV, 35% for wind, 80% for coal, and 85% for biomass and natural gas.


Table 9: Average employment over life of facility


(jobs per megawatt of average capacity) Source: UNEP, ILO, IOE and ITUC (2008)


alongside PV cost declines (see Table 9) which does not incorporate more recent cost declines from the last five years20


). Further growth in employment in renewable energy


generation will depend on such factors as the size of investment, the choice of available technologies to invest in, further maturing of technologies, overall progress in economic development, market size, national regulation, and the quality and cost of the labour force. The Green Jobs Report (UNEP, ILO, IOE and ITUC 2008) estimated that, with strong policy support, up to 2.1 million people could be employed in wind energy and 6.3 million in solar PV by 2030.


More recently, Bloomberg New Energy Finance conducted a green jobs analysis on the wind and solar 218


sectors in 2009. The findings were that the solar sector could expect significant net job creation between 2008 and 2025 (from 173,000 to 764,000), although the wind sector would only see modest gains (from 309,000 to 337,000). These more modest numbers for wind reflect the current policy environment, as well as ongoing technological developments, in particular sharp increases in productivity and thus lower demand for labour. Jobs created by the renewable energy sector can be safer, in terms of potential health risks, compared to employment within the fossil fuel energy sector, ensuring longer term employment periods and increased human capital (IPCC 2011).


Large-scale electricity technologies with high up-


front investments are capital intensive, whether renewable or conventional (see Table 9). Biomass, as well as coal production and transport are, by contrast, labour intensive. Small-scale technologies tend to be labour intensive in manufacturing and installation. In general, for most renewable energy technologies, the manufacturing, construction and installation phases are the ones that offer the greatest job-creation potential. The opposite is true for fossil-fuels such as coal and natural gas.


In some cases, the growth of employment in the renewable energy industry may compensate for some job losses elsewhere in the energy sector, at least in aggregate terms if not for individual workers. A recent study in Aragon, Spain, for example, found that the renewable


20. More recent studies (for example, Wei et al. 2010), not captured in Table 9. show continued cost declines for renewable energy technologies, including lower employment factors.


Italy


Selected national estimates Japan


Spain US 24,000 100,000


120,000 120,000


13,000 20,000


1,000 28,000 26,000


40,000 7,000


14,000 5,000 7,000


85,000


17,000 66,000 8,000 9,000


1,000


Brazil


730,000 14,000


China


India


150,000 250,000 120,000


10,000


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