A sustainable energy future needs new thinking. We need young minds who can help to meet the challenge of increasing world energy demand (greater than 50 per cent by 2050) while ending the use of fossil fuels.
Remember also that energy is not used in the same way by everybody everywhere. This In Plain Sight online video uses night-time satellite imagery to “show places with bright lights and no people and places with people and no lights”.
Jobs (thousands) Photovoltaic Solar
Solar Heating/ Cooling CSP
Liquid Biofuels
Solid Biomass Biogas
Hydropower (Large) Hydropower (Small)
807 344 290 Wind Energy 1 148 Geothermal Energy 93 10.3 million jobs in 2017 Municipal and industrial waste 28 Did you know?
• The global renewable energy sector provided jobs for 10.3 million people in 2017 and 11 million in 2018 (IRENA 2019b).
Tide, Wave and Ocean Energy 1 Others
Source: IRENA jobs database. Note: Others includes jobs which are not technology specific.
Figure 4.10 Jobs in the global renewable energy sector in 2017 Source: IRENA (2018).