Clean energy jobs reach 10.3M in 2017

dubai — The renewable energy sector, including large hydropower, employed 10.3 million people worldwide, directly and indirectly, in 2017, according to the latest figures released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

Irena said the figure represents an increase of 5.3 per cent over the number reported the previous year.

“Renewable energy employment worldwide has continued to grow since Irena’s first annual assessment in 2012. During 2017, the strongest expansion took place in the solar photovoltaic (PV) and bio-energy industries. In contrast, jobs in wind energy and in solar heating and cooling declined, while those in the remaining technologies were relatively stable,” it said in a statement.

China, Brazil, the United States, India, Germany and Japan remain the world’s largest renewable energy employers, representing more than 70 per cent of all industry jobs globally. Although growing numbers of countries are reaping the socio-economic benefits of renewables, the bulk of manufacturing takes place in relatively few countries and domestic markets vary enormously in size. Sixty per cent of all renewable energy jobs are in Asia.

“Renewable energy has become a pillar of low-carbon economic growth for governments all over the world, a fact reflected by the growing number of jobs created in the sector.” said Adnan Z. Amin, Director-General of Irena.

“The data also underscores an increasingly regionalised picture, highlighting that in countries where attractive policies exist, the economic, social and environmental benefits of renewable energy are most evident,” said Amin. “Fundamentally, this data supports our analysis that decarbonisation of the global energy system can grow the global economy and create up to 28 million jobs in the sector by 2050.”

“In the UAE, the target is to reduce CO2 and make the country the most environmentally clean country in the world.”

The drive for renewable energy began in 2008-09, when Abu Dhabi set a target to achieve seven per cent renewable energy power generation capacity (approximately 1,500MW) by 2020. Dubai then announced a target of five per cent renewable energy power consumption (approximately 1,000MW) by 2030.

Though the UAE sits on 8 per cent of the world’s oil reserves and meets most of its current energy demand with fossils fuels, the country has set a target that renewable energy will make up 44 per cent of its energy mix by 2050. To reach these goals, the UAE will invest $163 billion into renewable, clean fossil and nuclear energy technologies over the coming years, with expected savings of $190 billion.

The Irena report said the solar PV industry remains the largest employer of all renewable energy technologies, accounting for close to 3.4 million jobs, up almost 9 per cent from 2016 following a record 94 gigawatts (GW) of installations

Renewable energy has become a pillar of low-carbon economic growth for governments all over the world Adnan Z. Amin, Director-general of Irena

in 2017. China was estimated to account for two-thirds of PV jobs — equivalent to 2.2 million — representing an expansion of 13 per cent over the previous year.

Despite a slight dip in Japan and the United States, the two countries followed China as the largest markets for solar PV employment in the world. India and Bangladesh complete a top five that accounts for around 90 per cent of global solar PV jobs.

Jobs in the wind industry contracted slightly last year to 1.15 million worldwide. While wind jobs are found in a relatively small number of countries, the degree of concentration is lower than in the solar PV sector. China accounts for 44 per cent of global wind employment, followed by Europe and North America with 30 and 10 per cent, respectively. Half of the top ten countries with the largest installed capacity of wind power in the world are European.

In India new solar installations reached a record 9.6 GW in 2017, effectively doubling the total installed base of the technology in the country. Employment in solar PV increased by 36 per cent to reach 164,400 jobs, of which 92,400 were in on-grid applications.

— issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com