Careers in Renewable Energy
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Gone are the days when a career in the renewable energy sector looked bleak. Today job opportunities in the renewable energy industry have grown. Countries such as Spain, Germany and the US are all set to provide more employment opportunities in the renewable energy industry.
Gone are the days when a career in the renewable energy sector looked bleak. Today job opportunities in the renewable energy industry have grown. Countries such as Spain, Germany and the US are all set to provide more employment opportunities in the renewable energy industry.
In an economic climate of surging fuel prices, environmental and health concerns, the growth of the renewable energy sector worldwide is poised for tremendous growth. The current trend of ‘capping carbon’ with renewable energy sources is expected to propel job opportunities across the renewable energy industry.
Table of Contents
US: Renewable Energy Job Opportunities
Curbing global warming is the work of a generation; specifically, the work of millions of people, performing the jobs needed to build the green economy. Clean energy investments will create opportunities for welders, sheet metal workers, machinists, truck drivers, and others – and the benefits of those new jobs would spread to a much wider swatch of the economy. A new study by economists at the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst examines the types of jobs that are needed to create a clean-energy economy.
In this report, PERI Co-Director Robert Pollin and Assistant Research Professor Jeannette Wicks-Lim provide a snapshot of the kinds of jobs are needed to build a green economy in the United States. They focus on six key strategies for attacking global warming and highlight some of the major “green jobs” associated with each of these approaches.
The six green strategies are: building retrofitting, mass transit, energy-efficient automobiles, wind power, solar power, and cellulosic biomass fuels.
What is clear from this report is that millions of U.S. workers, across a wide range of familiar occupations, states, and income and skill levels, will benefit from the project of defeating global warming and transforming the United States into a green economy.
The full report is available on Political Economy Research Institute Website: Job Opportunities for the Green Economy
Germany & Spain: Renewable Energy Industry
Germany provides about 25,000 direct and indirect jobs in wind energy.
Meanwhile, Spain has expanded its renewable energy sector rapidly in recent years. Spain employs nearly 89,000 personnel in its wind power and solar PV sectors, and about 99,000 employees indirectly.
Another growing leader in renewable energy is Denmark, although job opportunities have dropped in recent years due to the effects of the global financial crisis.
The Impact of Renewable on Employment and Economic Growth
The European Commission conducted a study in 2009 on ‘The impact of renewable energy policy on economic growth and employment in the European Union’. The study estimated labor intensive employment opportunities will grow and more than 900,000 new jobs will come up by the year 2020.
For agricultural and manufacturing sectors, job gains will be optimum. However this will also mean a loss of 2 percent of the workforce in the conventional energy supply industry. The employment opportunities for countries such as Germany, France, Spain, Greece and Italy on the other hand, will grow tremendously.
The study can be downloaded on the European Commission website: Renewable Energy Studies
Careers in Solar Energy
In 2001, an international study on solar generation was carried out by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association and Greenpeace International. This study estimated that more than 2 million jobs will be generated across the globe and nearly 78,000 jobs will be generated in Australia alone by 2020.
The 2008 report stated that 2.4 million jobs were created in the global renewable energy sector in 2007. Plant construction and maintenance, financial services, industrial production and agriculture were identified as potential arenas for employment opportunities in the renewable energy sector.
Download the latest studys and reports from the IRENA website: IRENA Documents
As the global renewable energy industry continues to grow and transform into a world-class sector, job opportunities will be brighter and more rewarding than ever.
