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| SOLAR | WIND | GEOTHERMAL | HYDROPOWER | BIOMASS | HYDROGEN |
| Introduction
Check out the Green Directory Historical Growth Wind generation has shown a strong growth, similar to solar power, with annual installations reaching 7.2GW by 2002 and cumulative capacity surpassing 32GW!
Source: European Wind Energy Association 2003
Associated Jobs There is some confusion on the actual number of jobs probably because the renewable energy industry is very fragmented. It is made up of many hundreds of small operators, often contributing only a fraction of their total work time to the industry, such as a turbine generator company that just started supplying units to wind companies. The industry does not have dedicated suppliers or sellers as, for example, the auto industry does, making it difficult to quantify. However we do know that since it is an emerging technology in an emergent industry, it has not achieved the productivity levels and economies of scale that it will reach once mature. Thus it employs proportionately more people then mature energy industries, just as does solar power. To quote from the European Wind Association “the latest available Danish figures (1998)…. show that 17 man-years are created for every MW of wind power manufactured and 5 job-years for the installation of every MW … 22 job-years are created for every $1 million in sales”. Elsewhere, the European Commission noted that 1MW of installed wind generating capacity creates jobs 15 to 19 jobs and perhaps double that in the developing world with its lower labor productivity while, in Germany, Greenpeace found the number was 14 jobs per MW. Estimates of current employment in the industry have been carried out by various bodies. For example, the American Wind Energy Association estimates that it currently employs more than 2000 people directly and that a typical 50MW wind farm creates some 3000 person years of employment. This contrasts with earlier estimates that, in California alone, there are more than fifty businesses directly related to wind energy, employing 1,200 people. The European Wind Energy Association concluded that an estimated 45,000 people are currently employed both directly and indirectly in Europe by the industry, with a fifth of those taken on in 2002. In 1999, there were an estimated 86,000 jobs worldwide in manufacturing and installing wind turbines, a number that had doubled in the previous two years, according to the WorldWatch Institute (Renner, 2000). Whatever the precise number, the industry is clearly already worth considering for employment and, as we shall see below, is likely to increase markedly in the coming years. The Future Wind power is predicted to have a bright future, as highlighted by the following quotes: "wind and solar energy are likely to furnish one of the largest sources of new manufacturing jobs worldwide" - American Wind Energy Association. "By 2020, wind power may account for 10% of all electricity generation and employ some 1.7 million people" - Michael Renner "By the year 2020, an installed capacity of 1,231 GW (of wind power) will have been achieved, with an annual production capable of matching 12% of the world's demand for electricity as projected by the IEA." - Wind Force 12. The projections shown below are based on the European Wind Energy Association's Wind Force 12.
Source: EWEA Wind Force 12
Source: EWEA Wind Force 12 These projections indicate annual shipments increasing to over 140GW by 2020, by which time the installed capacity will top 1200 GW. This also implies a healthy growth in jobs within the industry, which suggests excellent long term job prospects. As illustrated in the figure below, jobs are likely to increase sevenfold by 2010 from the current total of about 100,000 and they could approach two million by 2020.
Source: EWEA Wind Force 12
References and useful links:
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