The number of people employed in the renewable energy industry globally had grown by 18% last year according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
IRENA says more than 7.7 million people worldwide are now employed by the renewable energy sector.
Where once Europe and the USA dominated, the landscape has rapidly changed.
Further underlining that this is the Asian Century, IRENA Director-General Adnan Z. Amin said 50% of the countries with the most renewable energy jobs are now in Asia; being China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Bangladesh.
In 2014, the solar PV sector accounted for 2.5 million jobs, two-thirds of which were in China.
The European Union and the United States represents 25 per cent of global renewable energy jobs currently, compared to 31 per cent in 2012.
However, the USA, ranked no.3, has still seen strong employment growth; with wind jobs increasing by nearly half and solar employment jumping by 22%. The US solar industry employed more than 173,000 people last year. While still very much dominated by male workers, the US renewable sector has also seen significant growth in the number of women working in the industry – growing from 26,700 to 37,500 last year.
Globally, wind power crossed the 1 million employed mark, with 1,027,000 jobs.
“In the coming years, renewable energy employment growth will depend on the return to a strong investment trajectory, as well as on continued technological development and cost reductions,” states the report.
“Stable and predictable policies will be essential to support job creation.”
… and the lack of the latter is something Australian renewables sector has become all too familiar with thanks to the 15 month-plus battle over the nation’s Renewable Energy Target; an issue that may finally be soon put to rest and unlock investment – and jobs.
While not included in IRENA’s report, the renewables sector in Australia employed approximately 12,500 people in full time positions in 2013/14 – a drop of 15% since peaking at 14,890 in 2011/12.
This year, IRENA also conducted its first-ever global estimate of large hydropower employment and counted 1.5 million direct jobs in the sector.
IRENA’s Renewable Energy and Jobs – Annual Review 2015 can be viewed in full here (PDF).
