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Renewable Energy Powers Jobs For Almost 10 Million People (bloomberg.com)
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency's (IRENA) annual report, the renewable energy industry employed 9.8 million people last year, which is up 1.1 percent from 2015. The strongest growth was seen in the solar photovoltaic category with 3.09 million jobs. Bloomberg reports: Here are some of the highlights from the report: Global renewables employment has climbed every year since 2012, with solar photovoltaic becoming the largest segment by total jobs in 2016. Solar photovoltaic employed 3.09 million people, followed by liquid biofuels at 1.7 million. The wind industry had 1.2 million employees, a 7 percent increase from 2015. Employment in renewables, excluding large hydro power, increased 2.8 percent last year to 8.3 million people, with China, Brazil, the U.S., India, Japan and Germany the leading job markets. Asian countries accounted for 62 percent of total jobs in 2016 compared with 50 percent in 2013. Renewables jobs could total 24 million in 2030, as more countries take steps to combat climate change, IRENA said.
Coal is being killed because natural gas is cheaper (thank fracking).
Solar power is already cheaper than natural gas in very sunny locations. By 2020, it will be cheaper than natural gas in most locations.
The real issue is battery technology and durability. Both are improving. An electric car fleet will improve on that further. Rooftop solar will improve on that even further.
The only way coal will get cheaper is to automate coal mining. Which they are already working on. That won't bring back jobs. But it may save a lot of ex coal miners from cancer and various other coal related deaths.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Reality is precisely the opposite. Transmission losses are very low (under 10% on average), but small batch installation costs on rooftop arrays kill the economics relative to large installations, which are installed in bulk with dramatically lower labour per unit nameplate capacity. Associated hardware (such as inverters) and grid links are also much cheaper per unit power at large scales. Even panels can be purchased and imported significantly cheaper when bought in bulk and all delivered to the same location. And as for subsidies, while both residential and commercial get the same ITC, residential installs also tend to be subject to a lot of state benefits as well.
You're treating a symptom while the disease rages on. The fish rots from the head. Why not cut off the head?
Unfortunately, the jobs created by mostly solar are very low paying. The skillsets required to install solar panels is not exactly hard to find. Wind is a tad better with some reasonably well paying maintenance jobs and a little more expertise required for siting and construction. Nothing comes close to the number of high paying jobs in nuclear. Gas pays fairly well and has a decent employment base.
Better than nothing. Having lived in poverty once, I know that any job is better than none. Jobs might be low-paying, but if they are durable, that's one step in the right direction. It gets you one step, however short that it, towards climbing yourself out. It doesn't guarantee it (but what does?). But it gives you a fighting chance. Much better than flipping burgers where you barely learn anything (a type of I also did once, and which I'm grateful) or being stuck behind the counter at a mom-n-pop shop where you will never get a chance to climb up.
Right, it's called investment. A solar panel lasts for 30+ years. A lump of coal lasts about 5 minutes.
A new nuclear plant lasts 80 to 100 years. Windmills last about 25 years, but by that time even the generator has typically been replaced at least once, the blades replaced multiple times. Solar lasts longer in lower insolation/irradiance areas, degrades faster where it is higher. Claims made for long solar panel life are typically based on panels that are in less sunny areas.