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Renewable Energy Powers Jobs For Almost 10 Million People (bloomberg.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the up-and-up dept.

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.

4 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Which comes at the cost of environmentalism. by sethstorm · · Score: 1, Troll

    While coal and other environmentalist-hostile industries are assaulted by regulatory burdens. In addition, the alleged jobs in suitably-blessed energy forms do not translate well to places favored by coal - which can amount to an indirect assault on the Appalachian regions.

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    1. Re:Which comes at the cost of environmentalism. by WhiplashII · · Score: -1, Troll

      Worse, this is all a "broken window fallacy". Whenever a government touts "job creation" by anything it touches, your first thought should always be the broken window fallacy.

      Creating jobs (through subsidies) by confiscating other people's income (through taxes) means that the jobs that would have provided desired stuff to people are destroyed and jobs that provide undesired stuff are created.

      If the subsidized job products were desired, the subsidy wouldn't be required. Governments do this because the job loss is spread out, so they don't get blamed, while the job gains are concentrated so they can claim the praise. But due to the inefficiency of governments there is a net loss to society except for a very few edge cases (which don't really apply here).

      There is a case to be made for renewable energy. It does not involve "job creation".

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    2. Re:Which comes at the cost of environmentalism. by knightghost · · Score: -1, Troll

      Correct. Headline should have been "10 million more people on welfare". Or "Government paying for 10 million people to create pollution".
      In my area: Hydro 3 cents/kw. Coal 7 c/kw. NatGas 9 c/kw. Nucleare 12 c/kw. Wind 30 c/kw. Solar 60 c/kw. My overall bill used to be 6 c/kw but now 9 c/kw and climbing, all due to wasteful subsidies and increases in regulations.
      That extra cost means extra pollution. It's just somewhere else in the supply chain so you don't see it as easily.

  2. Employing people to generate your electricity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    This is a limitation, not a feature.