Monday Market Musings>>> Renewable Energy Industry

Picture Credit: The One Brief website

With climate change still a major issue, companies that produce fossil fuels are responding to demands from around the world by making renewable energy more readily available. While this gradual transition to renewable energy is ideal for the preservation of the environment, it is also making a massive shift in jobs in the energy industry. The switch to sustainable energy might result in 10.3 million net new jobs worldwide by 2030, according to the World Economic Forum.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, renewable energy production will rise by around 150% by 2050, compared to an approximate 50% growth in energy use, and in order to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, the world will need to create 14 million new clean energy jobs by 2030. In 2019, there were more than 65 million individuals employed in the energy sector, or about 2% of all formal jobs worldwide.

Estimates show that between 2019 to 2021, people working in solar photovoltaics (solar PV – systems that turn sunlight into electricity) have increased from 3 million to 3.4 million. The wind power sector grew roughly 0.1 million people. Solar power was considered to be the fastest growing sector when considering jobs, providing 4.3 million jobs within a year, that’s more that one third of the whole renewable energy workforce worldwide.

Picture Credit: Inspire Clean Energy website

A new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and International Renewable Energy Agency claims that despite the continuing effects of Covid-19 and the escalating energy crisis, there were 12.7 million people employed globally in renewable energy last year, an increase of 700,000 new jobs in a single year.

Studies revealed that an increasing number of nations are adding jobs in the renewable energy sector. Asia is home to about two thirds of these jobs. China alone is responsible for 42% of the global total, followed by the EU, Brazil, and the US with 10%, 7%, and 10%, respectively. So we can understand that the partiality to move to renewable energy among energy companies nowadays is having an impact on the job availabilities and such. Companies are looking to evolve and develop talent strategies, calibrate future roles, and hire for potential to expand their available talent pool.

October 3rd 2022 | 9:30 PM