Earth Protect Blog

Renewable Energy Powers Jobs for Almost 10 Million People

by Mahmoud Habboush

May 23, 2017, 2:01 PM MDT May 24, 2017, 4:45 AM MDT

• Solar industry has 3.09 million people vs 1.2 million in wind
  
• China employment at 3.6 million vs 777,000 in U.S.: Irena
  

The renewable energy industry employed 9.8 million people last year, up 1.1 percent from 2015, led by the solar photovoltaic business, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s annual report on the industry.

Growth has slowed in the past two years, while the solar photovoltaic category, with 3.09 million jobs, and wind business more than doubled their respective employee numbers since 2012, the first year assessed, Irena said in the report.

“The nature of jobs is changing a little bit, with more emphasis on the installation, operational and maintenance side,” Adnan Amin, Irena’s director general, said Wednesday in an interview in Abu Dhabi. “That doesn’t grow as fast as the growth in manufacturing, which was very quick because the technology cost was coming down and you had this huge explosion in equipment.”