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Renewable Energy and Jobs

Annual Review 2016

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Renewable Energy

and Jobs

Annual Review 2015

KEY FACTS

q

Renewable energy jobs reached an estimated 7.7 million in 2014,

excluding large hydropower.

q

Jobs in the sector grew by 18% from the estimate reported last year and

the regional shifts towards Asia continued, especially in manufacturing.

q

The 10 countries with largest renewable energy employment were China,

Brazil, the United States, India, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, France,

Bangladesh and Colombia.

q

In 2014, the solar PV sector accounted for 2.5 million jobs, of which two

thirds were in China. Solar PV jobs also grew in Japan, while decreasing in

the European Union.

q

Biofuels (1.8 million), biomass (822,000) and biogas (381,000) are also

major employers, with jobs concentrated in the feedstock supply. While

Brazil and the United States continued to dominate, Southeast Asia saw

growth in biofuel jobs, reflecting measures to support production.

q

Wind employment crossed the 1 million mark, with China accounting for

half of these jobs. The United States, Brazil and the European Union also

saw gains.

q

Solar water heating and cooling employed 764,000 people, more than

three-quarters of them in China. Other significant markets are India, Brazil

and the European Union.

q

Small hydropower employed about 209,000 people, more than half in

China, followed by the European Union, Brazil and India.

q

Large hydropower was estimated to support another 1.5 million direct jobs,

mostly in China and largely in construction and installation.

q

An array of industrial and trade policies continues to shape employment,

with stable and predictable policies favouring job creation.

IRENA estimates that renewable energy employed 7.7  million people, directly or indirectly, around the world in 20141 (excluding large hydropower). This is

an 18% increase from the number reported last year. In addition, IRENA conducted the first-ever global estimate of large hydropower employment, showing approximately 1.5 million direct jobs in the sector2.

This second edition of the Renewable Energy and Jobs - Annual Review presents the status of renewable energy employment, both by technology (Figure 1) and in selected countries (Figure 4). The table at the end of this report summarises the findings across major markets. Like last year, falling prices for solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind equipment globally posed a challenge for manufacturers in some markets, thus affecting jobs. Yet, accelerated solar PV installation and expanded operations and maintenance spurred job growth.

Manufacturing of solar PV panels moved decisively from Europe and North America to Asia, where shifts continue between countries. On the installation side, China and Japan were major markets. Wind power jobs have increased steadily following a market revival in 2014 led by China, Germany and the United States (GWEC, 2015; Navigant, 2015). Employment in biofuels continued growing in the United States and Brazil, and in emerging labour-intensive Asian markets where biofuel production witnessed accelerated expansion. The world’s leading countries for renewable energy employment remain the same as in previous years: China, Brazil, the United States, India, and some members of the European Union, notably Germany. In addition, new markets have emerged including Indonesia, Japan and Bangladesh. In Latin America, Brazil remains the dominant player, followed by Colombia, Argentina and Mexico. Renewable energy-related employment

1 Unless otherwise noted, all employment data refer to direct and indirect jobs (see Box 5 for definitions). IRENA’s 2013 estimate of 6.5 million jobs (excluding

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Renewable Energy and Jobs - Annual Review 2015 5 4 million jobs in 2015 500 0 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000

8.1

2,772

Solar Photovoltaic Liquid Biofuels Wind Energy Solar Heating/ Cooling Solid Biomass Biogas Hydropower (Small) Geothermal Energy CSP

1,678

1,081

939

822

382

204

160

14

RENEWABLE ENERGY

EMPLOYMENT

BY TECHNOLOGY

SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAICS

Solar PV is the largest renewable energy employer, accounting for 2.5  million jobs. The global production of solar panels keeps increasing and further concentrating in a number of Asian countries. Lower costs are driving accelerated growth in installations, particularly in China and Japan.

China remains the top solar energy job market, retaining its undisputed lead in manufacturing while also expanding its domestic market. Jobs in Japan increased to 210,000 in 2013, thanks to a rapidly growing domestic market. Manufacturing jobs are on the rise in Malaysia, the Republic of Korea and other regional industrial hubs, but those markets are presently too limited to support considerable employment in the installation segment of the solar PV supply chain. remains low in Africa except in a few countries, like

Kenya, Morocco and South Africa, where deployment growth is creating domestic value and jobs. Globally, renewable energy employment continues to be shaped by an array of supportive industrial and trade policies.

Sources: Azuri (n.a.); D.Light (2016); Energy Access Practitioner Network (2015); Grameen Shakti (2016); IRENA (2012); Kent (2015); M-KOPA Solar (2015, 2016); Mobisol (2015); Nijland (2015); Sunlabob (2016); Wesoff (2015)

Solar PV is the largest

renewable energy

employer, accounting

nearly 2.5 million jobs.

Figure 1: RENEWABLE ENERGY EMPLOYMENT BY TECHNOLOGY BOX 1: EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN OFF-GRID SOLAR PV

Jobs in the off-grid solar PV can be created for different applications, ranging from stand-alone installations (e.g. solar lanterns, solar home systems) to mini-grids. In general, stand-alone applications create more local jobs in installation and equipment distribution, while mini-grids require more employees in operations and maintenance (e.g. to collect tariffs). Given limited information for employment in solar PV based mini-girds, the focus is on jobs in stand-alone applications.

Bangladesh, India and Kenya, for example, have used stand-alone solar systems to provide electricity access and create jobs. In 2015, Bangladesh, added an estimated 700,000 solar home systems (SHS), raising the total cumulative installations in the country to 4.5 million (Shahan, 2016). IRENA estimates that the workforce in the sector has increased by 13% to reach 127,000 jobs, a quarter of which are in manufacturing, with the remaining spread across distribution, installation and after-sales services. India has also been successful in creating jobs across the off-grid solar PV value chain, which accounts for 73,000 jobs according the last available estimates (MNRE and CII, 2010). Companies that build, install and maintain stand-alone systems are rapidly scaling up operations and creating jobs along the value chain. D.Light, which manufactures and retails solar lanterns and SHSs, has sold over 10 million solar products, employing over 400 people (D.Light, 2016). MKOPA has sold over 300,000 solar home systems in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania and created more than 700 full-time jobs along with 1,500 sales representatives. Similarly, several other companies (see Table 1) are serving vast populations and creating jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia.

Table 1: EMPLOYMENT IN SELECTED OFF-GRID SOLAR COMPANIES – MID-2015

Company Name EmployeesFull-time Countries of Operation (Last 12 months / Cumulative)Number of Customers

Azuri Technologies 480 Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Sierra Leone,

Zambia N.A. / 75,000 BBOXX 168 Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda 23,105 / 250,000 D. Light >400 Uganda, Kenya, China, India N.A./10 million Fenix International 120 Uganda, Kenya 115,000 / 165,000 FRES 342 Mali, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Guinea

Bissau 30,000 / 330,000 Grameen Shakti 6,550 Bangladesh 52,000 / 1.7 million Mera Gao Power 125 India 8,000 / 22,000 M-KOPA >700 Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania 1.1 million / 3.75 million Mobisol >500 Tanzania, Rwanda 70,000 / 110,000 Off Grid Electric >800 Tanzania, Rwanda 10,000 per month / N.A. Renewable Energy

Foundation >400 Sub Saharan Africa N.A. / >93,000 Simpa Networks 300 India 55,000 / 75,350 Solaraid 130 Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia 519,212 / 10 million Solar Kiosk 70 Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Botswana,

Ghana, Vietnam 802,500 / 1 million Solar Now 194 Uganda 3,114 /8,476 Solar Sister 58 Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda 152,000 / 281,000 Sunlabob 42 Laos, Cambodia, Uganda, Afghanistan, Sierra

Leone, Mozambique and Liberia N.A. / > 25,000 Tessa Power 300 Niger, Nigeria, Mali 2,000 / 5,000

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6 The most recent year available.

7 The global estimate for 2013 has been updated from 503,000 to 913,000 following a major revision of Chinese solar water heating employment estimates. 8 A conservative estimate based on SEIA (2013).

9 Energy [R]evolution by Greenpeace provides a global estimate for 2010 for all hydropower

Source: Lehr and Nieters (2015).

LIQUID BIOFUELS

Liquid biofuels remain a large employer, accounting for nearly 1.8 million jobs worldwide. Brazil has the largest workforce, with 845,000 employed. Job losses in the ethanol industry (due to the increasing mechanisation of sugarcane harvesting) were more than offset by job growth in biodiesel, mainly supported by incentives such as increased blending requirements4.

Other major biofuel job markets in Latin American include Colombia and Argentina, with workforces of 97,6005 and 30,000, respectively.

The United States, France and Germany are key biofuel producers, though mechanised harvesting and processing limit employment compared to countries with more labour-intensive operations.

Supportive policy frameworks and attractive market conditions spurred job growth in liquid biofuels in several Far Eastern countries, including China, Indonesia and Thailand. Indonesia’s labour-intensive palm oil-based biodiesel industry, for instance, supports 223,000 jobs.

WIND

Global wind employment crossed 1 million jobs in 2014, up from 834,000 the year before, primarily fuelled by deployment in China, Germany, the United States and Brazil. In China, wind jobs surged from 356,000 in 2013 to 502,400 in 2014. The United States recovered in 2014 from a policy-induced slump in new installations as wind jobs rose by 43% to 73,000. Brazil saw encouraging gains, with an estimated 35,800 wind jobs in 2014, up 12% from the previous year.

The European Union has seen moderate additions with wind employment increasing by 5.6% to reach 319,600 in 20136. Germany accounted for nearly half

of these jobs, followed by the United Kingdom, Italy and Denmark. In 2014, the growing offshore segment employed 75,000 in Europe.

SOLAR HEATING AND COOLING

A complete and reliable employment picture remains difficult for solar heating and cooling. Available reports are sparse, with limited information about methodologies and unclear segmentation of the value chain.  

A review of the literature supports a rough estimate of 764,000 for total employment in the sector, a 16% decline over the previous year7.

This is primarily caused by a slowdown in the Chinese solar water heating market, which is home to 80% of global installed capacity.

Despite this decline, China remains by far the dominant market for solar water heaters, with 600,000 jobs in manufacturing alone. Other available estimates include India with 75,000 jobs (Epp, 2011), Brazil with 41,000 (Alencar, 2015), and the European Union with 37,600. For the United States, IRENA estimates more than 5,000 jobs in the sector8.

SMALL HYDROPOWER

Employment in small hydropower is difficult to estimate, as operators may be employed under informal arrangements and certain segments of the supply chain are shared with large hydropower. The global employment is estimated at 209,000 jobs. China, with close to half of global deployment, has 126,000 jobs in the sector. The European Union supports around 20% of the total jobs. India, Brazil and the United States are also significant employers.

Wind employment

increased by 23% to

cross 1 million jobs.

BOX 2: LARGE HYDROPOWER

The available information for jobs in this technology is especially sparse. For the second year running, IRENA has conducted the global employment factor-based estimation to fill the data gap. The results reveal approximately 1.3 million direct jobs in 2015, down 13% from the 2013 peak of 1.5 million.

The estimates allow for a better understanding of the dynamics along the segments of the value chain. In 2013, several new projects were coming online and the construction and installation segment of the value chain was the largest employer with 52% of the jobs. In 2015, new installations have declined by around 40% and jobs in the construction and installation segment have decreased to 43% of the total. The operations and maintenance segment is now the largest segment of the value chain with 51% of the jobs .1

The results show that China’s dominance of large hydropower employment has somewhat declined from 43% in 2013 to 34% in 2015, primarily due to a slowdown in new installations and a leaner project pipeline. Brazil is the second largest employer with 15% of the global large hydropower jobs, followed by India, the Russian Federation, Iran and Vietnam (Figure 2). Other relevant employers are Turkey, Canada, United States and Paraguay.

Figure 2: EMPLOYMENT IN LARGE HYDROPOWER BY COUNTRY

>1.3 million jobs

1) IRENA is further refining its estimations of jobs in large hydropower. Analysis of indirect jobs shows a preliminary estimate of 1.2 million people.

Turkey

2%

Vietnam

3%

Russian Federation

5%

Rest of the World

27%

Iran

5%

8%

India

15%

Brazil

34%

China

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Renewable Energy and Jobs - Annual Review 2015 9 8

World European Unioni

China Brazil United

States India Japan Bangla- desh Germany France of EURest

Solar Photovoltaic 2.772 1.652 4 194 103 377 127 38 21 84 Liquid Biofuels 1.678 71 821c 277f 35 3 23 35 47 Wind Power 1.081 507 41 88  48 5 0.1 149 20 162 Solar Heating/ Cooling 939 743 41 d 10 75 0.7 10 6 19 Solid Biomassa,g 822 241 152e 58 49 48 214 Biogas 382 209 85 9 48 4 14 Hydropower (Small)b 204 100 12 8 12 5 12 4 31 Geothermal energya 160 35 2 17 31 55 CSP 14 4 0.7 5 Total 8,079h 3.523 918 769 416 388 141 355j 170 644k

6 The most recent year available.

7 The global estimate for 2013 has been updated from 503,000 to 913,000 following a major revision of Chinese solar water heating employment estimates. 8 A conservative estimate based on SEIA (2013).

9 Energy [R]evolution by Greenpeace provides a global estimate for 2010 for all hydropower

Table 2: ESTIMATED DIRECT AND INDIRECT JOBS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLDWIDE, BY INDUSTRY

million jobs in 2015

8.1

416

644

355 388 16 17 28 170 141

918

769

3,523

China France Germany North Africa Rest of Africa South Africa Rest of EU India Bangladesh Japan Brazil United States Figure 3: ???

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BOX 3: EMPLOYMENT IN OFF-GRID RENEWABLES FOR COOKING AND MOTIVE POWER

Several renewable energy sources can be used to provide heat for cooking (mainly biomass and biogas) or motive-power for agro-processing or other uses (mainly small watermills) in rural areas.

Traditional biomass dominates with around 9% of global final energy consumption. It supports the livelihoods of around 3 billion people and seems to create millions of jobs. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 41 million people work worldwide in commercial fuelwood and charcoal production, including 19 million in Africa, 11 million in Asia and 11 million in the Americas, mostly South America (FAO, 2014).

A significant upgrading in bioenergy use consists of

improved cookstoves, which also create jobs. The

partners of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, for instance, had manufactured almost 10 million cookstoves> Of the 76,000 people employed in 2012, 54% were women. In addition to the employment opportunities, women also benefited from reduced exposure to smoke and time saved in fuelwood collection (Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, 2013).

Biogas, often used for cooking and heating applications

in rural settings, can also support jobs. The SNV Biogas programme in Vietnam, for instance, has installed over 150,000 digesters since 2003, creating around 4 jobs per installation during the construction phase (IRENA, 2016 forthcoming).

Small watermills can be used to produce electricity or

to harness motive power for agricultural or industrial processes. An improved watermills programme in Nepal, for example, created an estimated 8500 jobs in operation and maintenance alone, feeding electricity into mini-grids to supply almost 900 households while also providing motive power for agro-processing (IRENA, 2016 forthcoming).

Overall, renewable energy offers a key solution for the provision of universal access to modern energy sources, in line with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 7. In addition to the development benefits of having access, providing access represents a vast potential market for job creation. The market for renewable applications for cooking and motive power has been picking up in rural areas in several countries, but further policy action is needed to accelerate deployment and to maximize the socio-economic benefits.

Figure

Table 1:  EMPLOYMENT IN SELECTED OFF-GRID SOLAR COMPANIES – MID-2015
Figure 2:  EMPLOYMENT IN LARGE HYDROPOWER BY COUNTRY
Table 2:  ESTIMATED DIRECT AND INDIRECT JOBS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLDWIDE, BY INDUSTRY

References

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