The wind power industry can deliver 3.3 million new jobs globally over the next five years, says a report.
The analysis by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) shows that this influx of new job opportunities can be created due to a major expansion across the rapidly growing renewable energy industry.
The figure includes direct jobs in both onshore and offshore wind, and covers the entire value chain of the sector – from project planning and development, to manufacturing, installation, operation and maintenance (O&M), and decommissioning.
“The wind industry has a strong track record of creating high-quality and long-term jobs and reviving communities through an array of industrial opportunities,” said GWEC CEO Ben Backwell.
Wind power industry has generated nearly 1.2 million jobs globally
With 751 gigawatts (GW) of wind power capacity already installed, the wind industry has generated nearly 1.2 million jobs globally to date, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
The world’s leading wind energy countries are home to hundreds of thousands of direct jobs across the wind industry.
A global survey by GWEC Market Intelligence revealed that as of 2020, there were about 550,000 wind energy workers in China, 260,000 in Brazil, 115,000 in the US and 63,000 in India.
GWEC Market Intelligence forecasts that an additional 470GW of new onshore and offshore wind capacity will be installed around the world between 2021 and 2025.
Based on existing job creation calculations, this surge in new capacity can generate 3.3 million sustainable and long-term jobs over the course of 25-year project lifetimes. Many of these jobs will be locally based, such as for the construction and O&M phase of projects, according to GWEC.
It said the majority of these jobs will be created in high growth wind markets including China, US, India, Germany, UK, Brazil, France, Sweden, Spain, South Africa, and Taiwan.
But, as the world still reels from the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, Blackwell believes governments must “look to the wind sector as a key industry to create the jobs they need to get their economies back on track”.
“Yet despite the undeniable evidence that wind and other clean energy sectors offer significantly more economic benefits and jobs, Covid-19 stimulus packages globally are still spending a cumulative $30bn more on fossil fuel energy compared to clean energy,” he added.
“This is incongruent with the parallel calls to ‘Build Back Better’ and address the climate emergency ahead of the crucial COP26 conference. Each dollar spent on fossil fuels instead of clean energy means we miss out on potential jobs.”
