The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has published the next report entitled Renewable Energy and Jobs – Annual Review 2019. The work estimates that in the RES sector on a global scale, 11 million people were employed by the end of 2018. In 2017, there were 10.5 million ElektroVesti portal writes about it.
Without taking into account such an “old sector” as hydropower, the number of employed in the field of RES in the world amounted to 8.9 million.
Photovoltaic solar energy for the third consecutive year is the largest employer in all RES with 3.6 million people, although 61 % of these jobs are concentrated in China.
Bioenergy, which includes liquid biofuels, solid biomass and biogas, has historically been the largest sector, and now it is second only by the number of employees.
Wind power provides jobs for 1.2 million people. Mostly, it is mainland wind power but the offshore segment is gaining momentum. China accounted for 44 % of world employment in the field of wind energy, followed by Germany and the United States.
Hydropower has the highest installed capacity among all renewable energy sources but is currently developing slowly. This sector employs 2.1 million people three quarters of which are engaged in operation and maintenance.
According to Terminal, solar and wind energy are the cheapest generation technologies in most regions of the world.