Date: September 20
According to the IEA World Energy Employment Report, the energy sector employed more than 65 million people in 2019, or 2% of global employment. Half of this workforce is employed in the clean energy sector, and solar PV employs more workers than any other power generation technology.
According to the report, employment in power generation amounted to 11.2 million in 2019, made up of 3 million in solar photovoltaic power, 2 million in coal power and 1.9 million in hydropower. Onshore and offshore wind power employed 1.2 million and nuclear power 1 million. Employment in other renewable energies amounted to about 710,000 employees.
The organization estimates that employment in the entire energy sector increased in 2021 by some 1.3 million people and that it could increase another 6 percentage points in 2022, with clean energy accounting for all the growth. Energy investment could increase 8% in 2022, reaching $2.4 trillion, but with almost half of the increase in capital spending linked to higher costs.
It also notes that in 2021 there were around 3.4 million workers in the solar PV sector, almost half of them in China, thanks to cheaper labor. North America employed some 280,000 workers and Europe more than 260,000. In Africa there were around 50,000 people working in the solar industry; this number will grow due to the proliferation of on- and off-grid solutions on the continent, according to the agency.
Most employees in the sector work in manufacturing and installing new capacities, and manufacturing jobs are highly concentrated in a few countries: China alone has 260,000 workers in the production of polysilicon, wafers, cells and modules.
“Residential solar panels are often installed by construction workers and electricians who also work on other projects, so many solar PV jobs are not full-time, and it can be difficult to count employees accurately,” he said. the agency.
In that sense, the shortage of skilled labor poses a major challenge for the sector, which is expected to experience continued growth in annual capacity installation in all IEA scenarios.
The report also indicates that in 2021 around 215,000 million dollars were invested in the sector, which represents an average annual growth of 5% compared to the previous decade. Total installed capacity worldwide stood at 740 GW in 2019, comprising 425 GW of utility-scale installations and 315 GW of residential and commercial and industrial (C&I) installations.
Source: Peru Energy
