New renewable energy projects create 10 time mroe green jobs than similar-sized fossil fuel investments, new research has found.
A study by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) taking data from the US, Europe, and China, suggests green energy could provide a boost to employment, through both short term construction jobs and lifetime plant jobs.
The study, published last week, look at job impacts from renewable energy or energy efficiency policies and found that solar electricity creates between 0.4 and 1.1 jobs per gigawatt hour of electricity generated, compared to the 0.1 to 0.2 jobs created by coal and gas power. Meanwhile, wind energy is found to generate between 0.05 and 0.5 jobs per GWh generated and energy efficiency policies result in between 0.3 and one job per GWh saved.
Of course, choosing one energy saving policy over another might create jobs in a certain sector and displace them elsewhere. But by factoring this into its calculations to create an overall 'net' picture, UKERC finds that renewables create on average 0.5 jobs per GWh compared to fossil fuels and energy efficiency 0.25 jobs per GWh.
Dr Will Blyth from Oxford Energy Associates who led the two-year research project said the paper showed government-led investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency can boost the economy in times of recession by bolstering employment.
"When the economy is starting to recover - such as now - the key challenge for government policy is to encourage an economically efficient transition towards the country's strategic goals - such as tackling climate change," he said. "Here there is a strong case for investment in renewable technologies and efficiency measures as part of the transformational change to a low carbon energy system."
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