Phillip Riley

Jobs in Renewable Energy Sector Sets Highest Record in Three Years

Australia employs an approximate of 14,820 full-time workers in the renewable energy sector from 2016-2017, displaying a 33 percent increase in the Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) employment from 2015-2016. This is also the highest figures recorded since the industry started booming around 2012-2013.
Renew Economy reported through an article on its website that the surge was mainly because of the development pipeline of solar and wind farms. Furthermore, rooftop solar remains the largest single employer in terms of full-time jobs. The updated data was recently released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The data also shows that the boost in FTE employment in large-scale solar PV with 1,240 additional FTE jobs and wind with 1,370 more FTE jobs cover more than two-thirds or 71 percent of the increase in full time renewable energy jobs for the year.
Meanwhile, rooftop solar had 6,430 FTE jobs in 2016-2017 due to the boost in residential uptake through favourable policy, economics, and rising costs of electricity.
Because of the improvement in rooftop solar installations, 860 more FTE jobs were added for the year and also resulted in 43 percent of the overall renewable energy-related FTE employment for the said period.
The ABS states, ”Rooftop solar PV remains the largest renewable energy sector in terms of FTE employment.”
”While employment in this category has fluctuated, it has remained the largest single contributor from 2009 to 2010. Its share peaked in 20011 to 2012 when employment in rooftop solar PV made up 74 percent of the total direct FTE employment in renewable energy activities and has declined since then, ” the ABS added.
New South Wales and Queensland, two of the country’s most coal power-dominated states, showed an increase in FTE employment in renewable energy from 2016 to 2017.
According to the ABS, the two states had the most increase in total FTE employment in renewables. Both states have increased the figures by over 1,000 FTE jobs, mostly large-scale solar in Queensland and wind farms in New South Wales.
South Australia posted the biggest proportional year-on-year increase in FTE employment with 110 percent. This is mostly due to construction work on large-scale wind generation facilities.
Overall, the four states – Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, and Queensland posted 78 percent of all renewable energy employment in the country.
See the full report here.

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