Global Wind Employment Passes 1 Million
Global wind employment grew by 5% during 2015 to reach 1.1 million, according to new figures published by the Global Wind Energy Council.
New figures published by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) this week reveal that the record growth of the wind industry’s installed capacity was reflected by growth in the industry’s employment figures, which increased 5% during 2015, reaching a total of 1.1 million people employed. With the global wind energy industry installing over 63 GW of capacity in 2015, it should come as no surprise that the industry is seeing a matching growth in employment.
GWEC made the announcement to coincide with Global Wind Day on June 15th, a worldwide event intended to highlight the value and growth of the wind industry.
“We are getting bigger, better and cheaper,” said Steve Sawyer, GWEC Secretary General. “The wind industry has witnessed record growth in recent years which not only helps the world to meet the climate goals agreed in Paris but also generates much needed new jobs and boosts local economies, to the tune of about US$ 110 billion last year.”
According to the Council, the strong employment growth was due primarily to strong installation rates in China, the US, and Germany, the world’s three leading wind energy installers. According to the Council’s Global Wind Report, published earlier this year, China installed 30.8 GW of new wind capacity during 2015, bringing its cumulative capacity up to 145 GW. The United States installed 8.6 GW, while Germany installed 6 GW for the year.
The Global Wind Energy Council also highlighted the continued interest in investing in the global wind energy industry, specifically by corporations, with companies such as Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and others, all making clean energy procurement a standard practice for their investment interests.
“We are thrilled to see the rapidly growing number of companies opting to source their power from wind,” Sawyer added. “These globally leading companies show that wind makes economic sense, as well as protecting the environment, and it’s what their customers want to see. While government action is needed, the real change happens when investors make economic decisions which lead us in the right direction.”
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The part of their spiel I am the most interested in, is the competitivness. You can get some renewables put up because it’s green and good, but if you want to knock fossil off the grid, you need good prices. So every time I hear about renewables price drops, it’s music to my ears.
Slightly misleading title. If the growth rate was 5%, then the total figure would have already been greater than 1 million workers. That’s if my maths are correct!
Good catch.
I find it somewhat alarming that China was responsible for half the growth. And that China put in nearly 4x more wind than America. We are falling behind China very quickly!
Why? They need it more than anyone with their terrible smog problems
Because they already got a much larger percentage of their energy from wind than the USA. And yet they are still growing their wind 4X faster than us.
I’d really like to see the US add about 1% wind and 1% solar each year, but production, not capacity.
I think they both are adding about 10% production/year. We have so little of each it doesn’t make much difference.
I didn’t mean 1% growth. I meant 1% of total production. You know, wind and solar are not huge, but together they are going to pass hydro soon. http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/
Oh. Well using the average growth shown under the Obama administration and extrapolating out we’ll see a 2% total anual production at utility scale increase in 2020. However since the growth is exponential, growing at about 26% under Obama, you’ll look back and wonder how did we ever grow at less than two percent before 2020. I used:
http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_1_01
http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_1_01_a
This only counts utility scale.
I think they only used to count utility scale, but, but I think the estimated distributed solar column tries to include rooftop solar. I don’t think they include micro wind turbines, but I think that is very small.
I don’t know. I just wish we would hurry up and supply over 100% of our electricity via wind and solar. Heating and transport can then be worked on after that…
You know what I wish? That there was a price on everything going up the smokestack outside of nitrogen and oxygen. But if there was, I be you would get your wish too.