‘Green energy’ creates more jobs, overseas study reveals

Apart from helping combat climate change, another benefit of renewable energy technology is that solar, wind and other “alternative” power production processes also provide a major boost to the job market.

In the US and Europe, the sector is growing by leaps and bounds and has proved almost impervious to the volatility in the international economy, continuing to create jobs faster than other businesses.

For South Africa, renewable energy offers a double promise: ensuring energy security (meaning an end to load shedding) and creating new jobs in a country with a soaring unemployment rate.

Eskom’s collaboration with the South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre (Saretec) to develop renewable energy artisan skills in SA is, therefore, a project with huge potential.

Energy expert Anton Eberhard said Saretec was a renewable energy training initiative at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology which has focused on skills development for years.

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He said in moving away from the coal-fired power stations, Eskom was seeking a “just transition”, which includes initiatives to reskill coal workers, positioning them to participate in renewable energy – the future.

The commitment of Eskom to retraining workers to participate in this new tech sector, parallels the boom in the private renewable energy sector, following the significant boost from the recent relaxation of government restrictions on independent power producers.

While many jobs will be created in the construction of major renewable energy projects, there is even better news.

Overseas studies have shown that, when it comes to “green energy”, it can create up to six times as many jobs as an equivalent increase in conventional energy production processes, including nuclear power.

And 75% of those jobs are sustainable. It looks at though the light at the end of our load shedding tunnel may be green.