IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v37y2009i8p2847-2857.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Direct employment in the wind energy sector: An EU study

Author

Listed:
  • Blanco, Maria Isabel
  • Rodrigues, Glória

Abstract

Wind energy is often said to have positive effects on employment, but few studies have systematically dealt with this matter. This article presents estimates of direct wind energy employment in all EU countries, gathered for the first time. By using a thematic survey, the authors have been able to analyse aspects such as gender distribution, company profiles and the shortage of skilled workers reported by wind energy companies. The outcomes show that wind energy deployment creates a significant number of jobs (over 104,000 in 2008), and does so at a time when other energy sectors are shrinking. There is a clear relationship between MW installed and number of jobs, but the use of a single EU job/MW ratio is not feasible, due to differences in the export/import capacity. Wind turbine manufacturers--including major sub-components--are responsible for the lion's share of the jobs, and there is a marked prevalence of males in the workforce. The scarcity of specialist roles--project managers, engineers and O&M technicians--is not likely to be solved unless a series of educational, mobility and dissemination measures are put into practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Blanco, Maria Isabel & Rodrigues, Glória, 2009. "Direct employment in the wind energy sector: An EU study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 2847-2857, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:8:p:2847-2857
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(09)00135-9
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lehr, Ulrike & Nitsch, Joachim & Kratzat, Marlene & Lutz, Christian & Edler, Dietmar, 2008. "Renewable energy and employment in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 108-117, January.
    2. Kulisic, Biljana & Loizou, Efstratios & Rozakis, Stelios & Segon, Velimir, 2007. "Impacts of biodiesel production on Croatian economy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 6036-6045, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Llera Sastresa, Eva & Usón, Alfonso Aranda & Bribián, Ignacio Zabalza & Scarpellini, Sabina, 2010. "Local impact of renewables on employment: Assessment methodology and case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 679-690, February.
    2. Calds, N. & Varela, M. & Santamara, M. & Sez, R., 2009. "Economic impact of solar thermal electricity deployment in Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1628-1636, May.
    3. Hogan, Jessica L. & Warren, Charles R. & Simpson, Michael & McCauley, Darren, 2022. "What makes local energy projects acceptable? Probing the connection between ownership structures and community acceptance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    4. Bohlmann, H.R. & Horridge, J.M. & Inglesi-Lotz, R. & Roos, E.L. & Stander, L., 2019. "Regional employment and economic growth effects of South Africa’s transition to low-carbon energy supply mix," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 830-837.
    5. Duscha, Vicki & Fougeyrollas, Arnaud & Nathani, Carsten & Pfaff, Matthias & Ragwitz, Mario & Resch, Gustav & Schade, Wolfgang & Breitschopf, Barbara & Walz, Rainer, 2016. "Renewable energy deployment in Europe up to 2030 and the aim of a triple dividend," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 314-323.
    6. Lehr, Ulrike & Lutz, Christian & Edler, Dietmar, 2012. "Green jobs? Economic impacts of renewable energy in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 358-364.
    7. Muhammad Haseeb & Irwan Shah Zainal Abidin & Qazi Muhammad Adnan Hye & Nira Hariyatie Hartani, 2019. "The Impact of Renewable Energy on Economic Well-Being of Malaysia: Fresh Evidence from Auto Regressive Distributed Lag Bound Testing Approach," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 9(1), pages 269-275.
    8. Mostafaeipour, Ali, 2010. "Productivity and development issues of global wind turbine industry," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 1048-1058, April.
    9. Arvanitopoulos, T. & Agnolucci, P., 2020. "The long-term effect of renewable electricity on employment in the United Kingdom," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    10. Cai, Wenjia & Wang, Can & Chen, Jining & Wang, Siqiang, 2011. "Green economy and green jobs: Myth or reality? The case of China’s power generation sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 5994-6003.
    11. Lampiris, Georgios & Karelakis, Christos & Loizou, Efstratios, 2018. "Evaluation of the impacts of CAP policy measures on a local economy: The case of a Greek region," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 745-751.
    12. Jinwon Bae & Sandy Dall'erba, 2016. "The economic impact of a new solar power plant in Arizona: Comparing the input-output results generated by JEDI vs. IMPLAN," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1-2), pages 61-73, March.
    13. Mahlia, T.M.I. & Syazmi, Z.A.H.S. & Mofijur, M. & Abas, A.E. Pg & Bilad, M.R. & Ong, Hwai Chyuan & Silitonga, A.S., 2020. "Patent landscape review on biodiesel production: Technology updates," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    14. Baer, Paul & Brown, Marilyn A. & Kim, Gyungwon, 2015. "The job generation impacts of expanding industrial cogeneration," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 141-153.
    15. Klinge Jacobsen, Henrik & Pade, Lise Lotte & Schröder, Sascha Thorsten & Kitzing, Lena, 2014. "Cooperation mechanisms to achieve EU renewable targets," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 345-352.
    16. Choi, Jun-Ki & Bakshi, Bhavik R. & Haab, Timothy, 2010. "Effects of a carbon price in the U.S. on economic sectors, resource use, and emissions: An input-output approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 3527-3536, July.
    17. repec:zbw:rwirep:0156 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Andini, Corrado & Cabral, Ricardo & Santos, José Eusébio, 2019. "The macroeconomic impact of renewable electricity power generation projects," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 1047-1059.
    19. Wei, Weixian & Zhao, Yurong & Wang, Jianlin & Song, Malin, 2019. "The environmental benefits and economic impacts of Fit-in-Tariff in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 401-410.
    20. van der Zwaan, Bob & Cameron, Lachlan & Kober, Tom, 2013. "Potential for renewable energy jobs in the Middle East," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 296-304.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wind energy Employment Economics;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:8:p:2847-2857. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.