Renewable Energy Jobs in Australia
Jobs have emerged as a key issue for clean energy transition. Currently, there is little data on renewable energy jobs because they are not separately measured by statistical agencies. The Clean Energy Council commissioned the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney to undertake the first large-scale survey of renewable energy jobs which covered large solar and wind, distributed solar, hydro/pumped hydro and battery storage.
In this webinar, Chris Briggs and Jay Rutovitz will present key findings from the project on:
- How many jobs can be created by renewable energy?
- The profile of employment and skill shortages across renewable energy technologies;
- The role of renewable energy jobs in coal transition based on occupational analysis and regional mapping of jobs; and
- Opportunities for improving skills and employment in renewable energy.
Dr Chris Briggs is a Research Principal at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology and a Technical Director at Business Renewables Centre Australia (a partnership with WWF and Climate-Kic to assist organisations undertaking renewable energy power purchase agreements). Chris has a combination of climate, energy and labour market expertise developed over 20 years of experience working in roles as a political adviser, policy maker, program leader and researcher. Recent and current projects include the implications of just transition for the finance sector (NAB and Global Compact Network), social licence and renewable energy power purchase agreements, energy efficiency supply chains and learnings from ARENA-funded DER projects.
Jay Rutovitz is a Research Director at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, and has worked in renewable energy and energy efficiency since 1994, after starting her working life as an electrical contractor. Jay has worked on many aspects of integrating distributed energy resources into the electricity market, including leading multi stakeholder research projects on local network credits and establishing Solar Gardens in Australia. Jay has a particular expertise in modelling energy sector employment outcomes for energy scenarios on a state, national, regional, and global basis, and has led this work at ISF since 2009.