Over 3 Lakh workers will be employed by 2022 to achieve India’s solar and wind energy targets

Solar and wind energy employed more than 21,000 people in India in 2016-2017, and are expected to employ an estimated 25,000 people or more in the following year

A recent report from Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) notes that over 300,000 workers will be employed in the next 5 years, to achieve India’s solar and wind energy targets, mostly in the rooftop solar sector.

According to the report solar and wind energy employed more than 21,000 people in India in 2016-2017, and are expected to employ an estimated 25,000 people or more in the following year.

Solar jobs will be well distributed across the country, while wind jobs will be concentrated in a few states said the report. The report further added rooftop solar is more labour intensive than other renewables, providing 24.72 job-years per megawatt (MW) in comparison to 3.45 job-years per MW for ground-mounted solar and 1.27 job-years per MW for wind power

The study notes that national and state governments should promote reporting of employment generation from renewable energy companies; provide a greater policy priority to rooftop solar to create renewable energy jobs; support development of localized private sector-led training centres for solar construction jobs and wind power training centres in the 8 states with wind targets; and, promote a strong domestic solar module manufacturing industry to provide additional employment.