Indians may see employment in the renewable energy sector boom in the coming years

• The International Labour Organisation’s new report states that over 300,000 people will be employed in India’s solar and wind industries by 2022.
  
• 164,400 jobs were created till 2016-17 in solar energy sector alone.
  
• Currently, non-renewable energy accounts for 80 per cent of India’s electricity requirements.

India is apparently set to be both the fastest growing energy consumer and market by 2040. But that also means that over 300,000 people will be employed in the solar and wind industries by 2022, said a report by the International Labour Organisation.

The ‘World Employment and Social Outlook 2018 - Greening with jobs’ states that while India’s share of renewable energy sources is increasing, there’s still a heavy reliance on coal, oil and natural gas. Those non-renewable sources of energy and their carbon emission account for 80 per cent of electricity produced in India.

The United Nations agency took India’s twelfth Five-Year Plan into consideration where environmental sustainability has been highlighted as the foundation of further development. This is why it included empowering the human capital as well. As a result, several institutions like the Skill Council for Green Jobs were created to further those efforts.

The report highlights both the good and bad of what’s to come. On one hand, employment in the renewable energy sector -- wind and solar energy -- will increase but on the other, jobs will be created only if India manages to increase the capacity for solar module manufacturing as well as implementing vocational training classes and certification methods.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the solar energy sector already created 164,400 jobs by the end of 2016-17. Solar heating industry provided 17,000 jobs and the wind energy industry provided 61,000 jobs.

Over eighty per cent of India’s workforce is currently employed in the informal sector, but solar and wind industries may hold the key to unlock the potential of that workforce in the future.