IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2019i1p45-d299619.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wind Power and Job Creation

Author

Listed:
  • Luigi Aldieri

    (Department of Economic and Statistical Sciences, University of Salerno, 84084 Fisciano, Italy)

  • Jonas Grafström

    (Department of Business Administration, Technology and Social Sciences, The Ratio Institute and Luleå University of Technology, SE-11359 Stockholm, Sweden)

  • Kristoffer Sundström

    (The Ratio Institute, SE-11359 Stockholm, Sweden)

  • Concetto Paolo Vinci

    (Department of Economic and Statistical Sciences, University of Salerno, 84084 Fisciano, Italy)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide a global overview of job effects per MW of wind power installations, which will enable improved decision-making and modeling of future wind-power projects. We found indications that job creation connected to wind-power installations is rather limited. In total, 17 peer-reviewed articles and 10 reports/non-peer-reviewed papers between 2001 and 2019 were assessed. Our three major policy conclusions are as follows: (a) job creation seems to be limited; (b) each new project should consider a unique assessment, since all projects have been undertaken within different institutional frameworks, labor markets, and during separate years, meaning that the technology is not comparable; and (c) the number of jobs depends on the labor intensity of the country.

Suggested Citation

  • Luigi Aldieri & Jonas Grafström & Kristoffer Sundström & Concetto Paolo Vinci, 2019. "Wind Power and Job Creation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2019:i:1:p:45-:d:299619
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/1/45/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/1/45/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cameron, Lachlan & van der Zwaan, Bob, 2015. "Employment factors for wind and solar energy technologies: A literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 160-172.
    2. Okkonen, Lasse & Lehtonen, Olli, 2016. "Socio-economic impacts of community wind power projects in Northern Scotland," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 826-833.
    3. Dietmar Edler, 2012. "Modeling Economic Impacts of Renewable Energy Expansion – The Experience for Germany," EcoMod2012 4629, EcoMod.
    4. Walwyn, David Richard & Brent, Alan Colin, 2015. "Renewable energy gathers steam in South Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 390-401.
    5. Dalton, G.J. & Lewis, T., 2011. "Metrics for measuring job creation by renewable energy technologies, using Ireland as a case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 2123-2133, May.
    6. Mathiesen, Brian Vad & Lund, Henrik & Karlsson, Kenneth, 2011. "100% Renewable energy systems, climate mitigation and economic growth," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 488-501, February.
    7. Brown, Jason P. & Pender, John & Wiser, Ryan & Lantz, Eric & Hoen, Ben, 2012. "Ex post analysis of economic impacts from wind power development in U.S. counties," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1743-1754.
    8. Mu, Yaqian & Cai, Wenjia & Evans, Samuel & Wang, Can & Roland-Holst, David, 2018. "Employment impacts of renewable energy policies in China: A decomposition analysis based on a CGE modeling framework," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 256-267.
    9. Meng-jieu Chen, 2017. "Job versus environment: an examination on the attitude of union members toward environmental spending," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 19(4), pages 761-788, October.
    10. Lindman, Åsa & Söderholm, Patrik, 2012. "Wind power learning rates: A conceptual review and meta-analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 754-761.
    11. 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.
    12. Connolly, D. & Lund, H. & Mathiesen, B.V. & Leahy, M., 2011. "The first step towards a 100% renewable energy-system for Ireland," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 502-507, February.
    13. Apergis, Nicholas & Payne, James E., 2010. "Coal consumption and economic growth: Evidence from a panel of OECD countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1353-1359, March.
    14. Tourkolias, C. & Mirasgedis, S., 2011. "Quantification and monetization of employment benefits associated with renewable energy technologies in Greece," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 2876-2886, August.
    15. Samuel Fankhaeser & Friedel Sehlleier & Nicholas Stern, 2008. "Climate change, innovation and jobs," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(4), pages 421-429, July.
    16. Hondo, Hiroki & Moriizumi, Yue, 2017. "Employment creation potential of renewable power generation technologies: A life cycle approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 128-136.
    17. Christoph Böhringer & Knut Einar Rosendahl, 2011. "Greening Electricity More Than Necessary: On the Cost Implications of Overlapping Regulation in EU Climate Policy," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 131(3), pages 469-492.
    18. Garrett-Peltier, Heidi, 2017. "Green versus brown: Comparing the employment impacts of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and fossil fuels using an input-output model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 439-447.
    19. Cai, Mattia & Cusumano, Niccolò & Lorenzoni, Arturo & Pontoni, Federico, 2017. "A comprehensive ex-post assessment of RES deployment in Italy: Jobs, value added and import leakages," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 234-245.
    20. Moreno, Blanca & López, Ana Jesús, 2008. "The effect of renewable energy on employment. The case of Asturias (Spain)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 732-751, April.
    21. 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.
    22. Bilgili, Mehmet & Yasar, Abdulkadir & Simsek, Erdogan, 2011. "Offshore wind power development in Europe and its comparison with onshore counterpart," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 905-915, February.
    23. Frondel, Manuel & Ritter, Nolan & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Vance, Colin, 2010. "Economic impacts from the promotion of renewable energy technologies: The German experience," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 4048-4056, August.
    24. Stern,Nicholas, 2007. "The Economics of Climate Change," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521700801.
    25. 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.
    26. Apergis, Nicholas & Payne, James E., 2010. "Renewable energy consumption and economic growth: Evidence from a panel of OECD countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 656-660, January.
    27. Llera, E. & Scarpellini, S. & Aranda, A. & Zabalza, I., 2013. "Forecasting job creation from renewable energy deployment through a value-chain approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 262-271.
    28. Jenniches, Simon & Worrell, Ernst & Fumagalli, Elena, 2019. "Regional economic and environmental impacts of wind power developments: A case study of a German region," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 499-514.
    29. Simas, Moana & Pacca, Sergio, 2014. "Assessing employment in renewable energy technologies: A case study for wind power in Brazil," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 83-90.
    30. Ejdemo, Thomas & Söderholm, Patrik, 2015. "Wind power, regional development and benefit-sharing: The case of Northern Sweden," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 476-485.
    31. Hillebrand, Bernhard & Buttermann, Hans Georg & Behringer, Jean Marc & Bleuel, Michaela, 2006. "The expansion of renewable energies and employment effects in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(18), pages 3484-3494, December.
    32. Wei, Max & Patadia, Shana & Kammen, Daniel M., 2010. "Putting renewables and energy efficiency to work: How many jobs can the clean energy industry generate in the US?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 919-931, February.
    33. 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.
    34. Böhringer, Christoph & Keller, Andreas & van der Werf, Edwin, 2013. "Are green hopes too rosy? Employment and welfare impacts of renewable energy promotion," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 277-285.
    35. Jonas Grafström, 2018. "International knowledge spillovers in the wind power industry: evidence from the European Union," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 205-224, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Irene Arcelay & Aitor Goti & Aitor Oyarbide-Zubillaga & Tugce Akyazi & Elisabete Alberdi & Pablo Garcia-Bringas, 2021. "Definition of the Future Skills Needs of Job Profiles in the Renewable Energy Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-23, May.
    2. Yassine Charabi & Sabah Abdul-Wahab & Abdul Majeed Al-Mahruqi & Selma Osman & Isra Osman, 2022. "The potential estimation and cost analysis of wind energy production in Oman," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 5917-5937, April.
    3. Jingjing Liu & Jing Wang & Zehui Li & Yingkun Du, 2021. "Exploring impacts of the Grain for Green program on Chinese economic growth," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 5215-5232, April.
    4. Svetlana Kunskaja & Johannes Fabian Bauer & Artur Budzyński & Ilie-Ciprian Jitea, 2023. "A research analysis: the implementation of innovative energy technologies and their alignment with SDG 12," Eastern-European Journal of Enterprise Technologies, PC TECHNOLOGY CENTER, vol. 5(13 (125)), pages 6-25, October.
    5. Xianyu Zhang & Yingqi Zhang & Qian Zhang & Peiwu Liu & Rui Guo & Shengyi Jin & Jiawen Liu & Lei Chen & Zhen Ma & Ying Liu, 2020. "Evaluation and Analysis of Water Quality of Marine Aquaculture Area," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-15, February.

    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. Luigi Aldieri & Jonas Grafström & Concetto Paolo Vinci, 2021. "The Effect of Marshallian and Jacobian Knowledge Spillovers on Jobs in the Solar, Wind and Energy Efficiency Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-16, July.
    2. Aldieri, Luigi & Grafström, Jonas & Paolo Vinci, Concetto, 2020. "Job Creation in the Wind Power Sector Through Marshallian and Jacobian Knowledge Spillovers," Ratio Working Papers 340, The Ratio Institute.
    3. 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).
    4. Blazejczak, Jürgen & Braun, Frauke G. & Edler, Dietmar & Schill, Wolf-Peter, 2014. "Economic effects of renewable energy expansion: A model-based analysis for Germany," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1070-1080.
    5. Ortega, Margarita & Río, Pablo del & Ruiz, Pablo & Thiel, Christian, 2015. "Employment effects of renewable electricity deployment. A novel methodology," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 940-951.
    6. Cartelle Barros, Juan José & Lara Coira, Manuel & de la Cruz López, María Pilar & del Caño Gochi, Alfredo, 2017. "Comparative analysis of direct employment generated by renewable and non-renewable power plants," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 542-554.
    7. Cameron, Lachlan & van der Zwaan, Bob, 2015. "Employment factors for wind and solar energy technologies: A literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 160-172.
    8. Ina Meyer & Mark Sommer, 2014. "Employment Effects of Renewable Energy Supply – A Meta Analysis. WWWforEurope Policy Paper No. 12," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 47225, April.
    9. Simas, Moana & Pacca, Sergio, 2014. "Assessing employment in renewable energy technologies: A case study for wind power in Brazil," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 83-90.
    10. Zerrahn, Alexander, 2017. "Wind Power and Externalities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 245-260.
    11. Dvořák, Petr & Martinát, Stanislav & der Horst, Dan Van & Frantál, Bohumil & Turečková, Kamila, 2017. "Renewable energy investment and job creation; a cross-sectoral assessment for the Czech Republic with reference to EU benchmarks," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 360-368.
    12. Sooriyaarachchi, Thilanka M. & Tsai, I-Tsung & El Khatib, Sameh & Farid, Amro M. & Mezher, Toufic, 2015. "Job creation potentials and skill requirements in, PV, CSP, wind, water-to-energy and energy efficiency value chains," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 653-668.
    13. Hondo, Hiroki & Moriizumi, Yue, 2017. "Employment creation potential of renewable power generation technologies: A life cycle approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 128-136.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. O'Sullivan, Marlene & Edler, Dietmar, 2020. "Gross Employment Effects in the Renewable Energy Industry in Germany : An Input–Output Analysis from 2000 to 2018," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 12(15).
    17. Michaela Makešová & Michaela Valentová, 2021. "The Concept of Multiple Impacts of Renewable Energy Sources: A Critical Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-21, May.
    18. Dell’Anna, Federico, 2021. "Green jobs and energy efficiency as strategies for economic growth and the reduction of environmental impacts," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    19. Marlene O’Sullivan & Dietmar Edler, 2020. "Gross Employment Effects in the Renewable Energy Industry in Germany—An Input–Output Analysis from 2000 to 2018," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-21, July.
    20. Christian Lutz & Lisa Becker & Andreas Kemmler, 2021. "Socioeconomic Effects of Ambitious Climate Mitigation Policies in Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-20, June.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2019:i:1:p:45-:d:299619. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.