More Than 16 Million People Work in Renewable Energy

According to a report recently released by the International Renewable Energy Agency, more than 16 million people globally work in the renewable energy industry. Around 7 million of those employees work for companies engaged in solar photovoltaics, the conversion of solar power to electricity.

Solar industries have the strongest showing in the statistic, with another 680,000 people employed in solar power directly converted to heating or cooling. This is followed by bioenergy, including liquid biofuels, solid biomass and biogas, with around 3.6 million employees. Hydropower, the biggest renewable energy creator around the world, was operating with fewer employees, around 2.3 million.

Since the analysis was first conducted in 2012, the number of employees in the sector has grown from 7.3 million. The country hosting the most jobs is China, with more than 7.3 million employees in its strong photovoltaics and wind power industries. Brazil employs 1.6 million people, many in biofuels. Around 1.8 million people work in different parts of the sector in the EU.