Experts: nearly one hundred thousand people work in the RES industry in Poland
Nearly 100 thousand people work in the RES sector in our country, the Polish Economic Institute reported on Thursday. According to experts, the largest number of employees is employed in the field of biomass.
According to PIE analysts, referring to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimates, the RES sector employs almost 12 million people worldwide (38% in China). The largest number, one-third, is employed in the photovoltaic sector. “In Poland, nearly 100,000 people work in the RES sector,” – we read in Thursday’s edition of PIE’s Economic Weekly. Most of them work in biomass, but newer sectors, such as photovoltaics and wind energy, are developing rapidly, it noted.
Experts estimate that the potential of offshore wind energy could eventually amount to ca 70 thousand new jobs. They admitted that initially the so-called local content, i.e. the share of domestic companies in the supply chain, will not be high. Citing the UK as an example, they pointed out, however, that after 15 years of the industry’s development, this indicator may increase from less than 10 percent to 50 percent. “In Poland, a more industrialised country, it may be even higher”. – they assessed.
Another area of energy transition, they pointed out, is the hydrogen economy. According to PIE, new technologies will require new skills or expansion of competences of current engineers and technicians.
Poland is one of the leaders in production of the so-called grey hydrogen, but in the future we will bet on hydrogen produced in association with RES – they explained.
PIE drew attention to the ongoing digitalisation in the energy sector and the growing need for software development and maintenance.
In addition to employees with hard skills, there will also be a need for staff with soft skills to run a new type of business related to the transformation of the energy sector, they assessed.
They pointed out that the current priority is to retrain the coal sector workforce, many of whom have competencies and potential that can be applied to the low-carbon economy.
rel. PortalMorski.pl
