Report

Clean Energy Powers Local Job Growth in India

Arunabha Ghosh, Shalu Agrawal, Poulami Choudhury, Kanika Chawla, Anjali Jaiswal, Meredith Connolly, Bhaskar Deol, Nehmat Kaur
February 2015 | Sustainable Livelihoods

Suggested Citation: Ghosh, Arunabha, Shalu Agrawal, Poulami Choudhury, Kanika Chawla, Anjali Jaiswal, Meredith Connolly, Bhaskar Deol, and Nehmat Kaur. 2015. Clean Energy Powers Local Job Growth in India. New Delhi; New York: Council on Energy, Environment and Water and Natural Resources Desense Council.

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Overview

This interim report analyses the potential job growth in the renewable energy market in India. It finds that achieving India’s 100 gigawatt (GW) solar energy goal by 2022 could create as many as one million jobs. Achieving India’s proposed target of 60 GW of wind energy by 2022 would also generate an additional 180,000 jobs.

The projection, conducted with the NRDC India , finds that the project planning, construction, installation and operations required to meet this solar goal could generate these jobs in less than a decade.

The analysis also documents a growing need for more accurate tracking of job creation data. The analysis shows that because companies in India do not often report the number of jobs created by their projects, scant data exists on the economic impact of clean energy development on employment.

The Council updates its projections on jobs in the Indian renewables sector every year. Find the latest numbers here.

Job creation scenarios to achieve 100 GW of Solar Energy in India by 2022

Source: CEEW and NRDC analysis, 2016

Key Highlights

Scope of economic benefits of employment generated by India’s clean energy industries is unknown due to a lack of reporting by solar and wind companies.
The target of 100 GW of solar energy could generate 1 million jobs by 2022.
183,500 jobs would be generated if India installed 60 GW of wind energy by 2022.
Rooftop solar projects are more labor-intensive and can create more jobs.
Innovative financing instruments such as green banks and bonds could help reduce the high cost of capital required to scale renewable energy projects.

Key Recommendations

Improve reporting of a project’s job creation numbers by solar and wind energy companies to match international business practices.
Promote distributed generation technologies such as rooftop and off-grid in addition to solar parks and large-scale projects.
Promote collaborations between government agencies and local companies on skills development to train the growing workforce.
Prioritise the availability of affordable capital through innovative financing interventions such as green banks and green bonds.

The target of 100 GW of solar energy could generate 1 million jobs in the Indian market by 2022.