Wind and solar sectors can generate three lakh jobs, if the Centre and states work together to achieve the clean energy goals to install 160 gigawatts of renewable power by 2022. India’s rapidly expanding solar and wind energy sectors employed 21,000 people in 2016-2017.
According to a study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, which has former TCS chief S Ramadorai, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh and former Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar among the trustees, indicates that domestic solar manufacturing industry could provide full-time employment to an additional 45,000 people in India.
The study was supported by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York City-based non-profit international environmental advocacy group.
The study estimates that India’s clean energy goals have the potential to put 34,600 people to work in wind power, 58,600 in utility solar and 238,000 in rooftop solar jobs over the next five years. “Eighty per cent of the new clean energy workforce will be employed during the construction phase,” says Neeraj Kuldeep, programme associate, CEEW.
The study suggests the national and state governments to promote reporting of employment generation from renewable energy companies. It also recommends support development of training centres led by the private sector to source construction jobs locally since solar jobs are well distributed among states and develop wind power training centres based on state-specific wind targets in eight states.
“Since most of these jobs are in the rooftop solar PV segment, central and state governments must provide greater policy support to the rooftop sector,” said Kuldeep. The study states that labour-intensive rooftop solar segment can employ 70 per cent of the new workforce, creating seven times more jobs than large-scale projects such as solar farms.