FT: “Global investment in clean energy fell 12 per cent in 2013 according to Bloomberg. So are we watching the nails go in the coffin of an unaffordable technology? And has the green jobs bubble burst along with it?”“….Even while investors come to terms with yet more policy change, it is not time for fossil fuels to dance on the grave of renewables just yet. Neil Robertson, chief executive of energy sector skills body, EU Skills, argues that renewable energy is just not “scaling up as fast” as once expected. “When you look at it in the cold light of day, we’ve still got an ambitious agenda here.”
The UK has a legal obligation to meet 15 per cent of its energy demand from renewable sources by 2020, up from only 4.1 per cent in 2012. According to EU Skills, there are 34,500 people now working in wind, wave and tidal energy; by 2023 the group expects this to increase to 52,540, even accounting for the recent “marked scaling back of ambition”. Meanwhile, the UK solar sector is thought to employ a further 15,620 people.
….Solar entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett, founder and chairman of Solarcentury, says the sector has been hit especially hard by dramatic cuts to subsidies. Yet due to the reduction in the price of solar technology, “we will not need the FITs [feed-in-tariff subsidy] after 2020”, he says.
Where do the utility companies go? Where are the jobs? The jobs are going down to the local level.
Rather than questioning the affordability of renewable power, Mr Leggett argues that traditional energy and utilities should be put in the spotlight. “Analysts talk about a death spiral for the utility model in Europe [… yet] there are times now in Germany where 75 per cent of the nation’s electricity is being generated by wind and solar and around half of that is owned by individuals and communities. So where do the utility companies go? Where are the jobs? The jobs are going down to the local level.”
Angus McCrone, senior analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, says entrepreneurs are positioning themselves in project development and project installation. “There will also be some successful companies that emerge in the [offshore wind] supply chain making small parts or supplying services or logistical support,” he says.
….By 2030, the world will have shifted from creating two-thirds of its power by burning fossil fuels to using renewables for more than 60 per cent of new capacity, with renewables garnering 65 per cent of the $7.7tn of investment, Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts. Economics – not policy – will increasingly drive the use of renewable technology.
“Whatever governments do around policy,” and even if the chaotic policies of the past five years continue, Mr Warren expects that “we will still see more and more renewable energy deployment. The need is only ever going to increase.”Hopes of a green energy jobs boom may have faded, but today’s wobbles are no death sentence either.”
Future Today
