By 2030, the wind energy industry may have created 42 thousands jobs, including 11 thousand jobs in this industry. It is conditioned upon favourable regulatory environment and the dynamic development of this sector, as reported by the Warsaw Institute for Economic Studies in ‘Energy industry’s impact on Polish labour market’.
The construction of on-shore wind farm with a capacity of 10 MW entails creating 114 jobs for the time of construction, and additionally 5 permanent jobs for operation of the farm, as stated by the authors of the report. This means that by the end of 2030, the wind energy industry will employ more people than the coal mining sector. ‘In 2030 the wind power industry can create more jobs than declining coal mining, which after the inevitable restructuring will hire from 4 to 16 thousand workers. Unlike mining, long-term prospects of which stem from factors beyond national control, such as the situation in the global coal market or prohibition against subsidizing unprofitable mines in the EU, the wind power industry development will to a large extent depend on regulations created in Poland’, explains Maciej Bukowski, a co-author of the study and the President of the WISE Institute. A comparison of projected employment in the wind power industry with the employment in other industries demonstrates the scale of the policy on renewable energy sources (OZE) impacting the Polish economy.
‘In 2014 in Poland, 8,4 thousand people worked for wind energy industry, including 3,4 thousand worked in the immediate environment of the industry. For comparison, the cement industry in Poland employs approx. 6 thousand people, and the refining industry – 9 thousand. Wind energy-dependent jobs, however, are more dispersed and not focused in large industrial plants, what may cause them to be less visible than employment in the traditional heavy industry and mining’, explains Maciej Bukowski. The publication also implies that the introduction of the new regulatory system may stall sector’s development, at least over the next 2-3 years. In case of unfavourable regulatory environment hindering the wind power industry development, the number of jobs depending on it will drop to 4 thousand in 2030. Reversing the negative trend in employment requires a new impetus to national investments, with the rate of creating new job in wind power industry dependent largely on the scale of expenditure on farm construction. ‘Polish companies and labour market suffer from fickle, unpredictable energy politics of the state.
They will gain if Poland decides to consistently transform the energy industry and the search for attractive specializations in the global market for low-carbon energy technologies. This is a real chance for the creation of several to a few dozen thousands of new, stable jobs in the entire economy‘, says Wojciech Cetnarski, the President of the Polish Wind Energy Association. The ‘Energy industry’s impact on Polish labour market’ report was prepared by the experts from the Warsaw Institute for Economic Studies. Polish Wind Energy Association was a partner in the analysis.
