One of our favourite energy blogs–Bright Green Blog–featured a story today comparing the number of jobs in power creation to the number of jobs in the coal industry. Apparently Fortune claims the number of people in the wind power business was greater that entire coal industry (which generates almost 50% of our energy needs). After a torrent of emails, Fortune was forced to correct–the number of people involved in all aspects of wind power is roughly equivalent to the number of coal miners in the US. (85,000 v 81,000).
It's not a new 12 m yacht, but a wind turbine blade manufactured at the Vestas factory in Windsor, CO.
No matter what the final numbers, it brings to light an interesting debate-one that will continue as more alternative sources are needed–and become available– to put energy onto our national grid. Like other alternative energies, wind power is a growth industry. Therefore a great deal of capital–financial and human–is now being spent on building infrastructure for the industry. Coal industry employment, after experiencing a large decline in manpower when mining methods and energy generation technology improved throughout the 7os and 80s, has stayed relatively stable over the last 15 years. Until the concept of clean coal technology becomes a reality, it is unlikely the industry will add many jobs in the near future. It’s hard to compare the two industries because they are at such different stages of development.
Our economic recovery, however, is largely dependent on generating new jobs. Many of these jobs will come from the adoption and installation of new energy technologies and infrastructure. It also represents one of the most immediate ways to add high value jobs to our economy.
Until the last couple of years most of the breakthrough technology in alternative energy generation was from outside the US–principally Europe. The wind and solar industries have now reached critical mass in the US. As you can see from the photo above, we now have enough demand to develop and manufacture alternative energy generation technologies in the US.
Also, it should be pointed out that unlike coal and oil–which are commodities with market driven prices–renewable energy sources, like the wind and sun, can’t be ‘owned’. Which explains why they are still free.