Green Jobs? Economic Impacts of Renewable Energy in Germany

Abstract

Abstract:The labor market implications of large investment into renewable energy (RE) are analyzed in this text. Although a growing RE industry can be observed in Germany the overall effect of large increases of expensive electricity and heat generating technologies on the German economy require a careful model based analysis. The paper shows the overall effects under different assumptions for fossil fuel prices, domestic installations and international trade. Most of these scenarios exhibit positive effects.

Green jobs in the European Union countries – an empirical study

“…Z państw europejskich, dostępne badania dotyczące tej problematyki były dotychczas prowadzone m.in. w Niemczech (Lehr et al 2012), w Wielkiej Brytanii (Connolly et al 2016) i w Irlandii (Dalton, Lewis 2011).…”

“…Przykładowo Lehr et al (2012) dokonują analizy wpływu znacznych inwestycji w sektorze energii odnawialnej na sytuację na niemieckim rynku pracy. Zgodnie z ich prognozami zatrudnienie w tym sektorze na przestrzeni lat 2009-2030 ma się zwiększyć blisko dwukrotnie (z poziomu 340 tys.…”

Employment effects of green energy policies

“…Take into account, for instance, imports and exports, the lower consumption and investments due to crowding-out in non-green sectors, and the additional production costs of the German energy policy (the ErneuerbareEnergien-Gesetz, or EEG) [5], [6]. The net employment effect is small and positive, estimated at 50,000-200,000 through 2030, depending on the underlying development of the world market for renewable energy technologies and the German export share therein.…”

“…Such a model for Germany was extended by an additional input-output vector for the renewable energy sector to capture the interdependencies of this particular and growing industry and other sectors [5], [6]. Estimates of the employment effects of the expansion in renewable energy sources show positive gross employment effects in the renewable energy sector ranging between 23,000 and 258,000 additional jobs through 2030 [5], depending on assumptions about future developments of global energy prices and the renewable energy world market shares of German firms.…”

The hidden winners of renewable energy promotion: Insights into sector-specific wage differentials

“…Particularly Germany, one of the European RE pioneer countries, has seen a boom of renewables, supported by fixed feed-in tariffs and further instruments of public promotion. In conjunction with an increase in exports of RE products and services, there was a substantial growth in turnover and employment (Lehr/Lutz/Edler 2012;Blazejczak et al 2011). Figure 1 shows publicly available data on gross employment from renewable energy in Germany, based on input-output analyses (O'Sullivan et al 2013).…”