Solar has greater techno-economic resource suitability than wind for replacing coal mining jobs

Abstract

Coal mining directly employs over 7 million workers and benefits millions more through indirect jobs. However, to meet the 1.5°C global climate target, coal's share in global energy supply should decline between 73% and 97% by 2050. But what will happen to coal miners as coal jobs disappear ? Answering this question is necessary to ensure a just transition and to ensure that politically powerful coal mining interests do not impede energy transitions. Some suggest that coal miners can transition to renewable jobs. However, prior research has not investigated the potential for renewable jobs to replace 'local' coal mining jobs. Historic analyses of coal industry declines show that coal miners do not migrate when they lose their jobs. By focusing on China, India, the US, and Australia, which represent 70% of global coal production, we investigate: (1) the local solar and wind capacity required in each coal mining area to enable all coal miners to transition to solar/wind jobs; (2) whether there are suitable solar and wind power resources in coal mining areas in order to install solar/wind plants and create those jobs; and (3) the scale of renewables deployment required to transition coal miners in areas suitable for solar/wind power. We find that with the exception of the US, several GWs of solar or wind capacity would be required in each coal mining area to transition all coal miners to solar/wind jobs. Moreover, while solar has more resource suitability than wind in coal mining areas, these resources are not available everywhere. In China, the country with the largest coal mining workforce, only 29% of coal mining areas are suitable for solar power. In all four countries, less than 7% of coal mining areas have suitable wind resources. Further, countries would have to scale-up their current solar capacity significantly to transition coal miners who work in areas suitable for solar development.

Just transitions: Histories and futures in a post-COVID world

“…Regional idiosyncrasies prevent further challenges. For example, solar is likely better suited than wind to replace local coal mining jobs but is not available or viable everywhere [46] . As such, it is critically important to document processes, policies, and outcomes within and across organizations that have adopted just transition principles.…”

Meeting well-below 2°C target would increase energy sector jobs globally

“…6 For example, in the 2016 US presidential election, candidate Trump referred to coal miners 294 times and campaigned on a platform of reviving the coal industry and coal jobs. 4,7 When announcing his intention to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement in 2017, President Trump said, ''. I happen to love the coal miners.''…”

“…Additionally, left and green politicians, along with environmentalists, are interested in understanding the scale and scope of potential renewable energy jobs under a ''green economy.'' 3,7,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19] There are three main strands of literature that have examined potential job shifts. The first has investigated the short-term and economy-wide job impacts of climate-policy-driven energy transitions at the regional 20 and global levels.…”

The Crisis of US Coal Communities: Strategies for a Just Transition to Renewable Energy

“…The federal government would subsidize private renewable energy companies to expand operations at closed coal power plant sites, hire existing community members, and provide job retraining at their power plants. Because most coal miners have strong ties to their communities and do not wish to relocate (Pai et al 2020), clean energy companies must be incentivized to bring training programs to the workers, free of cost for both the company and the trainee. Coal miners can be retrained for other manual labor, such as maintaining wind turbines or installing solar panels.…”

“…The majority of coal mining areas in the US are suitable for solar and/or wind power (Pai et al 2020), so former coal workers can be reemployed in regionally appropriate clean energy jobs with similar skill requirements, competitive salary, and benefits (Louie and Pearce 2016). Job retraining for clean energy jobs is a sustainable approach for assisting coal communities, as an influx of jobs would stimulate the economy, and those jobs would be permanent.…”