Abu Dhabi: Although renewable energy sector is still in its nascent stage in the Gulf region, including the UAE, it may employ an annual average of roughly 120,000 jobs in the region through 2030, said an expert on Tuesday.

The job creation will unfold if the sector achieves its stated renewable energy targets and plans, a spokesman with the Abu-Dhabi based International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) told Gulf News.

Given the ambitious plans for renewable energy deployment — including massive solar power projects — in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the majority of the jobs will be in these countries, he said.

The job projections came following the release of a new ground-breaking global report yesterday, ‘Renewable Energy and Jobs — Annual Review 2015’. by Irena from its offices in Abu Dhabi that estimated that the renewable energy industry created 7.7 million jobs across the globe by the end of 2014.

According to the report, the sector created one million jobs in 2014 alone, marking an 18 per cent increase compared with 6.5 million jobs created by the end of 2013.

An estimated additional 1.5 million people work in jobs directly supported by the large hydropower sector, which is a first-ever global estimate in this regard, said the report, Renewable energy may create 16 million jobs worldwide by 2030, if doubling of the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix materialises as envisaged by the agency.

Speaking on the latest findings, Adnan Z. Ameen, Irena Director-General, said: “Renewable energy continues to assert itself as a major global employer, generating strong economic and social benefits worldwide. This increase is being driven, in part, by declining renewable energy technology costs, which creates more jobs in installation, operations and maintenance. We expect this upward trend to continue as the business case for renewable energy continues to strengthen,” he said.

Asia is leading in job creation in the renewable energy sector with five of the 10 countries with the most jobs in the sector now located in the region — China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Bangladesh. This trend has lowered the share of global renewable energy jobs in the European Union and the United States from 31 per cent in 2012 to 25 per cent now, despite continued job growth.

The 10 countries with the largest number of renewable energy jobs are China, Brazil, the US, India, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, France, Bangladesh and Colombia. The solar PV (photovoltaic) industry is the largest renewable energy employer worldwide with 2.5 million jobs, followed by liquid biofuels with 1.8 million jobs, and wind power, which surpassed one million jobs for the first time this year.

All renewable energy sectors — solar, wind, biofuels, biomass, biogas and small hydropower — have witnessed job growth. Solar PV is the largest renewable energy employer with 2.5 million jobs worldwide, up from 2.3 million in 2013.

China is the world’s largest renewable energy employer with 3.4 million jobs, leading in solar PV, wind, solar heating and cooling, small and large hydropower, biomass and biogas.

Brazil is the leading employer in biofuels with 845,000 jobs. Its wind industry is also growing rapidly, with employment increasing 12 per cent to 35,800 from 2013.

In the US, total solar employment surged 22 per cent from 142,700 to 173,800 positions and overall wind jobs increased 43 per cent since 2013 to 73,000. Data also finds that employment of women in the solar industry is on the rise, increasing from 26,700 to 37,500.

In India, if the government reaches its goal of installing 100GW of solar PV and 60GW of wind, it will generate more than 1 million jobs by 2022.

Germany is the leading renewable energy employer in Europe with 371,400 jobs.

Liquid biofuels (roughly 1.8 million, up from 1.45 million), modern biomass (822,000, up from 782,000) and biogas (381,000, up from 264,000) are also major employers, with jobs concentrated in feedstock supply.