Victoria's renewable energy employment boom

Renewable energy initiatives have created a number of job opportunities in Victoria, and it now creates more large-scale renewable energy construction jobs than any other state. Investments in wind and solar farms have provided 5169 job-years of employment in Victoria, overtaking the 5156 in Queensland, according to a report by Green Energy Markets commissioned by GetUp.

Projects of the Victorian Government’s renewable energy auction, which aims to ensure 25% of the state’s electricity generation comes from renewable sources by 2020, will give Victoria an even bigger lead with 6072 job-years. One of these projects is the Berrybank Wind Farm located west of Geelong, which will create 214 jobs and 24 traineeships.

Australia-wide rooftop solar installations generated a total of 6667 full-time jobs in August alone, setting a new monthly record. NSW and ACT lead in terms of the number of jobs in the rooftop solar installation industry, with 1684, followed by Queensland’s 1444.

However, the report found Victoria is likely to catch up following the recently announced Victorian Government rebate, which aims to see an additional 65,000 solar systems installed each year. This is predicted to increase Victorian solar installation jobs to a monthly average of 1719, up from the 2018 average of 1096.

“Rooftop solar is on track to provide $41 million of bill savings to Victorian households alone and will continue to cut family power bills with the ongoing installation boom,” said GetUp Campaigns Director Miriam Lyons.

The report noted that in August, renewable energy exceeded 25% of power supply for the first time across Australia’s main grids. However, Lyons said Scott Morrison and his Coalition Government need to do more in terms of investing in renewable energy and taking action to reduce climate pollution. “This report shows that Victorian households and businesses will race to a clean energy future if provided with government leadership on policy.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/SimonKraus