The third in our clean energy series looks at how jobs have taken off and where the work lies

Just over three years ago, in response to the twin crises of the Black Summer bushfires and COVID-19, the Climate Council published its Clean Jobs Plan to create 76,000 jobs, help rebuild the Australian economy and tackle climate change. 

It was a “terrific roadmap for career switching”, says the University of Wollongong’s Energy Futures Network Director, Ty Christopher, who is currently supporting a $10-million project to build a new Energy Futures Skills Centre at UOW. 

The Climate Council’s plan looked at a new era of industry. “They’re saying jobs which re-engineer the energy system, renew industries and restore our environments – this is very much energy-transition focused,” Ty said.

In this transition, fossil fuel industry workers like coal miners who switch to clean energy jobs will find they’re highly valued and well paid, he added. 

“These are intelligent people, smart people. We need to harness them into renewables and into renewable industries.”

The Climate Council is an independent organisation advocating for climate policies and solutions to drive down emissions; Austinmer’s Professor Tim Flannery is its Chief Councillor. The council’s Clean Jobs Plan predicted 70% of jobs created would be in construction and administrative services, listing 12 policy opportunities to drive growth, including clean energy projects. 

“Basically, we're talking about immediate needs for 15,000 jobs for renewable energy installations, large solar farms, large wind farms, transmission infrastructure,” Ty said.

From potential to actual jobs

In April 2021, about six months after the Climate Council reported on potential jobs, the Clean Energy Council published a snapshot of actual jobs for projects already approved and in the pipeline.

The Clean Energy Council is a not-for-profit, membership-based organisation representing renewable energy and energy storage businesses. 

It said there were 28,649 jobs nationwide in projects that were financially committed and under construction. The three technologies offering the most work were large-scale battery storage (8485 jobs); large-scale solar (7385) and wind (8273).

“That was three years ago,” Ty said. “There's even more projects going on now; they're in battery storage, biomass, pumped hydro, solar and wind.”

Which brings us to today and the Labor government’s plan for Powering Australia and cutting emissions by 43% by 2030 to achieve net zero by 2050.

“Their stated policy on renewables is they're talking about just over 600,000 jobs nationally being created in the renewable energy industry,” Ty says. “And five out six of them to be in regions. 

“You're not going to build a solar farm in the Sydney CBD. So it's almost Captain Obvious to be saying that renewable energy jobs are going to be in regions, but sometimes we need reminding, because that's where the space is.

“There'll be an itinerant workforce element to that. 

“But once the infrastructure's built, it still needs to be maintained. And that leaves a workforce behind.”

Before wind farms, research jobs

In the Illawarra, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water estimates the proposed 1,461km2 offshore wind zone could create 2500 jobs during construction and 1250 ongoing jobs.

Many of those jobs will be for engineers and tradespeople. 

However, with five to seven years of scientific investigation off our coast before any final decisions are made on offshore wind, it could be boom time for researchers.

Ty, who works with academics as part of UOW’s Blue Energy Futures Lab, says there’ll be opportunities for people who work in marine ecology (mainly benthos, coastal processes, oceanography, specialists in ecosystem functioning, marine mammals and birds), fisheries scientists, social scientists, communications specialists and cultural researchers/advisors.

All these people will be essential to ensure the renewable energy transition is done right. 

“It's new big infrastructure,” he says. “It affects people's lives, it affects people's livelihoods. It has a potential to – done poorly – be devastating for regions who are based on fossil fuels like the Hunter and the Illawarra. And it has an equal potential to transform those regions to be economic powerhouses to an extent that has never been even dreamed of, let alone achieved up until this point of time – if it's done right. 

“That's why I'm involved. I look at renewable energy and the role that the Illawarra can play in it, which is far more than a wind farm, it's about being a key part of the supply chain that builds the steel for every large-scale solar farm, large-scale wind farm, and floating offshore wind farm. 

“It's about having the smart people here that know how to build high-pressure vessel floating technology. It's about having the environmental scientists here that know how to come up with net positive environmental outcomes; it is about having the social scientists here who can actually know the right way to engage with people to work through this as a social transition. 

“And all of that is like jobs to the power of 17.”

Read more about clean energy jobs in Engineer yourself a future and Work begins on $10m Energy Futures Skills Centre at UOW