Title: Comparison of employment potential of the coal and wind power industries

Authors: Mark Diesendorf

Addresses: Institute of Environmental Studies, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia

Abstract: Australia, one of the world|s largest producers of coal, is used as a case study to compare the employment potential in the coal and wind power electricity generation industries. It is revealed that, as a result of automation, employment in the coal mining industry fell by 45% between 1987 and 2002. Moreover, as a result of the restructuring of the electricity industry as a whole, employment in the industry plunged by 50% during the 1990s. By serving as a substitute for coal power, the wind power industry, with 50% local content in dollar terms, already creates two to three times the number of direct, local job-years per kWh generated than coal power. If an expansion of the Australian content of a wind power were to be facilitated by appropriate government policies, this ratio could be expected to double, thereby indicating that a shift towards ||cleaner|| energy sources need not come at the expense of employment.

Keywords: employment; wind power; coal power; job years; policies; mandatory renewable energy target; manufacturing industries location; clean energy; coal mining; wind energy; Australia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWE.2004.005605

International Journal of Environment, Workplace and Employment, 2004 Vol.1 No.1, pp.82 - 90

Published online: 26 Oct 2004 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article