Jump in renewable energy jobs as solar farms overtake hydro power

Jobs in large-scale solar farms tripled last financial year, overtaking the hydro sector for the first time, and helping to drive an overall expansion of employment in the renewable energy sector. Data from the Australian Bureau of statistics shows the number of full-time equivalent jobs in the industry rose 28 per cent in 2017-18 from a year earlier. The total of 17,740 jobs was up about 60 per cent from its recent low in 2015-16. "We saw large scale solar projects - systems with an installed capacity of 100 kilowatts or greater - overtake hydroelectric power to become the second-largest creator of renewable jobs", accounting for a sixth of them, Jonathon Khoo, ABS's director for the centre of environmental and satellite accounts, said in a statement. Rooftop solar photovoltaics continue to be the mainstay of jobs in the industry, making up just shy of half of them. Its share has dropped back from a peak of 74 per cent in direct renewable industry jobs in 2011-12 - as installations of panels break records almost on a monthly basis - as solar farms have grown even faster.