Global renewable energy industry will grow ten folds over seven years: Alistair Sproul, UNSW

The renewable energy industry is growing at 25-40 per cent per annum and will be close to ten times its present size in the next seven years. Prof Alistar Sproul, Head of School of Photovoltaic & Renewable Energy Engineering from University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia talks to Ankush Kumar on the importance of education and research in solar energy technology for future jobs. UNSW is one of Australia's prominent research universities that has programs and courses specific to solar technologies. What are the prospects of job opportunities in the renewable energy sector as compared to the conventional energy sector globally? Renewable energy, especially photovoltaics (PV) and wind are the fastest-growing industries in the energy sector. Compared with fossil fuel technologies, which require ongoing fuelling, the renewable energy industry is more capital intensive. So many of the jobs are created when the renewable plants are built. At the rate of growth of 25-40 per cent year-on-year, renewables will become the dominant source of electricity over the next decade.