The effect of renewable energy on employment. The case of Asturias (Spain)

Several changes are taking place in the energy sector as a result of the development of renewable energies and the implementation of new clean technologies.The use of renewable energies offers the opportunity to diminish energy dependence, reduce the emission of CO2 and create new employment. The involvement of local agents is highly important for the future development in this field, especially in regions whose industrial mix was based on traditional energy sources. Since this is the case in the region of Asturias (Spain), in this article we focus on the expectations of employment generated by renewable energies in Asturias during the period 2006–2010. More specifically we propose ratios of job per unit of installed energy power based on the available regional information in order to forecast energy employment in Asturias. With this aim three alternative scenarios are considered according to a range of possible future renewable energy pathways, leading to baseline, optimistic and pessimistic forecasts.Once these forecasts are computed we also analyse the emergent professional profiles and required skills related to the new jobs generated in the installation, operation and maintenance of the different renewable energy systems.