Power for All Distributed Renewable Energy Job Report Sees Strong Post-Pandemic Growth

Power for All, the global campaign to end energy poverty, today released its second Decentralized Renewable Energy (DRE) jobs report; supported by GET.invest, Good Energies Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation.

The industry's most comprehensive emerging markets employment census shows increased demand for DRE solutions is creating hundreds of thousands of formal and informal jobs.

The sector is becoming a major employment engine, especially in remote rural areas in emerging and developing economies where poverty and unemployment levels are high. In addition it is helping achieve universal electricity access while supporting the world's transition to clean energy.

In order to realize the full social and economic benefits of DRE, the report calls for concerted efforts from all stakeholders in the public, private, and non-profit sectors to ensure the necessary human capital is in place.

"With DRE recovering from the impact of the pandemic faster than the broader economy its promise is clear, however significant challenges remain," said Kristina Skierka CEO, Power for All. "Energy regulations need to be overhauled to accommodate renewables and other energy innovations, foreign investment encouraged, and structural issues like access to foreign capital and licensing restrictions resolved in order to grow DRE jobs and realize the sector's full potential."

According to the report, the DRE sector is a significant contributor to job creation in energy poor countries with the potential to create direct employment for up to half a million people in Africa by 2030.

The sector showed great resilience in the face of COVID-19 with jobs returning in 2021 and now surpassing pre-pandemic levels in most of the study countries.