Extract from ABC triple j
If you're looking for a career, or considering re-training, there's at least one sector that will have a tonne of work.
You've probably heard of them being talked about as "green" or "clean" jobs.
Recent studies have estimated more than half-a-million jobs will be created through what's called the "clean energy transition".
This is a catch-all phrase that includes everything from driving trucks of green ammonia and installing electric vehicle chargers, to mowing the grass under solar panels and climbing wind turbines.
Demand for skilled workers will be "unprecedented", experts say.
So, if you're planning your future, this might be a good place to start. But before you rush out and buy a ride-on lawnmower, let's take a closer look at which jobs will be most in-demand.
How do you train up for these jobs? And where might you end up being based?
How many jobs exactly?
Alison Aberley, a fourth-year apprentice in north-western Sydney, chose to become an electrician partly because she'd heard the shift to clean energy would mean plenty of work.
"I became interested in renewables because that's the future of the trade," she said.
"Everyone knows that everything is going down that way."
Turns out Alison is right. Over the last two years, a series of reports have predicted enormous demand for workers in the clean energy sector.
At the upper end of the spectrum is the Beyond Zero Emissions 2020 projection that Australia can create 1.8 million jobs in five years by investing in a "low-carbon economy".
Next up, there's the Net Zero Australia project's estimate that up to 1.3 million workers would be needed by mid-century for Australia to reach net zero emissions and become a major exporter of renewable energy.
Then there's the RepuTex modelling that underpins the federal government's Powering Australia Plan: 604,000 "direct and indirect" jobs created by 2030.
Finally, there's the Electrical Trades Union's (ETU) report that 450,000 jobs could be created in coming decades under a national renewable energy plan.
So, there's a range of figures (more on that below), but the main point is that there'll be a lot of jobs.
The ETU, which has the lowest estimate, says the level of demand for workers in the clean energy sector will be off the charts.
"It's without precedent," said Michael Wright, Acting Secretary of the ETU.
"There will be inconceivable levels of demand for skilled labour."
What are green jobs?
Good question.
To answer that, we have to go into some detail about how the estimates above were made.
One reason for the range of job figures is the different definitions of what is a green job: all agree that jobs created by installing renewables, for instance, are green jobs, but some also include planting trees, or recycling.
Then there's also disagreement over what exactly counts as a "job". The CEC and NZA, for instance, use the metric of a full-time job that lasts for one year.
Some other reports could be counting shorter term jobs that last only a few months as a single job, said Anita Talberg, director of workforce development at the Clean Energy Council.
And some estimates, like RepuTex's, counted both direct and indirect jobs.
"You want to make sure you're comparing apples with apples," she said.
Finally, each report made different assumptions about how emissions will be reduced, said the ETU's Michael Wright.
"The projections come down to questions like, 'Will Melbourne stick with gas for home cooking?'"
"And where that answer lies is a matter of thousands of electrical jobs that would need to be created."
So it's a confusing area. There's several opinions on what counts as a green job, and a range of estimates for how many will be created.
But fortunately, there's consensus on what occupations will be most in-demand.
What jobs will be most in-demand?
Electricians and engineers.
If you want to set yourself up for a career in clean energy, training for one of these two occupations would be a good start.
The CEC's Skilling the Energy Transition report, released last week, has more detail (page 10) on exactly what kinds of roles we're talking about, from grid connection engineers to battery installation specialists.
Civil, electrical, power systems and grid connection engineers are highly sought after, according to the CEC's Clean Energy Careers Guide.
A survey of clean energy employers, conducted last year, more than 50 per cent of employment in renewable energy is in engineering-type roles, including electrical and mechanical trades.
The ETU's Michael Wright said about 10,000-14,000 electrical trades workers were trained each year.
"We need an extra 80,000-100,000 of these workers over the next decade, above what we have currently," he said.
"To a young person who's passionate about tackling climate change, if they want to have a job that's getting us to net zero, be an electrician.
"The people who are actually going to get us to net zero are electricians.
"Electrical workers are the climate jobs."
But there were also other jobs, said Michael Brear, director of the University of Melbourne's Melbourne Energy Institute.
"Its technicians and trades workers, professionals, managers, clerical administrative workers, machinery operators and drivers labourers," said Professor Brear, who contributed to the Net Zero Australia project research partnership.
"The remarkable thing that stood out to us when we did this analysis was how many different types of jobs there are already and will be in the sector.
"The ten most popular jobs are about a third of all the jobs in the sector."
What do they pay?
That depends on what kind of job you're after.
Under the industry award, a first-year non-adult apprentice electrician starts out on $576.17 a week, which increases to $848.74 by their fourth and final year, plus overtime and allowances.
Full-time "electricity services" workers are well-paid, with an average weekly total cash earnings of over $2,000, which is the highest figure behind the mining industry for non-managerial employees, ABS data shows.
A 2019 survey found the average annual salary in Australasia for workers in the renewables industry with six years' experience was $US101,591 ($148,139).
How do I train for them?
Again, depends on the job.
But the good news is you don't have to go university if you don't want to.
The engineering jobs require an engineering degree, but others can be trained for through the vocational education system.
To be a small-scale solar and battery installer, for instance, you need at least a Certificate III in Electrotechnology Electrician, which takes about four years through TAFE.
Again, the Clean Energy Careers Guide has more information on these different pathways, including what to do if you want to switch between industries.
A huge amount of training will need to take place to meet the demand for skilled workers, said Professor Brear.
The Net Zero Australia project estimated there were 140,000 people working in the energy sector around the country.
"We're talking about of a factor of ten growth in the number of people working in the sector by mid-century," he said.
"That's ten times the number of electricians, ten times the number of engineers, ten times the project managers and finance people and lawyers and and labourers and everything.
Are these jobs ongoing?
Alot of the jobs associated with renewables are in the construction phase, which means many won't last more than two years, said Dr Talberg.
"A solar or a wind farm needs several hundred people to build it. A solar farm takes about a year, and a wind farm is about a year-and-a-half.
"Once it's set up and in the maintenance phase, a solar farm needs only a few people. On a wind farm it's a minimum of 7-9."
So the jobs will be relatively short-term, but there'll be lots of them.
The graph below shows all the utility-scale (ie very big) clean energy projects that have been at least applied for so far.
It's estimated the renewables sector employs about 30,000. If all these projects go ahead, they will create an additional 50,000 jobs, according to the CEC.
That's just the beginning. There'll also be all the jobs created by even larger renewables projects that haven't been applied for yet, but which are expected to be built within the next few decades.
Where will these jobs be based?
All over, but according to some scenarios a disproportionate number will be in the northern Australia.
If Australia becomes a major renewables exporter, the northern parts of WA, Queensland and the NT could be transformed by five or six "Tasmania-sized" solar arrays and huge hydrogen hubs, according to the Net Zero Australia project.
These enormous systems will require an army of workers: According to the modelling, almost a fifth of WA's workforce would be working in the energy sector by 2060, up from 1.7 per cent in 2020.
In the NT, the demand would be even higher, with the energy sector accounting for 165.1 per cent of the projected workforce.
As Professor Brear pointed out, that was more people than was projected to be in the territory by mid-century.
"That exposes the limitations of our modelling," he said.
"A lot of these jobs could be created across the southern states and in particular South Australia, when other factors come into play.
Even if most of the jobs were in northern Australia, there would still be plenty in the south, he added.
"There's almost four times the number of jobs in the energy sector in Victoria in mid-century as there is today."
"Whilst there'll be lots of jobs in regional Australia and remote Australia, there'll be a hell of a lot of jobs in Melbourne and Sydney and Brisbane and Adelaide and Hobart and Perth.
"They'll need to have lots of wind turbines and solar and EVs and poles and wires and everything service them."
For Alison, the apprentice electrician in north-western Sydney, these predictions are music to her ears.
There's always going to be work for an electrician somewhere," she said.
"So that’s a comfort for once I gain my certificates."
No comments:
Post a Comment