Fortunately, last year, and for the second consecutive year, green energies increased their contribution to the national economy and they cheapened notably the prices of the electricity market.
Unfortunately, and as commented on this web page, the destruction of employment in the sector, it claimed more than 2.700 jobs.
Employment in Spain
By technologies, the ones that created the most net employment in 2016 were wind (535), solar photovoltaic (182), solar thermoelectric (76), low enthalpy geothermal (19), marine (17) and mini-wind power (15). fifteen). However, most of the jobs in the sector are concentrated in the generación biomass energy. It is followed by wind, with 17.100, and solar photovoltaic, with 9.900, according to data provided by Irena (International Renewable Energy Agency).
In the rest of the world, solar photovoltaic is the one that is at the head, by employing 2,8 million people, which represents 11% of all the work generated by renewables. It is followed by wind installations, with 1,1 million jobs.
Irena has set as a goal to comply with climate change policies that by 2030 the implementation of renewables in the world will double. That would, by his calculations, make 24 million people could be employed in this sector by then.
According to Irena, who uses the Association of Renewable Energy Companies (APPA) as a source, the sector comes from destroying employment since 2008, when renewables employed about 150000 people, in that year the highest figure was recorded in our country.
Irena blames this situation on "adverse policies in the electric sector«, Which cause the number of employees in wind, solar and biomass to continue to decline.
GDP in Spain
After years of declines, it seems that renewable energy sources begin to increase little by little, their weight in the economy of our country. According to the latest Study of the Macroeconomic Impact of Renewable Energies in Spain prepared annually by the Association of Renewable Energy Companies (APPA), in 2016 the sector contributed 8.511 million euros to GDP, which represented 0,76% of the total and an increase of 3,3% compared to the previous year.
By technologies, the one that contributed the most was photovoltaic solar (32,37%), followed by wind (22,38%) and thermoelectric solar (16,45%). In addition, it added 1.000 million in taxation net and a net export balance of another 2.793 million was recorded.
The reasons for this growth must be found in the increase in activity in this industry, which was mainly due to the wind auctions (500 MW) and biomass (200 MW) and the announcement of the new bids that were already made in 2017 and whose effect, with all certainty, will be reflected in next year's report.
Despite these good data (which is far from the record contribution to GDP in 2012 -10.641 million, 1% of the total-), the association wanted highlight paralysis that renewable energies live in Spain, since in all of 2016 only 43 MW of new installed power were added, a minimum figure if we compare it with other countries in the same period.
Green savings in the electricity market
Apart from their impact at the macroeconomic level, clean sources also influenced the future of the electricity market in our country in 2016. Thanks to them, the price of each megawatt hour (MWh) purchased decreased by 21,5 euros, which finally stood at 39,67. According to this study, without wind, solar or hydro, each MWh would have cost 61,17 euros, so their presence in the mix represented a total saving of 5.370 million throughout the year. A more than important figure
On the other hand, renewables prevented the import of almost 20.000 tons of oil, which prevented the disbursement of another 5.989 million euros, and prevented 52,2 million of tons of CO2 pollute our atmosphere, which also led to a saving of 279 million in emission rights.
We expect that with the last 3 mega-auctions in the state, the weight of renewables in GDP will increase, and a lot during the next 2 or 3 years.