14 DAY TRIAL // This January 14, Scottish Renewables published a new report saying that the country's renewables industry had come to employ a record number of people.
More precisely, it would appear that, for the time being, over 540 Scottish-based firms that are in the business of harvesting green energy sources have a total of 11,695 employees.
These employees are both men and women, The Scotsman explains.
According to said report, Scotland’s onshore and offshore wind sector employ the most people. Specifically, they are said to have as many as 5,239 people to tend to their every needs.
The bioenergy, the wave and tidal power, and the hydro sector come shortly after, and have 835, 805, and 649 employees each.
“These latest figures show the renewables industry has seen steady growth in the number of people being employed, despite an uncertain year,” says Joss Blamire with Scottish Renewables.
“The breadth of job opportunities for project managers, ecologists and engineers has led to a wide range of people seeing renewable energy as a sector where they can use their skills,” the specialist goes on to argue.
If these figures are accurate, this means that companies that are busy implementing and carrying out offshore and onshore wind, bioenergy and hydro, and wave and tidal schemes across the country have experienced a 5% combined increase in employment.
What's interesting is that, according to Scottish Renewables, some 50% of the companies that were surveyed while carrying out this investigation into the country's green energy sector plan to add more employees over the course of the year 2014.
Otherwise put, the country's green energy sector is well on track to continue developing.
Commenting on the findings of this report, Sam Garner with the World Wildlife Fund pointed out that, “This report underlines the fact that not only is Scotland’s renewable sector cutting climate emissions and meeting 40 per cent of our electricity needs, it is also an increasingly important employer across Scotland.”