Question reference: S6W-25577
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 16 February 2024
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Current status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 12 March 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many jobs have been created in the renewables sector in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
Statistics from the ONS Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy (LCREE) survey provide estimates of renewables employment in Scotland. No data is available to provide additional geographic breakdowns below the Scotland level at present.
As the flowing table shows, the estimated number of direct jobs in renewable electricity was 8,000 in 2022 and 5,400 in 2018.
Employment (Full-time equivalent) | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Scotland | 5,400 | 5,400 | 6,700 | 9,700 | 8,000 |
The LCREE estimates presented in the table above are survey-based and are therefore subject to a degree of uncertainty.
Other estimates of FTE employment in the renewable sector exist, such as those in the linked 2023 study by Fraser of Allander Institute (totalling around 42,000 FTE in 2021). This also includes indirect and induced employment estimates. FINAL-The-Economic-Impact-of-Scotlands-Renewable-Energy-Sector-1.pdf (fraserofallander.org)