There will be job losses as new technologies develop and take over and this can be managed with good planning and training schemes. Renewable energy should be seen as an opportunity for growth in New Zealand, because more money will stay in our communities and the transition will create demand for more workers - from solar and heatpump installers to electricians - and will create incentives for entrepreneurs to solve problems.

According to Yale Climate Connections, clean energy jobs grew more than twice the rate of the overall US economy in 2023. 

“Clean energy jobs are a powerful opportunity for communities. Energy jobs tend to pay higher wages than the national average, and the transition to less-polluting sources of energy is driving a surge in innovation, investment, and infrastructure construction.”

Rewiring America's recent report showed robust electrification would produce 3 million jobs.

In Australia, which has a huge solar industry, it is also estimated that there are 39 jobs directly supported for every one megawatt of solar installed.

Rewiring Aotearoa is working on jobs calculations for New Zealand, but one estimate is that we currently have about 10,000 new solar setups installed each year. If we were to increase this tenfold to 100,000 per year, this would add around 4,500 solar installation jobs to the industry, not to mention the additional demand for electricians and maintenance workers.

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