The number of people employed in the UK renewables industry is expected to fall over the coming years due to continued policy uncertainty.
Renewable Energy Association (REA) chief executive Nina Skorupska outlined 13 negative policy impacts in the first six months of the Conservative government to delegates at the All-Energy 2016 conference in Glasgow today.
A new report to be published next week by the REA will show that the number of people working in the renewables industry has risen by 2000 since last year to 117,000, Skorupska said.
However, the REA chief said she expected a continued slow down or decline in the number of renewables jobs in the coming years.
“It may be painful and some companies have already left the scene. There may be a few years of looking over our shoulders enviously at other countries,” she said,
Skorupska said the renewables industry had to move on and come to terms with the UK agenda of affordability.
“We need to get back to innovation and find new business cases. The subsidies era may be coming to a premature and abrupt end but the need for renewables has not,” she said.
Image: REA
‘Painful’ future for UK green jobs
Government policies impacting industry growth, says REA at All-Energy
By EBS