Wind power employed five times more people than coal in Germany in 2016 - report

Germany’s wind power sector employed about five times more people than the country’s coal industry in 2016, the website strom-report.de reports. About 160,000 people worked in onshore and offshore wind power in that year, compared to roughly 31,000 in the hard coal and lignite industry, the article says. About 27,200 people were employed in Germany’s offshore wind industry, while the onshore sector provided 133,000 jobs. By contrast, around 19,400 people worked in the lignite and 11,500 in the hard coal industries. According to the website, employment in the coal industry shrunk by over 100,000 jobs since the year 2000, whereas employment in the wind industry has more than tripled over the same period. With a share of 47 percent in total employment in Germany’s renewable energy sector, wind power was by far the most important employer.

Find the article in German here.

Read a CLEW factsheet on onshore wind power business in Germany here and on the coal industry here.