The 2010 Industry Review conservatively estimates that the manufacturing of fuel cells will see the largest growth in jobs in the next 10 years, with almost 700 000 cumulative jobs created in this time. In line with Fuel Cell Today’s projections of unit shipments over this period, this could see the creation of more than 1 million new jobs in total when fuel cell installation, servicing, and maintenance are included.
In this way fuel cells may stimulate the economies of a number of countries in the ongoing uncertain economic climate, through its potential for significant job creation and a ‘green’ route out of recession.
Fuel Cell Today’s proprietary job creation forecasts are presented in the Review broken down by application and by region, together with a discussion and summary of the forecast trends. Job creation forecasts in the fuel cell industry are also compared against those in other sectors, such as wind and solar energy.
The new Industry Review emphasizes the geographical variations in job creation. The Fuel Cell Today projections show that over the next decade Asia will dominate in terms of manufacturing, while the key adopter regions – including Europe and North America – will be the locations for installation and maintenance jobs.
Fuel Cells: Sustainability highlights a number of implications for businesses and policymakers concerning wealth and job creation. It also raises a number of issues for the fuel cell industry itself which, if not addressed, could be a barrier to fuel cell adoption, including education, skills and training, and supply chain development.
‘In Europe and North America, there has been a great deal of political focus in recent years on job creation to stimulate economic growth, and also to compensate for those being lost in declining industries,’ comments Dr Kerry-Ann Adamson, Principal Analyst.
Adamson continues: ‘Jobs in the fuel cell industry are genuine green collar jobs – manufacturing jobs focused on new, clean technologies. Our analysis shows that as the fuel cell industry expands, many hundreds of thousands of new jobs will be created.’