And with a current 20 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy projects in development across Scotland, with many more GW yet to come, the sector is well on its way to even further growth. For Stuart and other executives in the industry, the report is a bargaining chip for further government incentives to encourage growth in the industry.

image via Burcote Wind

Although it may seem that renewable energy jobs simply replace fossil fuel generation jobs, many in the sector argue that with manufacturing and construction jobs, in addition to operations and maintenance jobs, green energy actually creates more, and more skilled, jobs per megawatt than its dirtier counterparts. Renewable energy jobs have also become more popular for women, bringing in a whole new segment of the poplation that was largely absent from fossil fuel energy jobs.

In the United States, green energy employment is also surging, with California leading the country in renewable energy installations and jobs. The Green Job Bank recently reported  a dramatic increase in the number of U.S.-based green job openings. The site, which gets its data from its green job search engine, came up with 36,500 green jobs posted during the latest quarter, double the number it indexed for the first quarter of 2011.

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