The green energy sector may soon power on, creating thousands of jobs, according to a report in The Australian June 18.

The number of wind farms in Australia is about to grow and with it new jobs will be created, energy companies say. The Council of Australian Governments approved a 20 percent renewable energy target by 2020. This will hugely increase the number of wind farms in Australia, which now number 50, with an installed capacity of 1306MW, or equal to about 1.3 percent of the national electricity needs and 39 percent of the renewable energy sector.

Pacific Hydro chief executive Rob Grant was quoted as saying: “The jobs created in building renewable energy projects are all those sorts of jobs that might be under pressure at the moment because of the global financial crisis and are easily transferable from sectors like mining.”

“There is no better time to focus on renewable energy infrastructure than now. We must legislate the RET as quickly as possible to create new jobs and limit the impact of the global economic crisis.”

There are expectations that through the RET up to $25 billion over the next 10 years will be pumped into the renewable energy sector, of which between 20 and 50 per cent will be spent on generating wind energy.