The Impact of Renewable Energy on Employment in Indonesia

A global demand for energy has forced many countries to search for alternative and renewable energy. An anticipated effect of the development of renewable is an increase in employment as part of new green jobs creation, a major benefit for Indonesia to cope with its high unemployment rate. This paper describes the impact of renewable energy development on the jobs creation in Indonesia. First, we identify current government policies relative to renewable energy. Second, this paper describes the definition of green jobs and what type of jobs might be created due to development of renewable energy. Third, companies in Indonesia currently operating in the renewable energy sector are analyzed for their potential growth. Research is based solely on secondary data analysis. Information publicly available from the government/ministry website was used to examine policies concerning renewable energy. Related journals and articles were used to explore plans for the creation of green jobs, and a database search was conducted to identify companies currently operating in the renewable energy sector. The Kammen et al. (2004) study of Jobs per Megawatt of Capacity identified that the renewable energy installed capacity in 2007 created approximately 14,000 jobs in Indonesia. The potential capacity of renewable energy will create 70,000-190,000 jobs in Indonesia