More Opportunities For Renewable Energy Contractors In Europe

With European countries striving to meet their renewable energy targets for 2020, their increased efforts could spell good news for renewable energy contractors, an article on Shout 99 reports.

Over the next five to six years, experts predict that the number of vacancies for renewable energy contractors in Europe will continue to rise. The growth pattern was highlighted in a report conducted by international professional services company Procorre, which operates in over 100 countries.

The 2020 targets were established in order to reduce carbon emissions; but also to increase the amount of a country’s of total energy consumption that is generated from renewable energy sources.

The report shows that the UK, Netherlands and France are currently falling behind other European countries when it comes to meeting their renewable targets.

In the UK, for example, renewable energy resources only account for 4.2% of the country’s total energy usage – well behind its 15% target for 2020. The Netherlands is only slightly better with a 4.5% proportion of renewable energy, but again, this is some distance from its 16% target.

France’s renewable energy consumption currently accounts for 13.4% of its total energy, whilst its 2020 target stands at 23%.

With these countries looking to meet these targets, they will need to expand their renewable energy industries. The European Commission estimates that in order for Europe to reach its overall 20% renewable energy target, the amount of work needing to be done would create over 400,000 jobs over a period of nine years, starting from 2011.

According to Lisa Mangan, relationship manager at Procorre, new resources and technologies are becoming more efficient and cost-effective. This means that she would “expect to see huge growth in the number of new roles for contractors in this area throughout Europe.”

“Politicians have long talked about increased production of renewable energy creating a growth in the jobs market. Contractors throughout Europe are already benefitting from that growth of the renewable energy industry,” she added.