New study shows economic benefits of supporting renewable energy sources

A new study, which was conducted on behalf of the European Commission’s Directorate-General Energy and Transport, is the first study to assess the economic effects of supporting renewable energy sources (RES) in detail, looking not only at jobs in the RES sector itself, but taking into account its impact on all sectors of the economy. It found that policies that support RES give a significant boost to the economy and the number of jobs in the EU. Improving current policies so that the target of 20% RES in final energy consumption in 2020 can be achieved will provide a net effect of about 410,000 additional jobs and 0.24% additional gross domestic product (GDP).