Portal:Renewable energy/Quotes/15

• "One of the new forces propelling renewable energy development is the potential to create new industries and generate millions of new jobs. Jobs from renewables now number in the hundreds of thousands in several countries. Germany, which has led renewable energy development for more than a decade, had more than 300,000 people employed in renewables industries in 2009, almost equaling the number of jobs in the country’s largest manufacturing sector, automobiles."

• "Most of the large fiscal stimulus packages launched since late 2008 to combat the global recession have included significant funding for renewable energy. This has prevented a more pronounced economic downturn in the United States and has created a new industry almost from scratch in South Korea, which devoted four-fifths of its fiscal stimulus to the green economy. In total, nearly $200 million in green stimulus funding has been allocated to renewables and energy efficiency."

• "The 1,230 gigawatts (GW) of renewable power generating capacity in place at the end of 2009 now constitutes just over 25 percent of total generating capacity worldwide. This is over three times nuclear generating capacity and roughly 38 percent of the capacity of fossil fuel-burning power plants worldwide."

– Christopher Flavin in REN21 (2010). Renewables 2010 Global Status Report p. 52.