Did You Know? Solar Is Creating Real Jobs in Alberta
Back in 2016, Alberta set an ambitious target: generate 30% of the province's electricity from renewable sources, paired with a plan to phase out coal fired electricity generation entirely. That kind of shift lines up with a broader global trend away from fossil fuel investment and employment, and it points toward something worth paying attention to: a genuine opportunity for sustainable job growth in the clean energy sector, right here in Alberta.
The numbers back this up at a national scale. Clean Energy Canada projects that by 2030, the country will add 208,700 new clean energy jobs, a figure that far outpaces the 125,800 jobs expected to be lost across the fossil fuel industry over the same period. Alberta specifically stands out in these projections: clean energy employment in this province is expected to grow by 164% over the next decade, among the fastest growth rates of any Canadian province, modeled under the federal government's climate plan, A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy.
Research from the Pembina Institute dug even deeper into what actually drives this job growth, and found something particularly relevant to BVGEC's model specifically: investment in community owned energy projects, rather than large utility scale developments alone, can increase the employment potential of a given clean energy investment by an additional 30 to 50%. In other words, the community ownership structure itself isn't just good for local control and profit sharing, it's measurably better at creating local jobs than the alternative.
We see this dynamic play out directly through our own network of installer partners: KCP Energy, Kuby Renewable Energy Ltd, Solar YYC, and Virtuoso Energy, all Alberta based companies doing the genuinely hands-on work of designing, wiring, and mounting every system in our portfolio. Every BVGEC project means real work for real local tradespeople, not a cheque sent off to a distant utility or an out of province contractor. As Alberta continues its transition away from coal, ensuring that shift happens with proper planning, adequate job retraining, and a gradual, well managed phase out will matter just as much as the clean energy targets themselves.
References
Jeyakumar, B. (2016). Job growth in clean energy: Employment in Alberta's emerging renewables and energy efficiency sectors. Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development. https://www.pembina.org/reports/job-growth-in-clean-energy.pdf
Clean Energy Canada. (2021). The new reality. https://cleanenergycanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Report_CEC_CleanJobs2021.pdf
Average annual gains in renewables employment, Alberta (Source: Jeyakumar, 2016)
Canadian jobs in the clean energy sector in 2030 (Source: CEC, 2021)
Clean energy jobs in 2030 by province (Source: CEC, 2021)
