Yoko Nobuoka, Sasmita Patnaik, Shaily Jha, Neeraj Kuldeep
February 2019 | Energy Transitions, Sustainable Livelihoods
Suggested Citation: IEA and CEEW. 2019. Women working in the rooftop solar sector. Paris: IEA.
This report takes the rooftop solar sector in India as a case study to assess the impact of a clean energy transition on women’s employment. Conducted in collaboration with the International Energy Agency (IEA), it is based on a survey of rooftop solar companies as well as qualitative interviews with women currently employed in the sector. It identifies opportunities for better gender balance at work, as well as barriers to achieving it.
While pursuing its renewable energy targets, India is also working to realise four of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: gender equality; access to affordable clean energy; inclusive and sustainable economic growth; and mitigation of climate change. India’s rooftop solar targets represent a major opportunity for sustainable development and for women’s employment.
Note: The ratio indicates the simple average of the ratio of female employees of companies that disclose the information. 130 out of about 5 000 listed companies in India disclose gender-disaggregated employment numbers. Of those, there are 19 in industrials sector, 9 in utilities sector, 9 in oil, gas and coal, 5 in communications, 24 in financials, and 7 in technology.
Source: IEA-CEEW survey 2018, company disclosure. Bloomberg LP (2019), Bloomberg Terminal
Note: Technical positions indicate positions classified as highly skilled jobs, for example, engineers and project managers in core business and accountants and HR specialists in corporate segment. The ratio of non-technical staff was asked in the survey but the responses are not displayed here due to the insufficient number of usable responses.
Source: IEA-CEEW survey, 2018
While India has shown a strong commitment towards a clean energy transition through its renewable electricity installation target for 2022, deployment of rooftop solar technology has been slow. With the potential to create a large number of jobs in general, the rooftop solar sector also generates the types of jobs attractive to highly skilled women in particular, a largely untapped pool in India.
Given both the high number and diverse types of jobs that the rooftop solar technology sector generates, it is well positioned to adopt a gender-responsive approach to employment which will attract professionally educated and trained women.
Source: iStock