Released March 19, 2024 | SUGAR LAND
en
Written by Paul Wiseman for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--One point of great excitement about the energy transition revolves around the number of jobs it will create across the renewable options. Wind, solar, geothermal, renewable natural gas, hydrogen, power transmission lines, construction on all the above--these are just a few of the hoped-for employment opportunities.
Training and equipping the massive numbers of people this will require--in every industry--is a gargantuan task. The task for hydrogen alone was the subject of a paper by Reuters and DAI entitled, "Finding the Workforce Skills Needed for the Global Hydrogen Economy."
The Count and the Amount
In a telling introduction the paper announces, "The emerging hydrogen economy could generate up to 30 million jobs per year around the world by 2050 according to research body CIC energiGUNE. This is about five times the number of people directly employed in oil and gas, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO)." Even as soon as 2030 that number could reach 1 million workers worldwide.
Assuming that the energy transition reduces the need for oil and gas workers--a possibility that is the subject of debate--many of those expendable oil and gas people could transition to hydrogen. That is, unless they move to another logical option, geothermal, which is more like oil and gas work than any other renewable because the foundation of both industries involves the need to drill deeply into rock formations to access the desired energy.
The report points out that most hydrogen currently produced comes from the oil and gas industry in a process called steam methane reforming. Coupled with carbon capture and storage (CCS), this creates what's called "blue hydrogen." Today this accounts for about 95% of hydrogen production.
By 2050, however, the report quotes research firm DNV as believing it likely that this number will drop to around 28%, with the rest coming from "huge electrolysis plants that will split water into hydrogen and oxygen, using renewable electricity to create 'green hydrogen.'"
Which Switch?
DAI's Patrick Henry points out two issues with workers switching from blue to green hydrogen. One is that operations for the two "colors" are widely divergent. The second, similarly, is that current green technologies are also widely divergent, meaning workers could not easily move from one company to another, even once they leave fossil fuels, without additional training.
Also, says the report, most jobs that green hydrogen creates will be limited to the technical side--people with strong STEM skills (science, technology, engineering and math), an area that is already screaming for workers. A 2021 research report noted that one-third of U.S. workers lacked sufficient digital skills to succeed in the digital economy of that time, a situation that could face a further squeeze as the green economy ramps up.
Green hydrogen companies will also need people in sales, marketing, process control, financing and others, says DAI's Louise Flynn, a director in the firm's Sustainable Business Group. That will create competition for staffing in other areas besides STEM.
On the positive side she adds that, in addition to oil and gas, workers in chemicals and heavy industry could be retrained for hydrogen. She also said that the energy transition will push new graduates that formerly would have considered fossil fuels into green hydrogen instead. "It's a branding issue," she said.
Solutions?
The Inflation Reduction Act, which offers $3 trillion in energy transition funding toward job creation, "underscores the need for government support in helping to create workforce readiness for the hydrogen economy," the report states.
DAI offers five suggestions on how to enable more worker training:
Already looking at trillions of dollars of investment in infrastructure to deliver hydrogen, construction of separation facilities and ongoing research, all of the green hydrogen and other energy transition options face competition from each other as well as from existing industries. Solving these issues will be a necessary part of advancing the transition.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
Training and equipping the massive numbers of people this will require--in every industry--is a gargantuan task. The task for hydrogen alone was the subject of a paper by Reuters and DAI entitled, "Finding the Workforce Skills Needed for the Global Hydrogen Economy."
The Count and the Amount
In a telling introduction the paper announces, "The emerging hydrogen economy could generate up to 30 million jobs per year around the world by 2050 according to research body CIC energiGUNE. This is about five times the number of people directly employed in oil and gas, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO)." Even as soon as 2030 that number could reach 1 million workers worldwide.
Assuming that the energy transition reduces the need for oil and gas workers--a possibility that is the subject of debate--many of those expendable oil and gas people could transition to hydrogen. That is, unless they move to another logical option, geothermal, which is more like oil and gas work than any other renewable because the foundation of both industries involves the need to drill deeply into rock formations to access the desired energy.
The report points out that most hydrogen currently produced comes from the oil and gas industry in a process called steam methane reforming. Coupled with carbon capture and storage (CCS), this creates what's called "blue hydrogen." Today this accounts for about 95% of hydrogen production.
By 2050, however, the report quotes research firm DNV as believing it likely that this number will drop to around 28%, with the rest coming from "huge electrolysis plants that will split water into hydrogen and oxygen, using renewable electricity to create 'green hydrogen.'"
Which Switch?
DAI's Patrick Henry points out two issues with workers switching from blue to green hydrogen. One is that operations for the two "colors" are widely divergent. The second, similarly, is that current green technologies are also widely divergent, meaning workers could not easily move from one company to another, even once they leave fossil fuels, without additional training.
Also, says the report, most jobs that green hydrogen creates will be limited to the technical side--people with strong STEM skills (science, technology, engineering and math), an area that is already screaming for workers. A 2021 research report noted that one-third of U.S. workers lacked sufficient digital skills to succeed in the digital economy of that time, a situation that could face a further squeeze as the green economy ramps up.
Green hydrogen companies will also need people in sales, marketing, process control, financing and others, says DAI's Louise Flynn, a director in the firm's Sustainable Business Group. That will create competition for staffing in other areas besides STEM.
On the positive side she adds that, in addition to oil and gas, workers in chemicals and heavy industry could be retrained for hydrogen. She also said that the energy transition will push new graduates that formerly would have considered fossil fuels into green hydrogen instead. "It's a branding issue," she said.
Solutions?
The Inflation Reduction Act, which offers $3 trillion in energy transition funding toward job creation, "underscores the need for government support in helping to create workforce readiness for the hydrogen economy," the report states.
DAI offers five suggestions on how to enable more worker training:
- Internal training programs for work with hydrogen technologies, safety protocols, and equipment maintenance
- Collaboration with educational institutions such as technical schools and vocational training centers
- Certification programs for formal skills recognition
- Simulations and practical training
- Continuous learning platforms
Already looking at trillions of dollars of investment in infrastructure to deliver hydrogen, construction of separation facilities and ongoing research, all of the green hydrogen and other energy transition options face competition from each other as well as from existing industries. Solving these issues will be a necessary part of advancing the transition.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
