ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the direct jobs created during construction and operation of a power station. What's more, thousands of permanent jobs are being created at both the power station and Exxaro's nearby Grootegeluk coal mine, as Medupi transitions from building site to power plant. By comparison, the capex job-years to construct a coal-fired power station and establish an associated coal mine is a combined 25 571/gigawatt (GW), with the majority of the jobs associated with the building of the actual power station. On the capex side, 4 917 and approx. 4 500 job-years per new GW are required as input for solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind respectively in the supplier industry. As for opex, 18 and 4 job-years per terawatt-hour (TWh) produced are needed for solar PV and wind. In the US, for instance, the number of solar and wind jobs now far exceed those in the coal sector.
