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The penetration of renewable energy sources for electricity generation is critical to decarbonize electricity systems, a main goal in the context of the energy transition. Among renewable energies capacity additions, wind energy has played a dominant role in the European Union and elsewhere, fuelled by technology cost reductions and public promotion schemes. In turn, wind deployment has led to considerable socioeconomic and environmental benefits in terms of CO 2 emissions reductions, avoidance of fossil fuels and employment creation. The aim of this paper is to assess those socioeconomic and environmental benefits of wind energy deployment in the European Union and their evolution over time. Based on two novel methodologies, which allow a disaggregated analysis per country and stage of the supply chain (only for employment creation), an ex-post calculation of those benefits over the 2008–2016 period has been carried out. Our results show that, overall, those benefits are considerable and have increased over time. However, some benefits are more relevant than others. In fact, the monetary calculation of the fossil fuel savings is twice the benefits in terms of CO 2 emissions abatement. Their relevance also differs across countries and, for employment creation, across distinct stages of the value chain. • Ex-post calculation of the benefits of wind energy in the EU in the period 2008–2016. • Assessment of the emission reductions, avoidance of fossil fuels and employment creation. • The monetary quantification of the fossil fuel savings is twice the benefits of CO 2 emissions abatement. • More than 2.5 million jobs created in the period 2008–2016 in the EU28. • Policy costs are higher than benefits from CO 2 and fossil fuel reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been an intense debate on the quantification of the employment effects of renewable electricity deployment in the European Union. However, most studies carried out in the past have focused on specific countries and those with a European-wide scope have not provided disaggregated results per country. Furthermore, differences between importing and exporting countries have not been considered. This paper aims to cover those gaps. It presents a novel methodology which integrates the aforementioned considerations in order to calculate the employment effects of renewable energy deployment. The methodology is useful to calculate dynamic employment factors (considering technology learning effects) and the specific capacity (based on trade effects) to which these factors should be applied. It is applied to three renewable energy technologies – photovoltaics, wind on-shore and wind off-shore- in the European Union Member States in the 2008–2012 period. The results using this novel methodology broadly confirm the figures provided in other contributions in the literature. The proposed methodology can be instrumental in assessing the socio-economic effects of policies and investment programmes targeting the deployment of renewable energy technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]