Just a few years ago, the economic situation was such that employment prospects were bleak across the board – let alone within the renewables sector. Today, however, our industry is driving record growth, as the latest figures from America’s most recent economic quarter prove…
From commercial-scale solar developments to energy-efficient recycling projects, clean energy and clean transportation continues to create jobs and drive economic growth. By tracking job announcements from companies, elected officials, the media, and elsewhere, Environmental Entrepreneurs’ (E2’s) jobs reports show how and where clean energy works in the United States.
More than 12,500 clean energy and clean transportation jobs and clean transportation were announced in 29 states in the second quarter of 2014. This is more than twice the number of jobs announced in the first quarter of the year. Solar generation once again led all sectors – with more than 5,300 jobs announced – as declining module prices and growing private-sector investment expanded job opportunities in the industry.
Meanwhile, the wind industry announced about 2,700 jobs, mostly because projects that qualified for the recently expired Production Tax Credit began construction. Wind manufacturers, including Vestas in Colorado and Gearbox Express in Wisconsin, reported hiring additional manufacturing employees to match turbine demand. The biggest hiring boost to the U.S. clean energy manufacturing sector came from the automotive industry, with General Motors and Tesla announcing 1,900 manufacturing jobs to produce electric vehicles.
Many job announcements tracked this quarter fill the kinds of positions that will help states meet federal carbon pollution standards announced in June. The federal Clean Power Plan seeks to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, and each state has the flexibility to determine the most economically effective means of achieving its individual goal.
