Green Job Growth Outpacing Other Industries

A wind turbine blade is displayed during the opening of the Vestas blade factory in Windsor, Colo. (image: AP/Jack Dempsey)

The renewable energy industry has grown steadily over much of the past decade, adding jobs at more than twice the national rate, according to a new study by Pew Charitable Trusts.

Reporting on the study, the Associated Press said that while the entire energy sector, including fossil fuels, has experienced growth, the most dramatic increases were in green industries. Environmental engineering firms, solar and wind-power companies and businesses making biofuels, hybrid diesel buses, efficient light bulbs and more expanded their work force by 9.1 percent from 1998 to 2007, while the average job growth in all industries was just 3.7 percent.

The Pew study does not include employment data from the past 18 months, a volatile period for the energy industry, said the AP. The explosive growth of alternative energy companies has been slowed by the recession, and there have been bankruptcies and layoffs in the green sector just as there have been elsewhere.

However, in recent weeks, the government has committed billions of dollars in stimulus funds to renewable energy programs. As reported here on The HEAT Zone, a $2.5 billion carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) project in Illinois was just unveiled.

In the private sector, construction of what will become the nation’s largest solar energy plant will begin in New Mexico in the next few months, and Google recently revealed it will soon begin producing cheap energy using heliostats, another form of solar technology.

The Pew study showed that states like California, Texas, Florida, and New York continue to employ the most people in green industry. However, states experiencing the largest growth rates were Idaho, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming, according to the report. Michigan, which has lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs, saw a 10.7 percent increase in clean energy jobs from 1998 to 2007.

So far, clean energy jobs have not kept pace with overall job losses. Pew counted 22,674 clean energy jobs in Michigan in 2007, a state that lost 38,400 total jobs in April alone.

The second wind that green industry will get from the Obama stimulus package could help offset this trend. One area that promises significant job opportunities in the near future is the greatly expanded federal home weatherization program, which will now extend to warm-weather states with the aim of cutting air-conditioning costs.