There’s been plenty of good news on the jobs front over the past week, with reports of significant increases in clean energy jobs in North Carolina, Minnesota, and Texas. At the same time, news of Apple’s plans to build an $848 million solar energy facility in Monterey County holds promise for even more solar jobs in California.
Throughout the nation, overall demand for solar systems continues to grow, as indicated in Murawski's article below. Installation costs are dropping, with the industry adding workers at a rate nearly 20 times faster than the overall economy and accounting for 1.3% of all jobs created in the U.S. over the past year.
The clear implication here is that state and city leaders throughout the U.S. should take a hard look at the collective benefits of renewable energy policies and goals upon their local economies, from investment tax credits, renewable portfolio standards, and energy efficiency goals.
Report: NC has 23,000 clean energy jobs
By John Murawski | News & Observer | February 10, 2015
North Carolina’s clean energy workforce swelled to nearly 23,000 jobs in 2014, a boom driven by policies favorable to the development of solar farms and green buildings.
The findings were issued Tuesday by the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association, the industry trade group in Raleigh that helped lobby for the policies that spawned the industry.
The state had just 1,824 clean energy jobs in 2007, the trade group said in an earlier report. That was the year the state legislature enacted the renewable energy portfolio standard, which requires electric utilities to use increasing levels of renewable resources, such as solar, wind and biomass.
