568,979 Clean Energy Workers In Midwest (2016 Survey)
March 30th, 2016 by Jake Richardson
The 2016 Clean Jobs Midwest survey of 12 Midwestern states found that more than half a million people are working in clean energy fields, such as clean fuels, advanced transportation, renewable energy generation, clean transmission, and energy efficiency. BW Research conducted the research on behalf of the Clean Energy Trust and Environmental Entrepreneurs. The clean energy economy is growing in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska.
The projected growth rate for clean energy jobs in the Midwest is 4.4% over the next 12 months. This rate is comparable to that of the home healthcare services industry.
“Clean energy is a dynamic sector and central to economic growth in the Midwest. Smart public policy will further accelerate the clean energy sector’s growth, which means thousands of new jobs created across the region and which will confer economic advantages on the Midwest region,” said Erik Birkerts / Chief Executive Officer of Clean Energy Trust.
Of the Midwestern states, seven have Renewable Portfolio Standards and the others have Energy Efficiency Resource Standards. Illinois and Ohio are the clean energy leaders with 113,918 and 100,782 jobs, and South Dakota has 7,118. Of course, in a struggling economy, positive job growth is very welcome news, but how much money is clean energy associated with in the region?
Some Pew Trust research provides insight, “The annual economic impact of clean energy manufacturing is currently $4.9 billion in Michigan. Energy efficiency manufacturing is expected to contribute an additional $2.3 billion annually by 2015.” Obviously, those figures are only for one state, so one could easily estimate that for the entire Midwest the total is probably in the tens of billions of dollars.
Another thing worth mentioning is that clean energy jobs are ‘good’ jobs, meaning that they are not dirty or dangerous like coal mining or petroleum extraction.
cleantechnica.com
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