Job Forecasts and Reports

• Jobs in the Renewable Energy Economy explores the opportunities for renewable energy jobs in the U.S.
• The Environmental Law and Policy Center’s 2001 Repowering the Midwest: The Clean Energy Development Plan for the Heartland examines untapped Midwestern energy efficiency and renewable resources and proposes a roadmap to a cleaner electricity future.
• Job Jolt - The Economic Impacts of Repowering the Midwest: The Clean Energy Development for the Heartland predicts that if the Midwest unleased its clean energy development potential it would create more than 200,000 new jobs, up to $5.5 billion in additional worker income, and up to $20 billion in increased economic activity across a 10-state Midwest region by 2020.
• The Renewable Energy Policy Project’s The Work That Goes into Renewable Energy report discusses the factors driving the expansion of renewable energy markets, the types of renewable energy jobs needed for these markets, and how renewable energy compares with coal energy in jobs created.
• The Renewable Energy Policy Project's Wind Turbine Development: Location of Manufacturing Activity explores the implications of implementing a federal renewable energy portfolio standard that could generate 50,000 MW of wind power and create 150,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs mostly in the 20 states that have lost the most manufacturing jobs in the last 3-1/2 years.
• The 2001 U.S. Photovoltaic Industry Roadmap projects that the photovoltaic workforce will grow from the 20,000 workers it currently employs to 150,000 workers as the roadmap is implemented.
• The Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkley released a report Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate? This report reviewed 13 independent reports on the economic and employment impacts of the clean energy industry in the United States and Europe and concluded that an investment in renewable energy would generate more jobs than a comparable investment in fossil fuel energy sources.
• The Council of State Governments 2003 Renewable Energy and State Economies Report found that currently more than $15 billion is invested in a biopower industry that employs approximately 66,000 people. Developing dedicated energy crops for biopower generators could create more than 120,000 jobs by 2012, according to U.S. Department of Energy estimates.
• The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) is one of the best places to find renewable energy workforce development information. Check their website often for resources such as this 2005 Labor Forecasts & Job Trends Document.