Educating People on How to Save Money by Going Green™
Solar Creates Jobs And Helps Your Local Economy
The clean energy sector is responsible for significant job growth.
Solar panel systems generate returns on investment of 10-30% annually, so you know they make personal financial sense. But what about the macro-economics? Is there a good story to tell there? We’re happy to report that there is. The clean energy sector is responsible for significant job growth.
Here are a few interesting findings from a recent Brookings study, “Sizing the Economy: A National and Regional Green Jobs Assessment”
- The renewable energy industry employs 2.7 million workers. That’s more workers than the entire fossil fuel industry – oil, gas, & coal – employs. These workers are in mature segments such as manufacturing and public services as well as in newer, emerging segments that respond to energy-related challenges, e.g. solar photovoltaic (PV), wind, fuel cells, smart grid, biofuel and battery industries.
- Renewable energy technology segments – including solar, wind, geothermal, hydro – produced explosive job gains and the clean economy outperformed the nation during the recession.
- The clean economy offers more opportunities and better pay for low-and middle-skilled workers than the national economy as a whole. This provides a ray of hope for many who were hit hardest by the recent recession.
- Contrary to many media reports, the clean & renewable energy industry is now a key source of energy in the U.S. and all signs point to it becoming an even larger part of the U.S. energy supply.
- Combined electricity production from renewable resources has exceeded production from all nuclear power plants in the U.S.
- The cost of building a new solar farm is now less than the cost of building a nuclear power plant.