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Where are the jobs in cleantech?
December 02, 2010
By: Randi Bussin-Career Coach, Personal Branding Specialist
I have always been fascinated by the clean tech movement and
the race for clean energy dominance. Earlier this spring, I wrote several blog
posts on the green sector, and hosted Carol McClelland, author of "Green
Careers for Dummies" live on my blog.
During the summer, I did a lot of research on clean tech
trends, clean tech job growth, financing models for the clean tech sector, and
on the specifics of the clean tech industry in Massachusetts. Just last week,
as I tweeted about Massachusetts Clean Tech firms that were hiring (original
blog post by Green Job Spider), I thought that it was time to cover this topic
in greater depth in one of our newsletters.
In this post, I'll focus on clean tech job trends, and
provide resources for those of you who are interested in seeking employment in
this sector.
What is Clean Tech
and Where Are the Jobs?
Clean tech, sometimes referred to as green tech, describes
new and existing industries that are developing products and services that
improve the performance and efficiency of energy consumption, alternative
energy generation, green consumer products, and environmentally friendly
products and services.
Despite the economic malaise, clean tech and clean energy
continues to fuel the plans of many cities, states, and nations as they look
for the next big wave of growth. Clean tech is no longer a "marginalized niche"
but actually a cost-competitive mainstream sector that offers an abundance of
newly created and revamped job opportunities.
I have summarized below the key findings from the research I
have done:
§ Clean
energy jobs are growing faster than jobs in other sectors, and increasing by
9.1% from 1998 to 2007. (Pew Charitable Trust survey)
§ The
clean tech sector creates employment as a result of the development, production,
and deployment of technologies that use renewable energy materials and sources.
There also are jobs that reduce the use of natural resources and increase
efficiency, or eliminate pollution and toxic wastes.
§ The
top five sectors for clean tech job activity in the U.S. are:
- Solar
- Biofuels and Biomaterials
- Smart Grid and Energy Efficiency
- Wind Power
- Advanced Transportation and Vehicles
§ Clean
Edge (www.cleanedge.com) has identified
15 metro areas for clean tech job activity. Not surprising, San Francisco and
Boston are in the top 5. The top 5 U.S. metro areas are:
- San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (CA)
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside (CA)
- Boston-Cambridge-Quincy (MA)
- New York-New Jersey-Long Island (NY-NJ)
- Denver-Aurora-Broomfield (CO)
§ Even
though 15 areas have been earmarked for clean tech job growth, the clean tech
sector is highly dispersed and no one city or region will dominate. Clean tech
clusters have sprouted up in many other places including Ohio, Missouri,
Norway, Japan, Singapore, and others.
§ Of
the top 10 clean tech employers, only two are headquartered in the U.S. This
list of employers points to the continued dominance of China, with six of the
largest employers located in China and Hong Kong. The remaining two are
European.
§ Large
multinational corporations also are trying to get into the game, with
conventional and clean tech activities and products/services. Companies such as
Siemens, GE Energy, Cisco, Sharp, Toyota, Ford, Samsung, and others are investing
in, creating new divisions in, and subsequently hiring more clean tech
employees.
§ Manufacturing
facilities around the U.S. that were once used in old-line industries such as
appliances and automobiles are being retrofited to emerge as clean tech
manufacturing sites.
§ Clean
tech training and educational initiatives are being launched by community
colleges, for new fields such as energy auditing, home weatherization, solar
fabrication, and wind turbine manufacturing. Degrees in renewable energy are
being created in undergraduate schools and many MBA programs are launching
green MBA degrees.
§ Energy
efficiency is one of the hottest areas for job growth. This includes jobs for
building retrofits and smart grid, home weatherization, lighting upgrades, and grind
infrastructure. New job titles are emerging such as Energy Auditor,
Weatherization Operations Manager, Green Building and Retrofit Architect.
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