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Clean energy generates jobs,
Kammen team reports
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U.S.
Representative Jay Inslee (left) sponsored the Seattle event
announcing the New Apollo Energy Project, where Berkeley researcher
Daniel Kammen (right) released the findings of his report
on the job-generating potential of renewable energy sources
like solar- and wind-generated power.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JAY INSLEE |
Transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable resources to meet
U.S. energy needs would not only be good for the environment and
decrease our dependence on imported oil; it would also generate
more jobs, concludes a report released in April by Berkeley researcher
Daniel Kammen.
The report, "Putting renewables to work: How many jobs can
the clean energy industry generate?," is based on an exhaustive
review of 13 independent studies analyzing the clean energy industry
and its effects on the economy and employment in the U.S. and
Europe. Kammen is a professor in nuclear engineering and public
policy, a member of the Energy and Resources Group (ERG), and
founding director of the Renewable Appropriate Energy Laboratory.
ERG doctoral students Kamal Kapadia and Matthias Fripp are co-authors
of the report.
"The renewable energy sector generated more jobs per average
megawatt of power installed, and per unit of energy produced,
than the fossil fuel–based energy sector," the report
says. Kammen’s team found that three to six times more jobs
are likely to be produced if the same resources are invested in
renewables compared to fossil fuel technologies. The ratio increases
if opportunities for energy efficiency are included, resulting
in at least a quarter million renewable energy jobs by 2020.
Kammen released the findings in Seattle at a forum focusing on
the New Apollo Energy Project, a 10-year, $300 billion initiative
designed to create incentives for developing clean and renewable
energy sources such as solar- and wind-generated power and fuel
recycled from municipal and agricultural waste. The goal of the
program, sponsored by U.S. Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA) and
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), is to meet 20 percent or more of
the nation’s power needs by 2020 with resources other than
imported fossil fuels, thereby reducing global warming and dependence
on foreign oil.
"For too long, innovations in solar, wind, and biomass/waste
technologies, green buildings, highly efficient vehicles, and
construction practices that minimize waste have languished on
the edge of the market despite impressive technical advances,"
Kammen says. The U.S. would not need to import oil now, he says,
if it had kept up the pace of innovations of the late 1970s instead
of slowly falling behind in the energy technology industry.
The report found that a coordinated national policy incorporating
renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, and sustainable transportation
would yield employment benefits throughout the economy, more than
offsetting losses in some states and sectors.
Kammen has been working with legislators and policymakers on this
project since 2001, when he testified in Congress about the need
for an organized federal approach to the power grid that would
promote energy independence in the U.S. Go to http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/outreach.html
for the full report.
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