Summary by Graeme Beaton : The number of Clean Energy jobs in Pennsylvania's ninth Congressional District was 3,948 as of July 2016, according to a study compiled by Keystone Energy Efficiency Alliance and Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). This Study reported that more than 80 per cent of Pennsylvania Renewable Energy companies reported it was 'difficult' to find qualified employees and hiring would increase if they could find suitably qualified workers. . According to the above report, Blair, Cambria, Franklin and Indiana counties each have more than 550 people employed in Clean Energy. Franklin County, with 703 jobs, ranks highest. . Those numbers have since continued to climb as more households and power generators employ Solar voltaic cells, Solar water heating and Wind Energy Generation Farms, and the price of Solar generation has continued to decline (64 per cent over the past five years, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.) . The Solar Energy Industries Association says that there are more than 514 solar business active in Pennsylvania, representing an investment of more than $1.3bn. and that investment is expected to double over the next five years, with an attendant increase in employment. . Nationally, solar and wind energy power generation combined provide three times as many jobs as the coal industry and as many jobs as oil powered generation, according to the US Energy Department. . These figures are reflected in Pennsylvania, where solar and wind energy farms are growing while coal's share of energy generation is falling.
Actually, the entry point to this report is at https://www.e2.org/clean-energy-pennsylvania-2/
Lots of helpful graphs
Same source as 1
Has a really nice graph about the distribution of jobes in the energy generating market.
Lot's of good graphs
hellenicshippingnews, 3/5/17 : Thank you Graeme
MIT Technology Review: Thank you Graeme
1. 4 large coal companies make up 50% of the entire US production. They are Peabody (19.6%), Arch (14.6%), Cloud Peak(8.4%) and Alpha (7.8%). These companies operate mostly out west in the Powder Ridge region of Wyoming. These companies do have some Appalachian mines but very little if any in PA.
2. Interestingly all of these companies have dealt with financial issues like Chapter 11. Particularly in trouble are the ones who only deal in coal products. As we have seen in the petroleum industry over time the big players have diversified to natural gas and alternative energy as a financial "hedge". Some coal companies have done this too but not many. So for these companies the climate issue is a matter of survival.
3. Most of the big boys make a point of talking about environmental concern in their financial "mission" reports for shareholders. This often means "clean coal", gasification, liquification etc. Many tout their investments in clean technology.
4. Although the political rhetoric is designed to blame "Obama's regulations" for the financial and employment issues in coal the major factor by far is the increasingly lower price of natural gas as alternative.
5. Many of these companies are looking for a way out. Several are actively hoping to sell. In my view this is a cut your losses scenario. However it is hard to imagine coal going away anytime soon in the US.
6. In PA most of the activity is in the western portion of the state. Some big players are Corsa, Consol (CNX), Rosebud and Reading. Consol is diversified. Corsa in 2016 secured $3 Million in Redevelopment Assistance money. The same issues impact these guys as do the big boys above.
Here is the best data I can find regarding coal jobs in PA:
1. The most recent official data available is 2015 (2016 says "coming soon") and detail by county was 2014.
2. In 2015 there were 6633 total coal jobs in PA, 5628 were in Bituminous most of which is underground mining. The remaining were in Anthrocite (which is mostly surface mining).
3. There was a slight gain in Anthrocite jobs 2014-15 but a 19% drop in jobs in Bituminous 2014-15. Overall @17% drop year on year.
4. Data by county was only available for 2014. Greene County had by far the largest coal employment at 3279 jobs, Somerset County follwed with 821 while the remaining were spread over many counties.
In addition to data below I just found 2015 data by county. It also shows some inconsistency between data sources.
For example, one data point shows total 5628 Bituminous jobs (2015) while more detailed "county" data shows 5238.
2015 by county: Greene 2967, Somerset 540, Indiana 412 ( all Bituminous, Anthrocite not available)
.The number of Clean Energy jobs in Pennsylvania's ninth Congressional District was 3,948 as of July 2016, according to a study compiled by Keystone Energy Efficiency Alliance and Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). This Study reported that more than 80 per cent of Pennsylvania Renewable Energy companies reported it was 'difficult' to find qualified employees and hiring would increase if they could find suitably qualified workers. . According to the above report, Blair, Cambria, Franklin and Indiana counties each have more than 550 people employed in Clean Energy. Franklin County, with 703 jobs, ranks highest.
. Those numbers have since continued to climb as more households and power generators employ Solar voltaic cells, Solar water heating and Wind Energy Generation Farms, and the price of Solar generation has continued to decline (64 per cent over the past five years, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.)
. The Solar Energy Industries Association says that there are more than 514 solar business active in Pennsylvania, representing an investment of more than $1.3bn. and that investment is expected to double over the next five years, with an attendant increase in employment.
. Nationally, solar and wind energy power generation combined provide three times as many jobs as the coal industry and as many jobs as oil powered generation, according to the US Energy Department.
. These figures are reflected in Pennsylvania, where solar and wind energy farms are growing while coal's share of energy generation is falling.
Graeme extracted these numbers and comments from a report already mentioned by 1
published by IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency).This report does not go down to the level of individual US states.
IRENA Renewable Energy and Jobs Annual Review 2017 (local pdf) Origial on the internet
Of partiular interest to the US is page 14 :
"The solar and wind industries were the primary engines of job creation in the US renewable energy sector, which employed around 777,000 people in 2016. Adding workers almost 17 times as fast as the overall economy, the US solar industry employed 260,077 people14 as of November 2016, up 24.5% from the previous year (Solar Foundation, 2017). Most of these jobs (241,900) were in solar PV, with 13,000 in solar heating/cooling and 5,200 in CSP. The tremendous growth of solar PV during 2016 – principally in the utility-scale segment was the result of falling costs and legislative conditions (Solar Foundation, 2017). During 2015, companies had initiated many projects that were to be completed before the end of 2016, when many anticipated that the federal Investment Tax Credit15 would expire. But the US Congress ultimately agreed to a multi-year extension in December 2015.
More than half of all US solar jobs were in the installation segment; followed by manufacturing (15%), project development (13%), sales-and-distribution (12%) and other categories such as research-and-development (6%).
"California and New York have laws in place requiring 50 percent of their electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030, while D.C. and Oregon must meet that standard by 2032 and 2040, respectively."
