Green job sector poised for a high growth in U.S.

siliconindia news bureau
SiliconIndia.com
Jun 19, 2009

Bangalore: The 'Green Collar' jobs, including people from energy-efficiency consultants to wastewater plant operators, are perfectly placed to have an explosive growth in the U.S. economy. A study published by the Pew Charitable Trusts says that the "clean-energy economy" grew 9.1 percent between 1998 and 2007, creating around 777,000 jobs.

With the financial support by the public and the private sector, the sector is expected to grow more as it is creating around half a percent of jobs in the U.S., the study says.

"The nation's clean-energy economy is poised for explosive growth. The trends include surging venture capital investment, a critical growth rate in clean-energy generation, energy efficiency and environmentally friendly products," said Lori Grange, the Pew Center on the States' interim deputy director.

Broadly known as 'Cleantech', around 80 percent of the venture capital investments were in clean energy and efficiency sector only.

According to an analysis of Thompson Reuter's data by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, the Cleantech sector outperformed telecommunications, media and other sectors in the first quarter.

"Cleantech is faring better than the rest of the venture capital sectors - that's driven by the sense that the government policy thinking has changed radically with the new administration," said David Prend, a NVCA Director and Managing General partner at the venture capital firm RockPort Capital Partners.

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), around $787 billion were cited for driving the clean-energy economy. This stimulus includes $85 billion as in direct spending and tax incentives for energy- and transportation-related programs.

The report says that the job growth in the sector performed well in the total job growth in 38 states and the District of Columbia between 1998 and 2007.