Over 3 Times More Green Jobs Per $1 Invested Than Fossil Fuel Or Nuclear Jobs

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Reposted from Solar Love:

Just as a quick reminder, if our national goal is to create jobs, investing in clean energy is several times more effective than investing in fossil fuel or nuclear jobs.

Robert Pollin, the President of Pear Energy and a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, has studied this matter in depth with the Department of Energy and the International Labour Organization. As his Pear Energy team writes:

“The basic facts are simple. When we invest, say, $1 million in building the green economy, this creates about 17 jobs within the United States. By comparison, if we continue to spend as we do on fossil fuels and nuclear energy, you create only about 5 jobs per $1 million in spending. That is, we create about 12 more jobs for every $1 million in spending — 300 percent more jobs — every time we spend on building the green economy as opposed to maintaining our dependence on dirty and dangerous oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear power.”

For a visual representation and numbers for a variety of more specific sectors, check out this infographic:

Transit Rocks It. (Click Here To Enlarge.)

Transit & rail rock it, but solar’s not too shabby either. (Click Here To Enlarge.)

Zachary Shahan (2305 Posts)

I'm the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular clean energy website in the world, and Planetsave, a leading green and science news site. I've been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and I've been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, bicycling, and wind energy for the past few years. You can also find my work on Scientific American, Reuters, Think Progress, GE's ecomagination site, several sites in the Important Media network, & many other places. To connect on some of your favorite social networks, go to zacharyshahan.com or click on some of the links below.


  • Coal woker

    More worker cause Co2 Emission, that a bad thing if your trying to save the Planet.

    • Bob_Wallace

      Trying to follow your logic here…

      I guess you’re saying that 3 live green energy workers produce more CO2 than a dead coal miner?

      Can’t argue with that….

  • Indigo Mordant

    Obviously nuclear isn’t included because nobody likes the fact that a handful of technicians could power whole cities with a proven, efficient power source.

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      lol. nuclear is priced out of the market. you may as well be advocating that we use candles to light our cities.

      • Tom G.

        Wait, wait; isn’t Indigo talking about a solar power plant. You know, 10 people is all it takes to run and maintain a GW [1,000 MW] solar power plant. That might be what he is saying since it takes 300-600 people to operate and maintain a GW nuclear plant. Just proposing an alternative line of thinking.

    • Bob_Wallace

      You haven’t noticed that nuclear is dying?

      Nuclear energy is too expensive, too dangerous and takes too long to bring on line. Even China has cut way back on their nuclear construction plans.

  • http://profiles.google.com/ivor.oconnor Ivor O’Connor

    Uh huh. Exactly how does it create more jobs? I clicked on the supplied link. Nothing stood out.

    I’m not convinced more jobs is a good thing anyways. Energy is just a resource that allows us to accomplish real things. If green jobs requires more workers isn’t that a bad thing?

    • Bob_Wallace

      If an clean energy source can produce electricity for about the same or less cost than fossil fuel/nuclear – and – employ more people is not that a good thing?

      Seems to me it;s a win-win and win some more.

      • http://profiles.google.com/ivor.oconnor Ivor O’Connor

        Yes. When put that way it makes sense. I’ll look at the references Zachary gave tonight.

        • Bob_Wallace

          I suspect it might turn out that many of the green jobs are “temporary”. That they will last for only the 20 to 40 years that it takes to install the needed renewable capacity.

          When that happens jobs per MWh or however one would like to measure them might turn out to be about the same.

          • http://profiles.google.com/ivor.oconnor Ivor O’Connor

            20 to 40 years? Haven’t renewables, wind and solar, been doubling every three years since 2000? If we are at 10% of our electrical in 2013 because of wind and solar then:
            20% in 2016 (3)
            40% in 2019 (6)
            80% in 2021 (9)
            160% in 2023 (12)
            320% in 2026 (15)
            640% in 2029 (18)

            In less than 20 years, not 20 to 40, we’ll be meeting all our electrical needs and probably taking the excesses to make methane as a replacement for oil. What’s wrong with my thinking? Nobody is saying this except for me so I must not be getting something right?

          • Bob_Wallace

            Remember, it’s a lot easier to double a small number than a large one.

            Doubling two means adding another two in one year.

            Doubling two hundred means adding another two hundred in one year.

            In their study, Jacobson and Delucchi calculated that we could get the world to almost 100% renewables with a massive World War II type effort. Like when we were working hard around the clock to crank out war materials.

            I use that as my “talking number”, that adequately scared the world could put the pedal to the floor and get off fossil fuels in roughly 20 years. I don’t think we’ll get scared soon enough and strong enough to have quit fossil fuels 20 years from now.

            Five years from now we might be amply concerned….

          • http://profiles.google.com/ivor.oconnor Ivor O’Connor

            Thanks again. These forums are a great place to ask questions. It’s like having the experts at your fingertips!

            It will be interesting to see at what point the doubling ends. I’ll be looking for both World stats and USA stats. Currently though it seems like we have an infinite supply of farm land being wasted on biofuel. And more Chinese PV panels than grains of sand on the beach.

            We need farm equipment and robots to install PV in mass. Similar to how farm crops are handled now.

          • Bob_Wallace

            If you haven’t read the Jacobson and Delucchi 2009 Scientific American article you might want to.

            They took projections of how much energy the world would need in 2030 and calculated how many wind turbine, solar panels, etc. we’d need to install to produce that power with renewables And they showed how it would be possible for us to get there in 20 years.

            The paper is a bit dated. Solar panels have become more efficient as have wind turbines. We’d have to build fewer, but their numbers are good enough to give you an overall feel for the task.

            http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-path-to-sustainable-energy-by-2030

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      i’m not sure which of his research studies those estimates come from. he has researched the matter extensively and written several books and research papers on the matter:

      http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Robert+Pollin+clean+energy+jobs&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5

      http://www.peri.umass.edu/nc/201/?tx_peripubs_pi1author_id=39

      Co-director and Professor of Economics
      Robert Pollin’s research centers on macroeconomics, conditions for low-wage workers in the U.S. and globally, the analysis of financial markets, and the economics of building a clean-energy economy in the U.S. His books include A Measure of Fairness: The Economics of Living Wages and Minimum Wages in the United States (co-authored, 2008); An Employment-Targeted Economic Program for Kenya (co-authored, 2008); An Employment-Targeted Economic Program for South Africa(co-authored, 2007); Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity (2003); and The Living Wage: Building A Fair Economy (co-authored 1998); and the edited volumes Human Development in the Era of Globalization (co-edited 2006); Globalization and Progressive Economic Policy (co-edited, 1998); The Macroeconomics of Saving, Finance, and Investment (1997); and Transforming the U.S. Financial System(co-edited 1993). Most recently, he co-authored the studies “Green Recovery” (September 2008), “The Economic Benefits of Investing in Clean Energy” (June 2009), and “Green Prosperity” (June 2009) exploring the broader economic benefits of large-scale investments in building a clean-energy economy in the United States. He is currently consulting with the U.S. Department of Energy and the International Labour Organization on the economic analysis of clean-energy investments. He has worked with the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Economic Commission on Africa on policies to promote decent employment expansion and poverty reduction in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. He has also worked with the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress and as a member of the Capital Formation Subcouncil of the U.S. Competitiveness Policy Council.

      http://www.peri.umass.edu/staff/

      • http://profiles.google.com/ivor.oconnor Ivor O’Connor

        Thanks Zachary. I looked and skimmed through the results of the two links you supplied above. I didn’t get very far. It’s too esoteric for me and goes right over my head. I like information my mom could understand.