7 More Green Jobs Stories

Following in my new, daily trend of doing a roundup post on different cleantech matters, here are 7 recent green jobs stories you might have missed:

1. In London, there are now about 160,000 people working in green jobs in 9,000 companies. The growth rate in the industry there has been about 4%.
2. First Solar recently doubled its production line in Germany, from 250 MW to 50 MW a year. If you’re not aware, First Solar is the world’s largest manufacturer of advanced, thin-film solar photovoltaic modules. The new plant is in Frankfurt and nearly doubles First Solar’s employment there, from 650 to 1,200 employees.
3. Siemens opened a new wind distribution center in Wichita, Kansas this month. “The 73,000-square-foot warehouse, with seven acres of outside storage, will provide procurement, kitting, storage, refurbishment and distribution for the tooling needed to erect and install wind turbines throughout the Americas region.” It’s unclear how many people the center will employ.
4. New coal ash rules will create 28,000 jobs, according to a report by the Stockholm Environment Institute. In other words, NO, the EPA and coal regulations don’t kill jobs — if anything, they create them.
5. The 2011 Massachusetts Clean Energy Industry Report finds that “64,310 employees are working in clean energy from the Berkshires to the tip of Cape Cod” and employment in the industry grew 6.7% in the last year.
6. “Advanced battery manufacturer A123 Systems has created 1,000 jobs through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan program,” as Brad Johnson of Think Progress recently reported. (Video of one of those employees above.)
7. SolarCity recently received the 2011 Green Jobs Award from the SJF Institute for creating over 1,300 jobs (more than one job per workday the company has been around).

Have some more good green jobs stories to share? Drop them in the comments below (seriously)!