ABSTRACT
This chapter serves a rigorous definition of the renewable-energy (RE) & energy-efficiency (EE) industries, examines their current size and composition, and forecasts their growth to 2030. It is anticipated that the findings reported will become the standard for future economic analyses of the RE&EE industries in the United States and internationally. The opportunity is that US education and training programs can be calibrated to address these emerging new energy economy jobs. In terms of the total jobs created the relative contributions of the RE sectors differ somewhat from the relative contributions on the basis of revenues. This is due to the fact that different RE technologies and industries have considerably different job creation effects. RE&EE thus generates jobs that are disproportionately for highly skilled, well-paid technical and professional workers, who provide the foundation for entrepreneurship and economic growth. These are the high-skilled, high-wage technical and professional jobs that all states and regions seek to attract.
