U.S. growth in renewable energy

How many U.S. renewable energy jobs are there?

• There were just over 560,000 U.S. jobs in the renewable energy generation and fuels in 2019, up about 2% from 548,168 in 2018, according to reports produced jointly by the National Association of State Energy Officials and the Energy Futures Initiative. For 2019, these made up about 8% of the roughly 6.8 million U.S. jobs in the energy sector.

• As of September 2019, solar photovoltaic installer and wind turbine service technician are projected to be, respectively, the first and second fastest-growing jobs in the United States for 2018-2028. This reflects significant growth in the U.S. renewable energy sector; between 2009 and 2019, electricity generation from renewables increased more than 70%, and electricity generation from solar and wind increased nearly 400%.

What is the future of U.S. renewable energy?

• In some cases, renewable energy is the cheapest option. For each megawatt-hour of energy generated, one analysis found that the levelized cost of energy (a statistic used to compare the costs of generating energy) is $32 to $42 for solar and $28 to $54 for wind, while it is $44 to $68 for some kinds of generation from natural gas, $66 to $152 for coal, and $118 to $192 for nuclear energy. Plus, the costs of fossil fuel energy generation do not include the complete costs created by their environmental effects.

• As of January 2020, the federal Energy Information Administration projects that renewable energy will constitute an increasing fraction of U.S. energy generation, with energy from solar photovoltaic cells and wind growing most dramatically.

• However, renewable energy growth will depend on a number of economic, political, and other variables. Tax credits and subsidies for renewables and for fossil fuels influence these fuels’ relative affordability, as do other policies. For example, as of April 2020, 30 states and the District of Columbia have renewable portfolio standards that designate how much energy suppliers must obtain from renewable sources by certain target dates.

• Many individuals and small businesses have installed wind or solar systems. These small-scale systems produced under 1% of U.S. electricity generation in 2019, but they allow many homes and buildings to sustainably generate their own energy and even sell leftover energy to the grid.

• Ongoing research aims to develop more efficient and environmentally friendly renewable energy technologies. For example, newer photovoltaic cells are more affordable, more efficient, and more flexible for use in a wider array of applications, such as shingles or window coatings.