Green jobs vs. fossil fuel jobs, part 2

A little while ago, I wrote a post that showed that one of the benefits of renewable energy that is discussed too little is the jobs created by this industry. Back then, I showed that for every GWh of electricity generated, solar and wind power create more jobs than coal or natural gas. Now, there is a study that looked at the jobs created in the US in particular.

Mark Curtis and Iona Marinescu collected data from job vacancies across the US to see how many vacancies there are in the wind and solar power industry, what kind of qualifications these jobs required and where these jobs are located. Then, they compared these wind and solar jobs with job vacancies in the fossil fuel industry.

The results are pretty impressive. For one, the jobs created by the wind and solar industry are roughly in the same general parts of the value chain as fossil fuel jobs. Sales jobs are somewhat overrepresented in the solar industry, which is probably a reflection of the continued rollout of smaller-scale solar power systems for rooftops etc. But it is not the case that jobs in solar and wind require vastly different educational tracks than the jobs in the fossil fuel industry.

Furthermore, when one looks at the required educational attainment, then solar and wind create the same share of blue-collar jobs and jobs for people with a high school diploma or less than fossil fuel jobs. But because there are more jobs in the solar and wind industry than in the fossil fuel industry, renewable energy is a net job creator for working class people.

Finally, the jobs that are created by the wind and solar industry are on average better paid. Adjusted for location, educational requirement, and type of job, the fossil fuel industry pays some 4% above the market average. Wind and solar pay some 21% above the market average. There is even some indication that the premium paid by solar and wind jobs is bigger for blue-collar jobs than for white-collar jobs.

And last but not least, the study looked at the location where these jobs are created. And while solar power jobs are mostly located in the American West, in particular California, wind power jobs can be found throughout much of the Midwest, with a particular focus on Texas. Thus, the regions that have lost jobs due to the decline in manufacturing now could get a lot of jobs back if they attract wind farms.

Recently, Congress passed the Fight Inflation Act which spends hundreds of billions on wind and solar energy in the US. Given the results of this study, this law could inadvertently become the biggest job creation measure in decades for the US.

Location of solar (top) and wind (bottom) jobs in the US

Source: Curtis and Marinescu (2022). CZ = Commuting Zone