Businesses, ventures and proposals that could help satisfy new renewable energy requirements could add thousands of jobs across North Carolina.
Last week the United Nations predicted that many green-collar jobs created globally will trap the world’s poor in dirty, dangerous, unhealthy and low-paying work, primarily in agriculture and waste recycling.
Predictions of a booming green-collar job sector are becoming more common as volatile energy prices, concerns about global warming and economic instability beg for solutions.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has made green jobs a cornerstone of his Democratic bid for the White House, predicting 5 million new green jobs through the development of plug-in electric cars, biofuels, renewables and clean-burning coal. Republican presidential candidate John McCain is promoting the construction of 45 nuclear power plants, and $2 billion a year toward developing clean-coal technology and renewable resources such as wind and solar.
“Right now, being environmentally friendly and energy efficient is still not always cost-efficient,” said Stephen Scott, president of Wake Technical Community College.
“The question becomes: What will happen first? Will it become cost-effective to be sustainable, or will it become a biological necessity to be sustainable? One or the other will drive green jobs.”
Though North Carolina is a straggler in green energy compared with California and other states, proposed projects to meet the state’s new renewable electricity requirements bring the promise of thousands of jobs.
The rise in green jobs reflects the growing emphasis on conservation and sustainability at universities, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and major corporations such as Wal-Mart and McDonalds.
Even before this state endorsed an alternative energy policy, scores of businesses had set up to tap the region’s brain trust and feed green economies sprouting throughout the country. Along with solar installers and biofuels producers, many of these niche companies design electronics and components to streamline power grids, develop alternative fuels and boost energy efficiency.
Advocates in the state say green jobs will not only fight global warming but help revive North Carolina’s ailing manufacturing sector and create a service industry of contractors and technicians who can’t be outsourced to Mexico or Malaysia.
Anticipating demand for green-job skills, state community colleges are including conservation and efficiency practices in their course offerings on architecture, construction and landscaping. The N.C. Solar Center, Advanced Energy and other nonprofit groups say builders and contractors are asking for sustainability seminars.
“Eventually it’s the way everyone is going,” said Kim Kasdorf, 59, a former mechanical engineer who recently finished a program in architectural technology at Wake Tech. “People who don’t have that kind of experience are not going to be able to survive.”
What’s a green collar?
The definition of green-collar job is still up in the air, and some job growth projections strain credulity. Such jobs are a broad description, not a work-force classification, and there is some disagreement on which jobs should qualify.
The N.C. Sustainable Energy Association estimates that 6,470 jobs in the state are directly related to energy efficiency or renewable sources. Among the manufacturing ventures it counts: solar panel components made by chemical giant DuPont in Fayetteville; solar cell connection wires from Torpedo Specialty Wire in Rocky Mount and fiberglass material for wind turbine blades from PPG Industries in Shelby.
Unlike some groups, the Raleigh trade group doesn’t count secretaries, accountants, drivers and other support workers at green businesses. Those jobs demonstrate broader economic benefits but distort the sector’s size, said Paul Quinlan, who directs N.C. Sustainable Energy’s market research and development. “The projections are great, but they are all over the place,” he said. “The industry is very much in its infancy.”
After early hype, enthusiasm for ethanol has cooled. The production of the plant-based fuel, touted as an ecological substitute for gasoline, has sputtered amid rising corn prices and inadequate supply. Several ethanol plants planned in North Carolina were canceled or delayed.
500 green companies in N.C.
Still, the green economy is becoming hard to ignore: Quinlan’s association counts nearly 500 companies involved in renewables and efficiency in the state, mostly small businesses and niche companies.
The group expects the green sector to grow 24 percent this year and add thousands of jobs by 2021. That’s the year Progress Energy and Duke Energy will be required to generate 12.5 percent of their electricity from a combination of renewable resources and efficiency savings.
The Center for American Progress this month projected 62,000 new green jobs in North Carolina in the next decade tied to government policies to promote a low-carbon economy.
Indeed, many green-collar jobs are driven by policy changes: government mandates, tax breaks and other financial incentives that create new markets.
The reports that project millions of new green jobs are contingent on Congress passing laws to restrict greenhouse gas emissions, a development that would create incentives for alternative energies.
As energy demand continues to increase, traditional sectors also could benefit, especially if energy companies are allowed to drill for domestic oil and build new nuclear power plants.
North Carolina’s new renewables requirement is already creating market demand, as Progress Energy and Duke Energy, the state’s two biggest electric utilities, sign deals to build solar farms, biomass facilities and other alternative energy resources.
The state’s power companies will spur additional job creation when they begin offering customers and builders financial incentives to upgrade and rehab homes and offices to make them more energy efficient.
Meanwhile, the General Assembly last year required new construction in state buildings to meet stricter sustainability requirements. The N.C. Building Code Council is considering requiring better construction techniques to boost the energy efficiency of residential homes.
“The potential for service jobs is huge,” said Stephen Kalland, director of the N.C. Solar Center in Raleigh. “It looks a lot like the HVAC industry: You’ll open the Yellow Pages and you’ll see thousands of installers and contractors.”
