The benefits of renewable power extend beyond reducing carbon emissions and encouraging energy independence in the United States. The transition to an alternative-energy environment also creates valuable jobs.


Prior to 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) maintained a database of jobs in the renewable-energy sector. The so-called Green Jobs Initiative tracked green jobs from 2010 into 2013. According to the BLS, the number of green jobs in the country stood at 3.4 million at the end of 2011, the last year for which statistics were maintained. The Green Jobs Initiative was discontinued in the spring of 2013 when Congress eliminated its funding.


On the positive side, other entities have stepped in to pick up where the BLS left off. In a December 2014 white paper, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) of Washington, D.C. compiled statistics on green jobs in the United States from various sources.


“Fact Sheet: Jobs in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (2014)” references statistics from the BLS as well as the U.S. Department of Energy, the American Council for an Energy-­Efficient Economy, the International Renewable Energy Agency and others.


The study depicts robust job creation in various sectors of the renewable-­energy and energy-efficiency markets. For example, it finds that efficiency accounted for more than 800,000 jobs in 2010 with an annual growth rate of 3 percent.


Within the broad category of renewables, the study finds that the solar industry accounted for 143,000 jobs in the United States in 2013—a 20 percent increase from the previous year. Wind power supported more than 50,000 jobs in 2013. Hydropower accounted for about 300,000 jobs in 2014, and geothermal jobs totaled about 35,000 from 2012 to 2013.


The BLS report also tallies job numbers for other industries, such as wave power, biomass, fuel cells and others, along with green jobs data from around the world.