Last month, The Green Jobs Report tracked plans by thirteen companies to create 4,563 new green-collar manufacturing jobs in the solar and wind power sectors of the renewable energy industry. Included in the tally were plans by seven solar sector manufacturers to create 3,285 jobs and plans by six wind sector manufacturers to create 1,278 jobs.
The Green Jobs Report surveys U.S. media coverage of the solar and wind power sectors of the renewable energy industry on a weekly basis. Information about manufacturers’ plans to create new green-collar jobs is then compiled and reported for public use.
Results for week of November 23 to November 29 were predictably low, likely due to the Thanksgiving holiday. The Green Jobs Report documented plans by one solar sector manufacturer and three wind power industry manufacturers to create a total of 326 new green-collar manufacturing jobs.
The Muskegon Chronicle/Mlive.com reported on plans by Carlton Creek Ironwoods LLC to create 70 new jobs at a foundry in Rothbury, Michigan. The company plans to hire the new workers as part of a plan to produce high-grade ductile windmill iron required by windmill castings, according to a statement issued by the Michigan Economic Development Authority. The project will be supported by a 10-year $1.6 million state tax credit and an additional 12-year $180,159 local tax credit from the village of Rothbury.
The Journal Sentinel/JSOnline.com published a story about plans by Energy Composites Corp, previously Advanced Fiberglass Technologies, to create as many as 130 new jobs in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. The company is expanding current operations to produce parts components for wind power systems, according to information issued by Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle. The company will receive up to $640 million in Community Development Block Grant loans to help with the expansion.
An article in the Traverse City Record-Eagle detailed MasTech Manufacturing’s plans to create 116 new jobs in Manistee, Michigan by 2011. The company has reached a five-year agreement to produce Mariah Power’s Windspire energy system, according a press release issued last week. Mariah Power described the $4,995 Windspire system as a “30-foot tall, propeller-free turbine that harnesses the power of the wind”. It was designed for residential use and small commercial applications. In addition, 98 percent of the components used to manufacture the Windspire will be supplied by Michigan based businesses.
New Mexico Business Weekly ran a story about plans by Sacred Power Corp., a company owned and operated by Native Americans, to create ten new jobs in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The company has joined forces with Cyberlux Corp. to produce solar powered lighting systems that will be purchased by the Department of Defense, and eventually marketed to other government agencies and the private sector.
The Green Jobs Report also documented plans by the following manufacturers to create new green-collar jobs in the solar and wind power industries earlier in the month of November.
Solar:
Amelio Solar: Up to 175 new green jobs in Vineland, New Jersery
Konarka Technologies, Inc.: 100 new green jobs in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Opti-Solar: 1,000 new green jobs in Sacramento, California.
Schott: 1,500 new green jobs in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Shoals Technology Group: 450 new green jobs in Portland, Tennessee.
Staubli: 50 new green jobs in Duncan, South Carolina.
Wind:
Goain North America LLC – 12 new green jobs in Ankeny, Iowa
Brevini: 450 new green jobs in Yorktown, Indiana.
TPI Composites: 500 new green jobs in Newton, Iowa.
For more information about these plans is available visit The Green Jobs Report blog.
The Green Jobs Report has been tracking plans to create new green-collar manufacturing jobs in the solar and wind power sectors of the renewable energy industries since October 24, 2008. Plans by 24 companies to create a total of 11,013 new jobs have been documented so far.
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David Anderson, is a News & Politics Correspondent for Gather.com. Keep up with all of David's writing on Gather Politics Essential, or by joining the group Green America. David is also the author of the blog The Green Jobs Report.
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Comments: 17
I live in NY state,the EPA in my state wants to pass a bill,that will fine dairy farmers 175.00 per cow,per year,why because these cows FART!-METHANE GAS. 627,000 dairy cows will cost the farmers 110 million a year and drive them out of business, not to mention the huge price increase to come.
Dave,do you support this type of lunacy?.Will this stop the Heifers from farting?.This state like most others is bankrupt and 110 million to be taken because cows fart.
My dog has a problem with gas also-175.00 a dog next.
Good news but still very conservative for a huge need, both job wise and for what they do! At the rate the economy is going, we'll soon be heating with wood stoves or fireplaces and getting our own wood. Tough on those who live in cities! But there is little money now to purchase green things, whether cars or what.
Sandy,
Micky has a disconnect in his brain allowing things only to be seen one way and common sense is largely missing from the equation. He's smart and capable but is locked into a mindset that omits anything contradictory to it! I wish he'd just start looking beyond the surface and trying to understand other things a little before criticizing them so roundly.
Any tax is a good tax,and any excuse is a good excuse,when you're a left-wing environmental nut-case.*****MOOOOOOO!
A NY Times blog on the matter makes it clear that the EPA is unlikely to regulate methane from cows, never mind tax it.
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/farmers-panic-about-a-cow-tax/
I appreciate this amusing foray in to the world of the weird, but I'd note that none of this has much to do with my article - which is about how solar and wind power are creating new manufacturing jobs.
Thanks for the post David. Gp GReen!
I don't think the push is to harness the methane from cows, it is to make the cows disappear altogether and move us to a totally vegetable diet! Based on conversations with proponents of such.
My point to Micky was that this article was about how solar and wind power are creating new manufacturing jobs. He simply wanted to use this thread as a forum to discuss his personal distaste for environmentalism. He has a right to his opinion, just as I have a right to hope that discussion will focus on the topic I presented.
at the effect of cattle farming on the planet it's no joke. I loved a good
steak as much as anyone, but there are so many people that even small
things like the anti-biotics and hormones that they give to cattle are showing
up in people, and drinking water.
What we have been doing does not work at the giant level we have let
it scale to, and we are not even headed in the right direction, that is,
slowing down, and we are not even much thinking about it.
The question of whether we are an intelligent species or just clever
monkeys that have so far avoided catastrophe is going to be answered
this century. Jared Diamond's book "Collapse" shows that many
many cultures have let themselves fail and die away through just
the kind of inflexible thinking that Micky expresses.
We have turned into penny pinchers off of the this huge
economy, that has been the way to make money. Advertise,
fool people, use cheap ingredients, cheaper labor, all the
traditional business tricks that we employ do not even
begin to deal with the root causes of the multi-dimensional
collapses that we are facing.
For instance, all of this alternative energy generation is nice,
but add up the expected energy that is going to come from
all of these sources and it is still a drop in the bucket.
One of the biggest most dramatic things we can do is
conservation, yet that is likely to have a real negative effect
on employment and the economy the way we run the
country.
For example, what if the problem is that in the world we have
finally reached a point where enough jobs have been sent
overseas that there really is just not enough work for people
in traditional Western countries at traditional Western jobs
to be able to have a job and make a living? Just a what if.
What are we going to do?
Do we take our jobs back from Indian and China and build
factories here so we can have make work jobs for Americans?
Do we retrain Americans to do new jobs that do not exist,
as in this green stuff ... and how many jobs are there really
going to be?
Do we just let people starve, or degrade as they have to
live with no education, medical care, jobs?
Do we just just joke about cow farts?
Unless we decide to base our actions on human beings, we
are basically deciding to triage some group of Americans. Is
that acceptable as long as it is done on an equal opportunity
basis, or do we need to do better ... or do we need a war?
Sorry I am off topic David. ;-)
I just want to offer a few points:
I think it is important not to brush away skeptics of global warming but to try to engage them not in a lecture but reasoned discussion with valid data to support each claim.
Apart from the climate warming discussion, I think we can make a strong efficiency and economic argument for implementing what is termed "closed-loop" circuits into every facet of our economy. By that I mean, instead of a linear way of thinking (take new resources, make product, throw away waste products), we can go to reusing waste products for something else. One example mentioned above would be to use methane for generation of electricity.
Someone mentioned that conservation seems contradictory to our current economic model. I think that economic models have improved over time. But each is still imperfect, and only an approximation to current situations. The one flaw I see in the 19th century idea of a free market system is that it assumes unlimited resources (both raw materials and dumping grounds for waste products). Some people are now starting to realize that resources are indeed limited. And when it comes to the great power of dilution when it comes to waste products is starting to not work. This doesn't mean that the free market system is a complete failure. It does mean that it needs to be modified, and even then we must realize that it is an ideology - hence we need to look at it with a grain of salt.
My last point leads me back into the article. Someone made a valid point that ALL of the alternative energies currently will not be enough to supply any significant portion of the US. Currently, maybe 2-3% would be covered (?). But therein lies the beauty. This industry can grow over-time, and there are still 98% of the market to take over :-) The status quo usually does not generate new jobs. It is innovation. So I am hopeful when looking to the future despite the downturn.