Renewables industry calls for workforce incentives
Representatives from the clean energy industry testified Tuesday to the dramatic expansion of wind and solar-powered projects and the accompanying need for additional workers to fuel the fast-growing sector.
Speaking before the U.S. House Small Business Subcommittee on Innovation and Workforce Development, Mark Jackson, vice president at CHP Energy Solutions in Christiansburg, Va., said the workforce needs of the sector are being fed by a lack of skilled workers, growing retirements and an aging workforce. “There’s so much opportunity in this sector if those hiring deficiencies can be addressed,” Jackson said during a hearing titled, Creating the Clean Energy Workforce.
Jason Wardrip, business manager for the Colorado Building and Construction Trades Council, told the panel that renewables like wind and solar are rapidly replacing coal in Colorado, prompting vast changes in workplace needs and skillsets. “We are the economic drivers of the Colorado economy,” Wardrip said.
U.S. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), chairman of the subcommittee, spoke of the vast expansion of the renewables industry in his state and said businesses are having a difficult time finding adequate workers to fill their needs.
“As our economy is rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuels to mitigate the detrimental economic and societal consequences of climate change, policymakers must consider targeted initiatives to train and build a workforce to fill the available positions in the clean energy economy. Through innovation and hard work, many small firms are bringing new clean energy technologies to market, creating economic growth, and supporting communities across the country,” said Crow. He spoke of several ways companies are filling jobs, like hiring veterans, transitioning fossil fuel workers, expanding public sector partnerships and supporting unions, and asked the witnesses for other ways to fill the workforce needs.
Neil James, vice president of operations and maintenance at Apex Clean Energy, in Charlottesville, Va., said the wind industry alone will employ more than 250,000 workers by the end of 2020, “more than the coal, natural gas and hydroelectric industries combined.” He urged that steps be taken to meet the growing workforce demands, including working with schools, public-private partnerships and efforts to expand awareness of the jobs market.
U.S. Rep. Troy Balderson (R-OH), the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, said the federal government “can do more to drive skilled workers toward this industry.”
Crow said there are more than 360,000 clean energy companies in the United States, the vast majority of which are small. An estimated 45 percent of those companies employ just four to five workers. Crow asked the panel if a bill he has sponsored, the Save Energy Act, which would provide a $500 tax credit for energy-efficient home improvements, would help the industry. “I think that would be a great win,” said Jackson.
The dearth of available workers, according to Ed Gilliland, senior director of The Solar Foundation, is being exacerbated by the low unemployment rate and the “competitive construction sector.”
Jackson said the industry has traditionally looked to veterans and community colleges to help fill their needs.
Gilliland cited the Solar Veterans Program, which provided job training for transitioning vets at 10 military bases in the United States.
U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) asked the industry representatives whether a program like one enacted in Illinois under the Future Energy Jobs Act would be effective on the national level. He asked Wardrip of the Building and Construction Trades Council what role organized labor could have in filling job deficiencies and providing apprenticeships. “We can train to what the apprenticeships require,” said Wardrip. “We’re ready to be there, we’re ready to do the job.”
Wardrip expanded by explaining that the declining coal industry in Colorado is providing available workers for the renewables industry. He added that coal workers losing their jobs should have the first shot at job openings, which will help the local economies being harmed by the decline in the coal industry and help the renewables industry at the same time.
