Energy efficiency could create over a million jobs in US by 2020

Energy Efficiency News - A study of the energy efficiency services sector by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates that it could support around 1.3 million jobs by 2020. But the rate of expansion of the sector could be hampered by a lack of training, warns the report.

This is particularly true in the building and construction trades, which make up around 65-70% of the energy efficiency services sector, but have limited awareness of the potential growth of the sector and the necessary skills. The report recommends providing targeted education and training programmes for the building and construction trades, particularly in states that do not already have well established energy efficiency programmes. There is also a need for more funding to ‘train the trainers’ as well.


The management of such state-wide energy efficiency programmes is also a cause for concern, says the report, with a shortage of trained experienced staff to run them. The shortage is compounded by a lack of experienced energy efficiency engineers, partly caused by a lack of awareness of the sector once again and the availability of few formal training courses.

The energy efficiency sector currently supports about 120,000 full-time equivalent workers (or person-year equivalents, PYE) administering programmes, in construction, building and installation of energy efficiency measures, and energy service companies. But since many staff are only devoted to energy efficiency part-time, this could equate to around 400,000 actual jobs. If the funding for training hits the mark, the sector could support up to 380,000 PYE by 2020 – or around 1.3 million individuals.