New York State

New York shows growth in the clean energy industry

The trends are positive, but there’s still room for improvement.

Solar panels being installed in Oneonta, New York.

Solar panels being installed in Oneonta, New York. PurpleHousePhotos/Shutterstock

It’s climate week in New York City, so what better time for the state to release a report on clean energy job trends? The New York state Energy Research and Development Authority released its 2019 Clean Energy Industry Report with the latest numbers on job growth in various sectors of the industry. The state has lofty environmental goals that were codified by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act earlier this year – including hitting 100% clean energy from the electric sector by 2040 and to reduce carbon emissions by 85% by 2050. To meet these goals, ramping up clean energy jobs – which itself is included as a goal in the new state law – will be essential.

Overall, New York seems to be trending in its intended direction, although a closer look at the numbers certainly shows room for improvement. The state highlighted the positive growth in the energy industry in 2018 – an 8.9% increase since 2016 and a 4.8% improvement over 2017. According to the report, the two-year growth is more than double the employment growth of the state’s overall economy. In total, that’s nearly 159,000 jobs statewide, with even more growth projected for 2019. Clean energy employment growth in New York in 2018 also outpaced the national average for clean energy employment, which stood at 2.7%. 

The report includes a range of different breakdowns of these broad statistics that, while still illustrating growth, present, at times, a more modest picture when looking at clean energy as a whole. Within the industry, energy efficiency jobs account for about 78% of the total number of clean energy jobs. Renewable electric power generation, alternative transportation, renewable fuels, grid modernization and power storage are the other technologies that account for the other 12%. While energy efficiency is an important of hitting statewide goals, expansion in the other four sectors will be crucial and there is still plenty of room for growth there.

Among the five technologies included in the report, grid modernization and energy storage had the fastest rate of growth, increasing over 52% since 2016 and 35% in 2018 alone. This is well above the predicted 8% from last year’s report as well as the 7% national average. However, in terms of raw numbers, it still has the fewest number of jobs total with 2,151. Under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the state is meant to reach 1,500 megawatts of storage by 2025 and 3,000 megawatts of storage by 2030. According to the New York Independent Systems Operators 2019 Power Trends report, the state has over 2,000 megawatts of storage proposed, but only has 30 megawatts in storage deployed. The storage is necessary to ensure steady output to consistently meet demands, while grid modernization ensures that it can adequately distribute electricity from renewable sources throughout the state.

Renewable electric power generation was the only technology that saw a slight loss in jobs between 2017 and 2018, and a net loss since 2016. The report described the sector as “steady” since it only experienced a .2% decline in the past year, which it said is lower than the 1.9% decline experienced at a national level. So despite it being the only area of negative growth in the report, New York is still on slightly better footing compared to the country as a whole. Employers also remained optimistic, predicting a 9% job increase between 2018 and 2019.

Renewable fuels also experienced a net job loss since 2016, despite 2.5% growth in the past year. That growth is also below the national average of 3.4%, the only instance where the country on average outpaced the state. And even the projected growth for 2019 leaves the state at a net job loss since 2016.

Interestingly, the median wage for an entry-level “team assembler” job in the energy efficiency sector not much higher than the statewide minimum wage in 2018. According to the report, the position had a median wage of $10.95 per hour. Minimum wage for the year was $10.40, despite the fact that Gov. Andrew Cuomo often touts a $15 minimum wage statewide that only currently exists in New York City, with only Long Island and Westchester County following suit in 2022. In 2018, entry level positions for construction laborer and team assembler were below $15. However, entry level jobs overall in the clean energy industry had wage premiums, as did mid-level jobs. 

Additionally, the report found that the vast majority – 80% – of clean energy employers experienced some level of difficulty in hiring employees, up 10% from 2017. Most said the problem lay in the fact that applicants lacked experience, training or technical skills. NYSERDA has a variety of workplace development programs to help people acquire necessary training and assist in job placing in the clean energy industry, including the Clean Energy Internship Program and the Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Training.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.