Rhode Island Green Jobs are Growing

Posted on June 29, 2009

Rhode Island green jobs are growing faster than others throughout the state.

The Pew Charitable Trusts recently released The Clean Energy Economy: Repowering Jobs, Businesses and Investments Across America, a study that found jobs in Rhode Island‘s renewable-energy industry grew at a slightly higher rate than overall jobs from 1998 to 2007. The study found that jobs in the clean-energy sector increased by .7 percent during the 10-year period, compared to .6 percent for all jobs.

Even though the state saw faster growth in the green jobs industry, it was behind the national rate. Throughout the country, green-collar jobs increased by 9.1 percent to 770,000 jobs. Total jobs increased by only 3.7 percent throughout the nation.

There were 2,328 green-energy jobs in Rhode Island in 2007. So far, the state has been successful in attracting venture capital funding and has been able to tie up more than $22 million in private investment in the clean-technology sector.

Currently, Rhode Island is hoping to accept a proposal to install more than 100 wind turbines off the state’s coast. Deepwater Wind, the company in charge of that project, plans to create an assembly facility in North Kingstown that would be staffed by 800 workers.

The study found that growth of clean-energy jobs outpaced growth of overall jobs in 38 states and the District of Columbia, California led the country with about 124,000 green-collar jobs in 2007, followed by 56,000 jobs in Texas.