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Green Industry Reports and Studies

Reports and studies profiling the East Bay's green industry cluster, the Bay Area's solar energy industry, and the larger "Green Economy" for the state of California. For more green info, click here.

	Research Preview, 2009: Green Industries & Jobs In California (The Centers of Excellence, January 2009) From the report's Executive Summary In 2008, the Centers of Excellence (COE) of the California Community Colleges Economic and Workforce Development Program launched a study of the green economy and green jobs in the state. Considering the emerging character of this field of study and the absence of one commonly accepted definition of the green economy and what industries it comprises, the COE decided to focus the first phase of the study on identifying green and clean tech industries. After establishing a set of criteria, the COE matched green industries with occupations and occupational groups that could provide new and/or evolving career opportunities. In addition, the COE compiled a list of community college programs currently in place to train for these occupations. The efforts resulted in a comprehensive crosswalk between green clusters, industries, occupations, and college programs. Although work on the crosswalk is ongoing, this Preview will provide its shortened draft version. The second phase of the green economy study is scheduled to begin in March 2009. It will focus on surveying employers to collect comprehensive quantitative and qualitative data on green industries and occupations as identified in the crosswalk. This Preview features a snapshot of key ideas and findings regarding California’s green economy, career opportunities, and training gaps, as identified by the COE team. The purpose of this report is not to list every “green” job opportunity, but rather to point out and describe a few significant occupations that may warrant special attention from community colleges in California. Multiple information sources were used to produce this Preview, including several published and in progress research scans by the COE, as well as publications from other agencies. As this report uses preliminary data and information, most of which still needs to be verified and validated, findings presented here should be treated as rough approximations or estimates.
	Green Jobs and Blue Skies (The Centers of Excellence, March 19, 2009) From the report's Executive Summary The California community College's Workforce and Economic Development Centers of Excellence (COE) found a pocket of economic hope in their new environmental scan on Energy Efficiency Occupations. California's persistent move towards energy efficiency has spurred a rising need around eight energy efficiency occupations that is likely to create thousands of well paying jobs over the next three years, according to the COE report. The report findings are based on survey responses from over 700 firms that hire energy efficiency workers in 12 counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. The firms were primarily from three industries: 1) public or private utilities or agencies, 2) building design and construction, and 3) building or facility operations and maintenance. Industry partner Charles Segerstrom, manager of PG&E's Energy Centers said, "Increasing focus on climate change mitigation, local jobs, energy costs, legislative requirements and consumer demand for sustainability have all led to a major push for a greener economy. The latest COE report is a major step to uncover information about the energy efficiency sector and related occupations that will support development of 'green collar' workforce education and training programs."
	Research Briefing, 2009: Green Industries & Job In California (The Centers of Excellence, January 2009) From the report's Executive Summary In 2008, the Centers of Excellence (COE) of the California Community Colleges Economic and Workforce Development Program launched a study of the green economy and green jobs in the state. Given the emerging character of this field of study, the COE decided to first focus on identifying green and clean tech industries, resulting in a comprehensive crosswalk between green clusters, industries, occupations, and existing community college programs. This Preview of Findings features some of the key ideas and research impacting California’s green economy, green career opportunities, and workforce training gaps, as identified by the COE. This document does not list every green job opportunity, rather its purpose is to distinguish and describe a few significant occupations that may warrant special attention from California Community Colleges. The second phase of the green economy study is scheduled to begin in March 2009 and will focus on surveying employers to collect comprehensive quantitative and qualitative data on green industries and occupations as identified in the crosswalk. Several information sources were used to produce this Preview, including a number of published and in-progress research scans by the COE, as well as publications from other agencies. As this report uses preliminary data and information, most of which still needs to be verified and validated, findings presented here should be treated as rough approximations or estimates.
	East Bay Green Economy Industry Cluster Study (Craft Consulting Group, June 2008) From the report's Executive Summary The Green Economy has moved from the fringes to the mainstream and has created a huge growing market that includes renewable energy, alternative fuels, green building, solar technology, environmental services, water purification, and recycling technologies. Communities that know how to embrace the green economy by building on local strengths will benefit from business expansion and new job creation occurring in green industries. A number of cities and metropolitan areas across the country have begun to aggressively develop and promote the green sector through various initiatives and the adoption of sustainability master plans, environmentally preferable purchasing policies, green building practices, and alternative energy programs. Development of a sustainable economy can be realized through a concerted effort by local governments to focus their attention and institutional resources on fostering the growth of the green sector.
	Clean Technology & The Green Economy Growing Products, Services, Businesses and Jobs in California's Value Network (Collaborative Economics for the California Economic Strategy Panel, March 2008) From the report's Executive Summary Nationally and globally, attentions are focusing on rising energy costs, questions of national energy security, worry over environmental and related societal threats as well as fears of economic slow-down. These seemingly countervailing crises might suggest that a choice must be made between doing what is good for the environment OR doing what is good for the economy. California’s green economy demonstrates that this is not the case. California’s green economy is not about a handful of new industries struggling in under-developed markets. Instead, it is about the potential of new technologies combined with innovative public policy and strategic investment to stimulate the growth of new markets for environmentally sound products and services while also reinvigorating slowing markets through the widening application of new technologies across the entire economy.
	Clean Energy Trends 2008 (Clean Edge, March 2008) Amid a challenging economic outlook—plummeting housing prices, rising foreclosure rates, record-high oil prices, sinking consumer confidence, looming recession—2007 was another banner year for clean energy, with no signs of a slowdown in 2008. Solar, wind, biofuels, geothermal, energy intelligence, hybrid- and all-electric vehicles, advanced batteries, green buildings, and other clean-energy-related technologies and markets provided bright spots in an otherwise sluggish economy. Clean Edge, which has been tracking the growth of clean-energy markets since 2000, reports a 40 percent increase in revenue growth for solar photovoltaics, wind, biofuels, and fuel cells in 2007, up from $55 billion in 2006 to $77.3 billion in 2007. For the first time, three of these are generating revenue in excess of $20 billion apiece, with wind now exceeding $30 billion. New global investments in energy technologies—including venture capital, project finance, public markets, and research and development—have expanded by 60 percent from $92.6 billion in 2006 to $148.4 billion in 2007, according to research firm New Energy Finance.
	Solar Energy at a Glance Strategic Possibility Summary for Bay Region Community Colleges (Bay Region Center of Excellence, City College of San Francisco, October 2006) From the report's Executive Summary California is emerging as the world’s third largest solar market. 1 Most industry and financial analysts forecast 20% annual growth in solar energy over both the near and long term2 Solar photovoltaics (PV) systems create more jobs per megawatt of capacity than any other energy technology. Instead of purchasing natural gas for power plants from out of state energy suppliers, California has an economic opportunity to produce abundant, clean electricity with PV technologies and create high-quality jobs and a more robust economy in the state.
	Environmental Scan - Solar Industry, San Francisco Bay & Greater Silicon Valley Regions (Bay Region Center of Excellence, City College of San Francisco, Aprilr 2008) From the report's Introducton The California Community Colleges Economic and Workforce Development Program (EWD) has charged the Centers of Excellence with identifying industries and occupations that have unmet employee development needs. The solar industry has been featured in the media and regional business reports as an emergent and growing sector of the green technology field. However, these reports have not researched and analyzed the workforce development needs of the solar industry. In January 2008, the Bay Region and Greater Silicon Valley Centers of Excellence (COEs), in partnership with the two Advanced Transportation Technology and Energy Centers in the Bay Area launched and completed a survey of 77 of the 257 solar businesses and businesses tied to the solar industry located in the ten-county Bay Area. The Bay Region Solar Industry Workforce Study, conducted in partnership with solar industry associations, adds to the knowledge base on the industry by contributing original research on workforce issues and by offering recommendations to community colleges on how best to address the industry’s future workforce challenges. Specifically, the research study: • Identifies solar firms in the Bay Area, their geographical concentration, size of firms and major sectors. • Identifies key solar occupations that are most relevant to community colleges. • Develops projections of future employment growth. • Identifies employer challenges in recruiting, hiring and retaining workers. • Defines skill sets and education requirements needed for the relevant solar occupations. The research findings, which are being released fully for the first time in this report, provide colleges with timely and credible information for the development or redesign of solar training and education programs...

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