Report: Clean tech big business locally
Sector adds $2.5 billion, 20,000 jobs to Austin’s economy, report says.
The clean technology sector contributes $2.5 billion annually and employs 20,000 people in Central Texas, a study says.
The clean technology sector contributes $2.5 billion annually to the Austin area’s economy and employs 20,000 people in Central Texas, according to a new study released by city leaders and industry advocates Wednes- day.
What’s more, employment in the field is expected to grow 11 percent in the Austin area by 2020, according to the study conducted by Austin-based Civic Analytics, a development consulting firm, and the Austin Technology Incubator.
The study is the first attempt to quantify the clean energy sector in Central Texas, said Mitch Jacobson, co-director of the Austin Technology Incubator’s clean energy incubator.
“We’ve all known for many years that there’s something special happening here in the Austin area with regard to clean technology, and now ... we have proof and facts — really compelling ones,” Jacobson said.
He credited partnerships with local utility Austin Energy, Austin Technology Incubator and University of Texas researchers, among others, in helping to grow the sector.
The study defines the clean tech sector as “a set of technologies and services developed across a number of industries in response to concerns about climate change, energy security and resource depletion.” That can include industries ranging from smart grids, vehicles, water, recycling and manufacturing.
The sector employs nearly 20,000 people in the Austin metro area, which also includes Georgetown, Round
Rock and San Marcos. Employment is projected to grow in the region at 11.24 percent by 2020, almost twice the national growth rate. Previous research from a 2011 Brookings Institution report rated Austin’s clean tech economy 36th out of 100 metro areas, with 14,554 jobs attributed to Austin’s clean economy growing at a rate of 5.3 percent per year.
For context, about 1 million people in the Austin metro area were employed as of April, and the metro area has an annual GDP of about $100 billion, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler said it’s “no surprise that Austin is a clean technology hub.”
“Our city’s roots, as we all know, are deeply embedded in technology,” he said. “That’s long been a real dominant and growing industry in our city. And we are so close to the world energy hub, that is Houston, Texas. Now you bring together both the tech and the energy industries, and in that nexus something grand and big happens.”
The growth of the sector, Adler said, doesn’t happen by luck.
“An interconnected web of businesses and organizations, both public and private, have contributed and (have been) deliberately orchestrating this industry, designing this ecosystem for years now,” he said.
Brian Kelsey, principal of Civic Analytics, said the study shows that “clean tech is now part of Austin’s economic development story and a fairly significant piece of it.”
“I think there’s a lot of that story left to tell,” he said. “I think there’s some work to do, in terms of defining Austin’s competitive advantage versus some other regions around the country, but I’m excited about the prospects for continued research in this field.”