Power rankings
Only California has created more jobs in clean industries
With its mega wind projects at the fore, Texas takes the No. 2 spot behind California in creating jobs in the growing clean energy sector.
California has created the most jobs in renewable energy, electric vehicles and other clean industries, but Texas is No. 2, according to the Washington, D.C.-based environmental advocacy group E2.
Texas has 233,000 clean jobs, with about 163,000 in energy-efficient heating and air conditioning, energy-efficient lighting and energy-efficient appliances. Another 18,000 Texans make and sell electric vehicles. Another 25,000 Texans work in the wind industry, and 11,000 work in solar energy.
California, according to the study, has 513,000 total clean energy jobs, with more than half in heating, appliances and lighting. About 127,000 residents in California work in the solar industry but only 6,000 in wind energy.
The increase in clean jobs comes at a time when generation from renewables is setting records nationwide. The Energy Department reported this week that
renewables produced a record 742 million megawatt hours of power last year, nearly double the 382 million megawatt hours renewables generated a decade earlier. Nearly 90 percent of the increase in renewable-generated power during the past decade have come from wind and solar energy.
Texas has developed some of the nation’s biggest wind projects, especially in west Texas. Last summer the North American arm of the French electric utility company Engie announced it obtained $147 million in construction financing and $155 million in tax equity financing to build a wind project near San Angelo in west Texas.
Another announcement came from AT&T, the Dallas telecommunications company, that it was buying 820 megawatts of electricity generated by wind power from NextEra Energy Resources, a Florida utility, from four wind farms under construction in Texas and Oklahoma. The contracts are expected to deliver 820 megawatts of wind power , the equivalent of taking 530,000 cars off the road or providing electricity for more than 372,000 homes each year.
Texas has also been at the forefront of solar energy with solar projects under development in about 80 of the state's 254 counties. NRG Energy, the biggest electricity seller in Texas, teamed up with a solar provider from California to develop 25 megawatts of solar projects and announced the first customer was Sysco, the Houston-based food distribution company. Pattern Energy is currently developing three solar farms in East Texas by leasing pasture land from local land owners.
Overall, renewables produced nearly 18 percent of the nation’s electricity last year, according to the Energy Department.
No other state comes close to matching the number of jobs created in Texas by the wind industry, according to the E2 report. Only three states — California, New York and Massachusetts — have created more solar jobs than Texas.