North Carolina’s clean energy sector produced an additional 8,000 jobs in 2016 – an increase of 31 percent – but overall revenues fell slightly to some $6.4 billion, according to a new report.
According to the annual census from the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, the state is now home to nearly 1,000 companies focused on clean energy.
“The 2016 North Carolina Census results show that the clean energy industry continues to grow and mature, but growth was not uniform across all sectors and activities.” the authors of the report noted. “This increasing growth rate is a positive signal that the industry can continue its success in some but not all clean energy sectors in spite of political and regulatory uncertainty.”
Full-time jobs increased to 34,294 from 26,154, year over year, says the report, which is based on data provided to the association and has been reported since 2008. A total of 671 firms identified as conducting clean energy-related business provided information out of 997 in all, according to the study.
The “slight decrease” in revenue was “likely due to a number of firms’ unwillingness to disclose revenue statistics in this year’s survey,” the NCSEA noted.
Dominate sectors
At 39 percent and 20 percent respectively, energy efficiency and solar industry are the largest players in the clean energy sector in terms of companies followed by geothermal (9 percent), Biomass/biofuel (7 percent) and energy storage (6 percent).
In jobs, however, energy efficiency dominates with 47 percent of jobs at just over 16,100 or 47 percent.
Solar and biomass/biofuel are next at over 5,000 jobs each (16 percent) of the work force.
In revenue, energy efficiency accounts for 40 percent at $2.5 billion followed by solar at $1.4 billion, wind at $786 million and biomass/biofuel at $480 million.
Read more at:
