| Wisconsin has 75,044 clean energy jobs of the more than 714,000 in the 12 Midwest States according to the Clean Jobs Midwest 2018 survey. That places WI fifth in the region as seen in the bar chart below. Within Wisconsin, clean energy jobs are distributed fairly evenly across the state’s congressional districts (see map). Energy efficiency accounts for 83 percent of the jobs, helping businesses, residents and manufacturers to save money. Yet, lack of job growth in energy efficiency in Wisconsin lagged the rest of the Midwest that experienced a 1.5 percent increase. The state dropped two places to 24th in the country in ACEEE’s energy efficiency scorecard as well.
Renewable energy generation accounts for 5,660 jobs from wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and low-impact hydropower. There are 4,197 jobs in advanced transportation employing people who build hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles, alternative fuel vehicles, and fuel-cell vehicles. The EV industry in Wisconsin was the fastest growing, up 27 percent to employ more than 1,000 people statewide. The remainder of Wisconsin’s clean energy jobs are in advanced grid technology and clean fuels. In total, clean energy jobs make up 2.55 percent of Wisconsin’s workforce.
Overall, there was a 1 percent decline in clean energy jobs in Wisconsin primarily due to difficulty in hiring qualified employees. However, business owners project clean energy jobs to grow by 2 percent next year. |
