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GreenTech Week in Review
Green Technology Featured Articles
June 15, 2013

GreenTech Week in Review

By Cheryl Kaften
TMCnet Contributor

First, the good news: U.S. renewable energy projects are creating thousands of new jobs—and significant growth is expected in the residential solar sector. Now, the bad news: small businesses may suffer as the green economy grows.  Those are the findings of three studies released within the past few days.


The first report, from a group called the Environmental Entrepreneurs, reveals that more than 12,000 U.S. clean energy and clean transport jobs have been handed out and announced in the first quarter of 2013, alone. Those jobs are spread out over more than 50 different projects across the nation—but the states that are leading the charge are Massachusetts and California. No surprises there. Indeed, the Bay State put a $400 million program in place that was reported to have created as many as 4,100 jobs.

These kinds of projects are often pointed to as job creators, but the project is slated to save the state between $43 million and $250 million in annual energy costs. In the Golden State, a dozen different clean energy projects have yielded about 2,808 jobs. Among the initiatives that are getting the most attention, the study says, are solar farms, which are multiplying rapidly. The report also indicates that wind power is making a comeback. There had been a drop-off in the number of wind energy jobs coming into 2012, but more than 1,400 wind energy jobs have been announced for 2013—thanks to the passage of the long-sought extension of wind energy tax credits by Congress on January 1 of this year.

What’s more, the time for home-grown, solar distributed generation (DG) is ripe, based on the findings of the study, “U.S. Solar Market Insight: First Quarter 2013,” conducted on behalf of the Washington, D.C.-based trade group, the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) by Boston-based GTM Research. Whereas residential and commercial solar markets historically have been effectively capped by the availability of state- and utility-level incentives, solar generation now is cost-effective in some markets with only the federal investment tax credit (ITC), accelerated depreciation and net metering.

The United States enjoyed the best first quarter of any given year for the industry, with 723 megawatts (MW) installed, which accounted for over 48 percent of all new electric capacity installed in the nation during the three-month period. In addition, the residential and utility market segments registered first-quarter highs with 164 MW and 318 MW respectively. The residential market remains a highlight for U.S. solar— with 53 percent year-over-year growth.

Unlike the non-residential and utility markets, residential solar has not exhibited seasonality and market volatility on a national basis; quarterly growth in the U.S. residential market has ranged from four percent to 21 percent in 12 of the past 13 quarters. Furthermore, third-party owned (TPO) residential systems continue to be a major storyline in the market. In the key states of California and Arizona for example, TPO systems accounted for 67 percent and 86 percent respectively of all residential PV installed in Q1 2013.  

However, a report released by the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, EcoVentures International and Green America warned that when the green economy reaches maturity, small businesses may find themselves on the outside.  Why? About 88 percent of all businesses in the U.S. have five or fewer employees. These companies are not well-positioned to capitalize on the green economy because they tend to have less market insight and less capital than their large corporate counterparts.

Most small businesses can't afford a major sustainability push, and they don't have a large payroll of sustainability experts. However, the study asserts that small businesses can find niches in the green economy with "laser-like focus on meeting needs of existing customers and attracting new customers willing to pay 'green premiums.'"

There is no need to worry at the moment, because green small businesses are sprouting up all over. According to the same report, between 2002 and 2011 green business growth made huge strides—with organic food growing at 238 percent; organic non-food, 400 percent; renewable energy, 456 percent; green building, 1,700 percent; and Fair Trade imports, 1,442 percent.





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