Despite uneven economic news, there continues to be activity in the green jobs arena. Here’s what we found:

• Duke Energy to Build Fifth Texas Wind Farm: Duke Energy Renewables, a commercial business unit of Duke Energy, will build, own and operate the 202-megawatt (MW) Los Vientos II Windpower Project and sell the electricity and renewable energy credits it generates to Austin Energy through a 25-year agreement.
• An Emerging Career Choice: Wind turbine technicians are responsible for the overall maintenance, operations, and inspections of wind turbines and their facilities. The U.S. Department of Labor reports a wind turbine technician is responsible for electrical troubleshooting, visual blade inspection, replacement, and repair, bolt torque testing, power train maintenance, hydraulic troubleshooting, and the installation of hardware and software.
• Five of the Fastest Growing Green Jobs: Here are five green careers that are not entirely new, but are now being completely reinvented. If you want to keep a competitive advantage in the workforce, one must learn how these top-growing jobs are “going green.” These fields, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS), are expected to see a growth from six to nearly 30%.
• SolarCity Lands Another Big Deal as Walmart Steps Up Solar Plans: SolarCity will install solar energy systems on the rooftops of up to 60 more Walmart stores in California. That’s in addition to the 70 or so stores already under contract in the state with the world’s largest retailer. SolarCity will own and maintain the solar energy systems and sell the power to Walmart, satisfying between 20 percent and 30 percent of each store’s energy needs.
• New Jersey hospital to add 2.1 megawatts of solar: St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., announced today it’s beginning construction this October to install 10,000 solar panels throughout its campus The 2.1-megawatt project will be the largest solar installation of any hospital in New Jersey to date, and be distributed across six different locations within the hospital’s campus.
• Wind Power Plant In Kansas Back on Track: A new power purchase agreement announced by Infinity Windpower and Sunflower Electric Power. The Shooting Star Wind Project, located between Greensburg and Dodge City, was hatched in 2001 by Clipper Windpower, but then languished. Clipper recently sold the development to Infinity, however, and the new 20-year power purchase agreement is expected to put the 104-megawatt (MW) project on track to be built and operational by the end of 2012.

The stock market’s up, then it’s down. But one thing has held steady - a growing need for workers in the green economy. Here’s the latest news from the front:

• Department of Energy Finalizes $102 Million Loan Guarantee for Innovative Wind Energy Project: The Department of Energy has finalized a $102 million loan guarantee to Record Hill Wind, LLC. The 50.6 MW project will consist of 22 turbines and new transmission lines to interconnect with Central Maine Power, the local utility. Developed and managed by Wagner Wind Energy I, LLC of New Hampshire and Independence Wind, LLC of Maine, Record Hill will provide sustainable power to the state while funding 200 construction jobs.
• Toyota and Tesla to Build RAV4 Electric Vehicle at Toyota’s Woodstock, Ontario Production Facility: The RAV4 EV will be sold at U.S. Toyota dealers through Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. (TMS). Details including pricing, volume and regional distribution will be determined and announced at a later time. In July of last year, Tesla and Toyota Engineering and Manufacturing, America (TEMA) collaborated to convert 32 conventional gas-engine RAV4 compact SUVs into fully functional RAV4 EV prototypes.
• Vets, Native Americans Get Green Job Training: Veterans and Native Americans in New Mexico, two groups especially hard hit by the struggling economy, could see their opportunities improve with a new program coming to the state. U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) announced Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) was getting $300,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency to teach job skills to unemployed vets and Native Americans and prepare them for work in environmental fields.
• Solar Array Coming to Sun Devil Territory: For thousands of Sun Devil fans, a new structure going up at Arizona State University will be little more than a place to park the car before football and baseball games, but the 2.1-megawatt solar array planned for the top of the structure is the big star of an announcement from Princeton, N.J.-based NRG Energy. The “PowerParasol” will shade 800 parking spaces with a 24-foot-high, 5.25-acre covering developed in partnership with Arizona-based Strategic Solar Energy. The PowerParasol is Strategic’s flagship product. Construction on the unit at ASU is set to begin in mid-August and would be Strategic’s first such product. The project will consist of 7,584 photovoltaic panels.
• New Solar Project Hiring Locals, Veterans: SolarReserve, a developer of solar projects, announced recently that an amendment had been made to the agreement the company had with its affiliate, Tonopah Solar Energy, and Nye County in Nevada. The amendment states that 90% of all workforce on the 110 megawatt (MW) Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project must come from Nye County residents. The solar project, also located in Nye County, is estimated to create more than 600 jobs during its construction. Construction is expected to begin this September and last for about 30 months. After completion, Crescent Dunes will employ about 45 people full-time. $37 million in tax revenue is expected for its first 10 years of operation.

The temperature is rising - and there’s plenty of action in green jobs!

• Duke Energy to Build Second Kansas Wind Farm: Duke Energy Renewables, a commercial business unit of Duke Energy, will build, own and operate the 131-megawatt (MW) Cimarron II Windpower Project in Gray County – approximately 200 miles west of Wichita. “In just the last month, Duke Energy has announced plans to add three more wind farms to its commercial portfolio of renewable energy assets,” said Duke Energy Renewables President Greg Wolf. “These projects will bring Duke Energy’s wind-generated capacity to approximately 1,300 megawatts – enough to power nearly 400,000 homes.”
• Dow and Ube Form Joint Venture to Manufacture Electrolytes for Lithium-Ion Batteries in the US.: The Dow Chemical Company and Ube Industries (Ube) have aggreed to form a joint venture to manufacture and market formulated electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in energy storage applications. The 50-50 joint venture, named Advanced Electrolyte Technologies LLC, is expected to be finalized later this year, pending regulatory approval.
• CleanPath creates $800 million fund to invest in solar: Renewable energy investment firm CleanPath will pour more than $800 million into large photovoltaic solar projects in North America, the company said yesterday.The company’s new fund is expected to invest in more than 1,000 megawatts of solar power plants over the next five years. The plants will range in size from 5 MW to more than 100 MW.
• Solar power development in Oregon: QSolar has been awarded 2.5 MW residential solar project to that will provide power for 800 Homes in Southern Oregon. The Project will begin with the delivery of two sample houses followed by volume deliveries to start in early 2012. The Rendata, located near Grants Pass in Southern Oregon, being developed by Ra Power & Light, will become one of the first all-solar US communities. Each home will feature a 2.5 kW PV system and solar domestic hot water with optional electric vehicle charging stations.

Tornadoes, floods, and the usual spring weather have not dampened the green job revival! Here’s the latest news:

• Fuel-efficient cars increase vehicle sales - and employment: A report by analysts at Citigroup distributed at the conference said that while the fuel-economy standards currently under consideration by the Obama administration would result in a 6 percent increase in industry sales in 2020, compared with their baseline scenario.
• RMT to Build Ten New Wind Projects and Eight New Solar Projects: RMT, which specializes in the design and construction of clean energy facilities, has recently been selected to design and build ten new wind power projects totaling approximately 1,100 MW and eight utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) projects totaling 55 MWdc during 2011. These projects bring RMT’s total renewable energy portfolio to over 4,900 MW.
• Mortenson Builds its 19th Wind Project in Home State of Minnesota: Mortenson Construction, one of the leading renewable contractors in North America, will soon break ground on the 44 megawatt Oak Glen Wind Farm, located on a 3,000 acre agricultural site located in Blooming Prairie, MN. The project’s owner is the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency and its 11-member utilities. Mortenson’s scope of work will include the erection of 24, 1.8-megawatt turbines and the construction of foundations, access roads, underground collection, and a 69kV substation.
• How Green Jobs are Helping Arizona: Eleven solar manufacturers have located to the Phoenix metropolitan area in the last year, partly driven by a renewable-energy tax break Arizona recently passed. But they’ve also been lured by Arizona’s aggressive courtship — the combined efforts of officials and businessmen to outbid other states starving for jobs.
• Report: Top 10 clean-energy states identified: The survey used more than 3,500 data points and 70 major indicators drawing from both municipal and private data sources to evaluate all 50 states in the U.S. for how well they did on policy, technology, and capital when it came to green tech. Factors for evaluating each state included: the amount of green-tech related patent activity; the amount of green-tech venture capital being invested; the number of alternative fuel, electric, and hybrid vehicles registered in the state; and the percentage of electricity produced from clean sources.

Although there are many jobs in the green economy that don’t require special education, it’s often helpful to have specific training or degrees if you want to increase your earning power and responsibility. Below is a sampling of programs and training that can help you out:

Masters programs: These can include advanced degrees in environmental engineering, environmental sciences, and much more-

• M.S. in Sustainability Management: Offered by Columbia University; focused on the complex issues of environmental and sustainability management; contact Louise Rosen, lar46@columbia.edu
• M.S. in Environment & Community: Offered by Antioch University; approach environmental policy and sustainability issues from both a social science and natural science perspective; contact http://www.enviroeducation.com/cgi-bin/trk.cgi?http://www.antiochsea.edu/academics/enviro/index.html
• M.S. in Public Policy & Management: Offered by Carnegie Mellon University; focuses on environmental policy and research; contact http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/school-of-public-policy-management/public-policy-management-msppm/index.aspx

Solar and Wind training:

• NABCEP Registered Providers �of Entry Level PV Exam: excellent resource with listings of community colleges and other training providers
• Solar Living Institute: Offers regular workshops on designing and installing photovoltaic systems
• Infinite Solar School PA: 5-day trainings for certification by NABCEP and IREC
• Ontility: Solar, wind, and energy efficiency training 
• Boots on the Roof: Solar and wind training aimed at HVAC contractors
• Solar Source Institute: Provides design, installation, and business-related training

What’s happening in green jobs:

• Mascoma to build cellulistic ethanol plant in Michigan: the Mascoma Corporation of Lebanon, N.H., said it had reached an agreement with Valero, the nation’s largest independent oil refiner, under which Valero would take the entire output of a commercial plant that Mascoma was to break ground on this year in Kinross, Mich. It is the first such “offtake” agreement in the industry, Mascoma said. The plant is supposed to be running by 2013.
• A Silicon Valley photovoltaic cell maker plans a huge factory in South Carolina: By the end of 2014, AQT Solar’s thin-film solar factory will have an annual manufacturing capacity of 1,000 megawatts and employ up to 1,000 workers.
• Evergreen Solar shutters costly US plant: Evergreen Solar will close its Massachusetts factory, saying that the U.S. is at a disadvantage in the face of low-cost Chinese solar suppliers. The company yesterday said that its Devens, Mass., plant, a converted military facility, will be shut down by the end of the first quarter of this year. The move will result in 800 lost jobs, leaving about 100 in its Marlborough, Mass.-based headquarters.
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  Mortenson Construction and enXco Partner to Build 400 MW Wind Capacity in Minnesota: Mortenson Construction and San Diego-based developer, enXco have completed the 201-megawatt Nobles Wind Project in Reading, Minnesota. The Nobles Wind Project represents about half of the 400 megawatts the enXco-Mortenson partnership plans to install in Minnesota by the summer of 2011. Mortenson and enXco are building the 205.5-megawatt Lakefield Wind Project about 30 miles from the Nobles project site in the southwest corner of Minnesota which will be completed by September of 2011.

• Green Jobs Outpace Overall California Job Market Recovery: The second edition of the Many Shades of Green report, published by California-focused research group Next 10, looks at how green jobs changed throughout the state from January 2008 to the start of 2009. While overall jobs grew less than 1 percent, green jobs grew by 3 percent.

 

As the immediate effects of the BP oil spill begin to fade, the long term effects are still be determined. The cleanup will continue to generate new jobs in the Gulf Region for months (if not years) to come. However, the oil spill wasn’t the only news in the green economy - read on:

• New efforts on a renewable electricity standard: Some clean energy and climate advocates have shifted their sights to a scaled-back but still ambitious goal: passage of a national renewable electricity standard. Such a law would require utility companies to produce a set amount of electricity from renewable sources by a certain date, spurring the development of clean sources like wind and solar and probably lowering overall emissions nationally. Such a standard would drive additional employment in the wind and solar sectors.
• Wind farm ‘mega-project’ underway in Mojave Desert: the project is officially breaking ground in the Tehachapi Pass, a burgeoning hot spot for wind energy about 75 miles north of Los Angeles. When completed, Alta could produce three times as much energy as the country’s largest existing wind farm, analysts said. It’s slated to be done in the next decade and will create hundreds of construction and maintenance jobs.
• New Stirling engine solar heating and power system in Colorado: Cool Energy, of Boulder, Colorado, a developer of clean energy heat and power generating systems, today announced that Xcel Energy will be providing research and analytical support for the first planned pilot field installation of the SolarFlowÆ System in a commercial building located in Boulder, Colorado.
• Xtreme Power raises cash for renewable-energy storage: Xtreme Power, an Austin, Texas company which is commercializing battery technology originally developed for electric vehicles, is expected to announce on Tuesday that it has raised nearly $30 million to expand into utility energy storage.

The summer is finally here, with heat drenching much of the nation. Green job news keeps popping up - which is a good thing!

• The Parking Lot as ‘Solar Grove’: Envision Solar builds  â”solar groves,” 1,000-square-foot canopies that shade parking lots while generating clean power from an array of photovoltaic panels.The company is now branching out into electric car generation by outfitting its solar canopies with charging stations for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.
• Green homes combine solar and energy efficiency: Meritage Homes, one of America’s top ten home builders, is now constructing more than 200 homes near Phoenix, Arizona that will be up to 80 percent more energy efficient than typical existing homes of the same size. The standard equipment solar energy system on the homes is the major player in cutting energy costs.
• Rosendin Electric Breaks Ground on $50 Million Solar Project: Rosendin Electric, the nation’s largest private electrical contractor and a 100-percent employee-owned company, will break ground this week on a new photovoltaic power installation project for the Antelope Valley Union High School District.
• Toshiba to Build Electric Drive Motors in the U.S.: Toshiba Corporation will expand manufacturing capacity at its plant in Houston, Texas for production of high-performance drive motors for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). Toshiba will begin construction for the expanded capacity in January 2011 in Houston, Texas, on the site of Toshiba International Corporation. Production of the automotive motors would begin in 2012.
• Green tech, jobs hailed in Virgin America expansion:Virgin’s new routes and expanded presence at San Francisco’s airport will bring 500 jobs to the state per year over the course of the next few years.

It’s that time again - a roundup of the latest green jobs news for everyone. Take a look at what’s happening in the green economy this month:

• Coal jobs moving to natural gas: The electricity market is in the doldrums, but the market for new generating stations that use natural gas is going strong, industry experts say. Why? Because gas is beginning to replace coal. This will create construction and operational jobs.
• Photovoltaic manufacturing in Canada: A new highly automated PV module production site based in Ontario with a capacity of 120 MW to be reached in two stages - the first 60MW will be completed by the second quarter of 2011 whereas the remaining 60 MW will be finalized by the end of next year.
• BlueChip Energy Starts Development of 10 MW Solar Farm in Florida: BlueChip Energy ™ has announced it has started stage one of the Rinehart Solar Farm, a 10 MW utility-scale solar PV facility in Central Florida. The project will create approximately 100 jobs during construction.
• Kyocera begins manufacturing solar cells in US: Kyocera has announced that it has begun manufacturing solar modules in San Diego, California to serve the U.S. market’s growing demand for clean, sustainable solar electric generating systems. Kyocera Group companies currently employ approximately 4,000 people in the United States.
• Forecast for LED lighting is bright:By 2020, nearly half (46 percent) of the $4.4 billion commercial lighting business will be given over to LED lighting, leading to more manufacturing and sales jobs.

Lots of action in the green economy in the past few weeks - check it out:

• Lake Erie offshore wind project is a ‘go’: General Electric and an Ohio-based wind developer plan to build an offshore wind farm in Lake Erie in late 2012. The Great Lakes region has good wind and potential for substantial power production.
• Toyota and Telsa to revive Fremont plant for electric vehicles: Toyota announced plans today to build an electric vehicle at the recently closed New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant in Fremont, Calif. Reopening the plant will create 1,000 jobs.
• 900 homes have solar panels at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina: The United States military will have solar panels for hot water installed in 900 homes at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, making the base one of the largest residential producers of solar thermal power. Each house on the base will have one panel on its roof that will cover 75 percent of its hot water needs.
• Climate bill will create 200,000 jobs: A new report estimates that, if enacted, the provisions in the Senate climate and energy bill  would create 200,000 new jobs each year from 2011 to 2020. Given that the number of employed civilians in the United States currently exceeds 140 million, that’s a drop in the bucket.
• Cannon Power Group and Gamesa Partner on Baja California Wind Farm: Cannon Power Group and Gamesa Technology Corp. have announced that they have entered into an agreement for the development of a series of wind farms known as the Aubanel Wind Project in Baja California, Mexico near the town of La Rumorosa – approximately 60 miles east of San Diego and 15 miles south of the US - Mexico border.
• DOE awards $62 million for solar power R&D : The U.S. Department of Energy has made $62 million available to 13 companies to test equipment and materials, such as molten salts, to add storage to solar power systems that use heat to produce electricity.