Here’s the latest from the world of green jobs:

• EPA Chief Lisa Jackson Travels to San Francisco to Highlight Green Jobs, Tour Electric Vehicle Company that will announce its Plans to Double Bay Area Green Jobs: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson will visit San Francisco today, on the heels of President Obama’s State of the Union Address, to discuss the future of “green” jobs in the Bay Area at a company that will announce plans to double their San Francisco workforce. Jackson will discuss the local impact of issues laid out in the President’s speech during a tour of Mission Motors, a local SF green business that provides powertrain components for hybrid and electric vehicles. Mission is at the center of American ingenuity and clean technologies President Obama discussed in his State of the Union Address.
• Obama puts green jobs front and center: The president, during his annual speech, made references to action items like the Navy purchasing enough clean energy capacity to power a quarter of a million homes a year and calling for the development of clean energy on enough public land to power 3 million homes. We felt at the time these seemed like less ambitious goals than last year in regards to cleantech, but with what’s been spelled out now by the White House, we think Obama may well be on the right track for an election year.
• Illinois Recovers Florida’s Fumbled Light-Rail Dough: More than 100 million people live within 500 miles of each other in the Midwest-Great Lakes economic region and at rush hour, it can seem like they are all on the road at the same time. To help alleviate that congestion, trim the massive amount of energy used to move all those people in single-driver cars, generate jobs and clean the environment, the federal government is investing in light-rail in a big way. The U.S. Department of Transportation(DOT) has already invested more than $1.4 billion dollars to create an extensive light-rail network in the region and now, thanks to a baffling move by the state of Florida, Illinois is to supplement one of the network’s main corridors, a high-speed line reaching from Chicago to St. Louis.
• Montana’s Renewable Energy Storage Plans: Utility company NorthWestern Energy has signed a lease agreement with Beacon Power Corporation for a one-megawatt Beacon Smart Energy Matrix flywheel system to be installed at NorthWestern’s Dave Gates Generating Station at Mill Creek. The 150 MW natural gas fired facility, near the town of Anaconda, was designed to function as a regulating resource capable of precise load following. 
• First Wind Receives Approval from Maine DEP for 150 MW Oakfield Wind Project: First Wind has received unanimous approval from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for its proposed 150 MW Oakfield Wind project in Aroostook County, Maine. First Wind submitted an amendment in June 2011 to increase the size of the original proposal for a 51 MW Oakfield project, which had received full approval from the Maine DEP in January 2010.
• Federal Government Opens More Ocean to Wind Projects: Ken Salazar, the secretary of the interior, and Tommy P. Beaudreau, the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said the government had completed an environmental review and found that selling leases for wind energy would not create environmental problems in the designated “wind energy areas” off the coasts of Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Delaware.

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 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.

As the economy continues to improve, so does the green economy. Here’s the latest news for you:

• For a Few, Focus on Green Products Pays Off:  Manufacturers who have long aligned themselves with environmental causes, like Seventh Generation and Method, have rebounded better from the recession than the “green” lines of larger, more traditional manufacturers.
• Start-Ups Work to Reinvent the Combustion Engine: As the first mass-produced electric carshit the streets, Pinnacle is just one of several start-ups backed by prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalists aiming to reinvent the century-old internal combustion engine. The big promise: vast improvements in fuel economy and reduced greenhouse gas emissions at a lower cost.
• GE Goes Solar: The giant global conglomerate has announced it will build a 400 megawatt annual production capacity thin-film solar manufacturing plant in the U.S. This largest solar manufacturing plant in the U.S. will employ 400. GE will announce the plant site, or sites shortly. Multiple locations are possible, sharing the wealth among communities as it were.
• Next To Go Mainstream: Mass Energy Storage: If energy from wind and solar can be stored at the right price (read low) then the intermittency of those renewables will no longer be a problem: mass energy storage could eventually turn intermittent renewables into baseload, round-the-clock power. Here are some companies that are pursuing this.
• Viridity Energy to Develop Large Scale Energy Storage to Optimize Wind Energy for Philadelphia University and Hospitals: Viridity Energy has announced a partnership with Thomas Jefferson University and Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals (Jefferson) to develop and implement a project aimed at maximizing the economic and environmental value of its energy resources.
• Solar upstart BrightSource Energy files to go public: BrightSource Energy plans to raise $250 million from the stock market to build a pipeline of utility-scale solar power projects.
• On the hunt for green-tech game changers: Many clean-tech companies have run into a wall trying to scale up their products, for purely business reasons, such as the high costs of building factories or the difficulty of selling to conservative utilities. But by picking their niches, some promising green-tech companies have made real progress, even if the field of venture investors may be narrowing.

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.

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.

Here is the latest roundup of what’s happening in the world of green jobs. Enjoy!

• Google invests nearly $39 million in wind farm: Google is investing in two wind farms in North Dakota - generating additional construction and maintenance jobs for the region.
• Mitsubishi to build Arkansas wind turbine plant: The plant in Fort Smith, Arkansas will employ 400 people and help stem the tide of manufacturing jobs that have left the Fort Smith area.
• Magnetek Receives $6 Million Order for Large Wind Power Inverters: Magnetek, of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, has announced that it has received a production order for its E-Force(tm) wind power inverters valued at approximately $6 million.
• The green economy is growing, but slowly: According to a report released by the Economics and Statistics Administration, a division of the Department of Commerce, green services and businesses amounted to just 1 to 2 percent of the private business economy in 2007.
• Solar Power Partners raised $115 million in new financing: Solar Power Partners, a developer and operator of solar-powered facilities, will use the financing to double their installed capacity in North America, creating additional jobs.

Time for another roundup of green job news from Great Green Careers!:

• The wind industry continues to grow: A record 10,010 megawatts of new wind capacity was installed in the United States last year, accounting for 39 percent of new electrical generation, the American Wind Energy Association said in its annual report.
• GSA Invests $4 Billion in Green Recovery Act Construction Projects Nationwide: To transform federal buildings into higher performing, greener buildings, the agency announced that it awarded construction projects to more than 500 companies creating jobs in all 50 states, 2 territories, and the District of Columbia by investing $4 billion in Recovery Act funds.
• Suniva Plans New Solar Manufacturing Plant with Selection in Loan Guarantee Program: Suniva plans to start the construction of a new manufacturing plant in Saginaw County, Michigan. Building such a manufacturing plant could create approximately 500 direct jobs at Suniva, while creating an additional 2,000 indirect jobs for the Michigan economy according to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
• 10 Ways to Turn Any MBA into a Sustainable MBA: Regardless of which kind of MBA or business degree program you choose to pursue, there are countless ways to bring sustainability into your program.
• Mitsubishi will �produce wind turbines in Arkansas: Company executives gathered with state and local officials in Fort Smith, Arkansas to mark Mitsubishi’s decision to build the plant, which will employ at least 400 people and help stem the tide of manufacturing jobs that have left the Fort Smith area.