Wind power employs just over 100,000 Americans according to new data released by the US Department of Energy (DOE), more than work at nuclear, natural gas, coal, or hydroelectric power plants. These wind jobs can be found across the nation.
According to DOE, Texas is home to nearly 25 per cent of American wind workers. Substantially more growth is possible. According to DOE’s earlier Wind Vision report, 380,000 American wind jobs could be created by 2030. DOE’s new data validates the jobs growth reported in AWEA’s own annual report. At the end of 2015, AWEA estimated 88,000 Americans were employed in the U.S. wind industry, a 20 percent increase from 2014 levels. Given near-record amounts of wind power under construction and recent wind manufacturing facility expansions in states like Colorado, Florida, Texas, and Wisconsin, AWEA expects wind industry employment grew significantly in 2016. AWEA’s detailed jobs analysis, including state-by-state breakdowns, will be released this spring as part of the U.S. Wind Industry’s Annual Market Report 2016.
