On Wednesday, E2, a national nonprofit promoting clean energy production, released a report showing massive increases in Colorado’s clean jobs market, including an added 2,790 new clean jobs, or 4.6% of all jobs that have been added to the market in Colorado this year.
The clean jobs workforce grew by over 50% in 2022, according to the annual report. Of the clean jobs, a majority are in construction, with about 20,000 workers, and the largest industry for renewable energy is through energy efficiency, with about 36,000 jobs total.
While biofuels were the only industry to see a net decline in jobs created in 2022, clean vehicle jobs saw a 14% increase, and storage, battery, and grid modernization jobs saw a net 6% increase in 2022 as well. Colorado now has the fifth-largest energy-efficiency workforce in the nation and is likely to increase as the sector continues to boom.
Colorado also now ranks 18th nationally for total clean energy jobs, and 6th nationally in total wind and solar jobs. The Denver metro area had the largest number of clean jobs, at about 38,000 clean jobs, followed by the Colorado Springs metro with just 5,600 clean jobs. State-wide, all counties saw a net increase in clean energy jobs in 2022, according to the report.
These numbers represent just 2022 and do not include some federal incentives for clean energy jobs implemented by the Biden administration. In late September of 2023, the Biden administration announced the creation of the American Climate Corps, investing millions of dollars into incentivizing clean job creation.
