Green Energy Jobs

As the economic downslide across the nation seems to grow worse with each passing day, we see company after company closing their doors completely, while countless others are having massive worker layoffs in hopes of simply surviving. While so many companies are closing or downsizing, one industry seems to actually be thriving and growing in these times of record high fuel prices and deepening economic woes. That industry is the renewable energy ("green energy") industry.

As seen in recent news reports, companies that provide green energy products and services are at the right place at the right time and green energy jobs are steadily on the rise. If you have been a victim of corporate downsizing or company closure and are currently searching for a new job (or think you may be looking soon), you might be well-advised to focus your job search on these growing green energy companies.

Job opportunities are also on the rise for companies that support the green energy industry in any way. For example, Boston Globe writer/editor Erin Ailworth recently reported in an article about the renewable energy job market, that even as the economy worsens, Massachusetts clean-tech companies such as Aeronautica Windpower in Plymouth, lithium-ion battery maker Boston-Power Inc. in Westborough, Conservation Services Group, also in Westborough and many others are all looking for new employees.

Aeronautica Windpower expects to hire between 50 and 100 new employees to staff a midscale wind turbine facility that the company is planning to open this spring. Prospective job opportunities include business development, customer service, mechanics, assembly line workers, and others.

Conservation Services Group conducts business in 22 states and has already hired 50 new employees in the last six months. The company plans to hire an additional 200 employees
this year. Around 30 to 40 of those jobs will be in Massachusetts and the rest will be in other states. According to CEO Stephen Cowell, an additional 2,000 jobs will also be created in
companies that support CSG directly or companies that will be contracted to do outsourced work facilitated by CSG.

Evergreen Solar, a Marlborough, Massachusetts-based manufacturer of solar panels, hopes to hire around 100 people at a manufacturing plant that opened last summer in Devens, MA. Gary Pollard, vice president of human resources, said the plant is expected to employ more than 800 when it reaches full capacity.

The number of companies providing green energy products and services, or providing some type of support to green energy companies is growing at an unprecedented rate. And while having eco-friendly experience is a definite plus when looking for employment in companies where the products are almost always greener, such experience is normally not a firm requirement. Don't spend your energy trying to remain loyal to an industry that has been dealt a losing hand in today's economy. While it may be true that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the proverbial fence, in today's economy jobs are definitely becoming greener (and much more plentiful) on the renewable resources side of the nation's energy fence.



For more information on green energy jobs in Massachusetts, see : www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/03/06/renewable_job_market/