News

Weekly Newsflash 1/23/2017-1/27/2017:Clean Energy Employment Continues to Grow and a Big Week at Greentown Labs

by Peter Vaselkiv

 

Many companies and governments announced major clean energy projects this week. The initiatives will employ thousands of people across the globe in an already booming industry. Reports released this week showed that renewables are responsible for more jobs than fossil fuels and are growing at a much higher rate. It was also a big week for our Greentown Labs community: we made major announcements about our expansion project and partnership with Saint-Gobain. Stay tuned for more details about the project!

What news have you been reading this week? Share with us @GreentownLabs!

The New York Times- Nation’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm Will Be Built Off Long Island

  • In conjunction with the Long Island Power Authority, Deepwater Wind announced plans for the largest offshore wind farm in the nation. The plant will be able to power upwards of 50,000 homes and is the first of several similar projects planned. 

“Wind power has struggled to take off in the United States, but the Long Island project signals that the long-awaited promise of a new, lower-carbon source of electricity is poised to become part of the national energy mix”

Solar Industry Mag- Tech Giant Apple Enters Nevada Solar Agreement

  • NV Energy and Apple have committed to building 200 MW of solar power in order to meet the company’s clean energy goals. Apple is also determined to donate up to 5MW of power for residential and commercial customers in the area. The implementation and maintenance will provide hundreds of jobs. 

“Investing in innovative clean energy sources is vital to Apple’s commitment to reaching, and maintaining, 100 percent renewable energy across all our operations,”

Greentech Media- India’s First Grid-Scale Battery Project Signals a Coming Boom for Energy Storage

  • India has initiated its first grid-scale battery storage system to achieve their goal of integrating 175 gigawatts of renewable energy into the power system by 2022. Designed for peak load management, the project is the first of many mega energy projects to come in the following years.

“As renewable tariffs and energy storage costs decline, penetration of both renewables and storage is bound to increase.”

Forbes- Solar Employs More People In U.S. Electricity Generation Than Oil, Coal & Gas Combined

  • Renewable energy is becoming a major source of employment globally. A new report from the U.S. Department of Energy states that solar employs 43% of all energy workers, more than coal, oil and gas combined. 

“The gulf in employment is growing with net generation from coal falling 53 percent over the last decade. During the same period, electricity generation from natural gas increased 33 percent while solar expanded 5,000 percent.”

Business Insider- Solar Energy Jobs are Growing 12 Times as Fast as The US Economy

  • Solar and Wind jobs are growing at a much faster rate than fossil fuels. A new report by the Environmental Defense Fund states that wind turbine technician is the fastest growing profession in the US. The industry has seen jobs increase by over 600,000 since 2011.

“Our findings would lead us to believe that the right place to invest dollars are in renewable energy rather than fossil fuels”

BostInno- Some Investors are Making Money in Cleantech Using This 1 Weird Trick

  • Rob Day shares his thoughts on how investing in cleantech can and is a winning game in many cases, especially because the cleantech markets are booming. 

“The early movers into deployment capital for rooftop solar made really nice returns, while unlocking dramatic market growth. And so we need more such investors, especially for the coming wave of other distributed (i.e., small scale), resource-efficient innovations.”

Boston Business Journal- Greentown Labs is Renovating a Former Auto Body Shop In Somerville. Here’s a Tour.

  • Our expansion project is taking off! This week we had members of the press tour the construction site with our partners at Saint-Gobain. Check out Boston Business Journal for photos of construction progress. We are also proud to announce the extension of our partnership with Saint-Gobain North America through 2019. Their tremendous generosity through product donations and building science expertise will be instrumental in the construction of our Global Center for Cleantech Innovation.

“There’s nothing like Greentown Labs that we’ve seen anywhere else in the world,” said Minas Apelian, the Vice President of Research and Development at Saint-Gobain.