After years of politicians and public figures talking about how they are creating jobs that benefit the environment and promote sustainability, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in March came out with hard data on what constitutes a green job and how many are in each state and industry.

Connecticut had 39,207 green jobs in 2010, the first year statistics were available. This represents 2.5 percent of the state workforce, slightly better than the national average of 2.4 percent, according to the BLS data.

BLS limited data to jobs in businesses producing goods and providing services that benefit the environment or conserve resources. The bureau stayed away from other definitions, such as sustainability officers or waste managers at companies that don’t otherwise produce green goods or services.

Connecticut’s largest green private sector is transportation and warehousing with 8,238 jobs, followed by manufacturing with 5,071; then administrative and waste services with 4,764; professional, scientific and technical services with 3,443; and utilities with 3,215.

Examples of green jobs in the leading transportation sector include bus drivers, taxi drivers and employees of transit systems such as CT Transit. Green jobs in the utilities include those working at nuclear power plants, such as the Millstone Power Station in Waterford.

Since 2010, Connecticuthas worked to grow the number of green jobs in the state. The focus has intensified since Gov. Dannel Malloy took office in January 2011, highlighting sectors such as energy efficiency and clean energy.

From a preparation standpoint, the state’s strongest focus is on the construction industry.

In 2010, Connecticuthad 2,932 green construction jobs, according to BLS. The state government predicts that will grow to 22,602 over the next 10 years with green construction investment more than $1 billion annually.

To have a green workforce, the state modified its Jobs Funnel to focus on green jobs and expand out of Greater Hartford to Waterbury, New Haven and Bridgeport to New Britain, Bristol and Eastern Connecticut.

“The training is needed to get the workforce ready for more of those jobs,” said Sandra Rodriguez, spokeswoman for the Connecticut Workforce Development Council.

The new CT Green Jobs Funnel, launched April 9, is funded by a $5.8 million federal grant.

“We have a growing funnel, and we believe the jobs are out there,” Rodriguez said.

The Connecticut Construction Industries Association sees a growing need for workers skilled in green construction, CCIA President Don Shubert said. Property owners put value in designations such as the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, or LEED.

“We see more sustainable criteria in projects going forward,” Shubert said.

Another area anticipating green job growth is solar panel installation.

Last June, the state General Assembly created a program to boost commercial clean energy installations. Statewide utilities Connecticut Light & Power of Berlin and United Illuminating of New Haven will provide renewable energy credits for zero greenhouse gas emissions and low greenhouse gas emissions installations. Over the life of the program, these ZRECs and LRECs will provide $1 billion to help finance large commercial projects.

“Employment for installers who do commercial systems will jump, and it will jump dramatically, and it will jump overnight,” said Michael Trahan, executive director for trade group Solar Connecticut. “Those ZREC program contracts are going to go out the door rather quickly, and the firms that get those contracts will have to staff up rather quickly.”

Trahan said Connecticut needs more trained workers for anticipated demand.

The Industrial Management & Training Institute in Waterbury provides an in-depth course to train area residents in solar installations. More of these programs will pop up, said Ray Sullivan, Northwest Region Workforce Investment Board program manager for the State Energy Sector Partnership.

“This gives people a real in-depth training,” Sullivan said. “They know what they are doing.”

Trying to forecast growth in green job sectors always is an educated guess, Sullivan said. But planning on more solar installers is a good guess because of the anticipated impact of the ZREC program.

Looking at other possible areas the state may want to concentrate on in the future include brownfield training and building performance analysts.

“I do see potential demand there,” Sullivan said.

“Reprinted from the Hartford Business Journal Online, May 1, 2012″.

Woodstock participates in the Clean Energy Communities Program, where the town earns points for initiatives such as purchasing 100 percent renewable energy for municipal facilities, encouraging 130 households to sign up for the CTCleanEnergyOptions program and having 25 clean energy systems installed in town.

Because of its Clean Energy Community status, the state Clean Energy Finance & Investment Authority paid the total $24,219 cost of putting a 4 kilowatt solar electric installation on top of Woodstock Middle School.

State and local officials will hold a celebration at 10 a.m. Friday at the middle school at 147B Connecticut Route 169.

“Reprinted from the Hartford Business Journal Online, April 26, 2012″.

Aegis used to be the wind division of Wilton-based Alteris Renewables, which installed Connecticut’s first wind turbine at Phoenix Press in New Haven. Alteris merged in June with California firm Real Goods Solar in a $22 million deal.

The principals of Aegis Wind worked out a deal with Real Goods Solar to spin off the division, going after a range of wind projects from 50 kilowatts to 6 megawatts. The spun-off company will be headquartered in Waitsfield, Vt.

Nils Behn, the former director of Alteris Renewable Wind Division, will be the chief executive officer for Aegis Wind.

“Reprinted from the Hartford Business Journal Online, April 26, 2012″.

The Connecticut Clean Energy Finance & Investment Authority in April launched an incentive initiative to provide $1 billion in credits to clean energy installations over the life of the program.

James Schwartz – a renewable energy and financial consultant  — will speak at the Munger seminar about the incentives being offered, coming from electric utilities United Illuminating and Connecticut Light & Power. Attendees will learn about best practices, incentive funds, and financials for installations.

Munger will hold two seminars on Thursday at the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce at 900 Chapel St. The two sessions start at 8 a.m. and noon.

“Repritned from the Harford Business Journal Online, April 26, 2012″.

The 400kW fuel cell power plant is part of an ongoing effort by UConn to reduce its carbon footprint and build a sustainable community.

The fuel cell will provide electricity, heat and cooling to UConn research labs and offices, including those working on advancing fuel cell technology. The new fuel cell, made possible through a $1 million federal stimulus grant from Connecticut’s Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority, will allow UConn to see a net reduction of about 600,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

It will also serve as a demonstration and teaching model for UConn students interested in learning more about microgrid energy systems and new energy technology.

“Reprinted from the Hartford Business Journal Online, April 26, 2012″.

The company announced in April it plans to deliver more shale natural gas to the Northeast, Midwest and Southern United States out of production areas in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

The relatively new method of drilling for shale gas called hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – makes extracting the resource more economical, and the widespread use of the method has increased domestic production drastically and caused prices to fall.

While benefitting from the lower prices, states in the Northeast haven’t been able to take as much advantage of the shale gas – particularly used by utilities to heat homes – because of the lack of pipelines to bring the gas to the region.

“Reprinted from the Hartford Business Journal Online, April 26, 2012″.

Renewable Resources is one of the largest installers of solar photovoltaic systems in the United Kingdom and recently completed a 6.9 megawatt program of installations on 115 supermarket rooftops for UK retailer Sainsbury’s.

In addition to Connecticut, the company’s North American launch include Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. The headquarters will be Stamford, Conn. The launch coincided with Tartan Week in New York City, which is a celebration of Scottish culture and innovation in the United States.

Renewable Resources partnered on the expansion with Scottish Development International, an organization helping Scottish companies build international presence.

The group spent six weeks in full-day classroom and online training courses designed to increase critical thinking, math and applied technology skills. The students also earned their ACT National Career Readiness Certificate, a national credential identified by the Center for Energy Workforce Development as the entry-level standard for the energy industry.

“There is a concern with students leaving schools right now, that they don’t have the skills needed to enter the work force. The energy sector is a specialized one, with certain skill needs,” said Judy Resnick, the executive director of the CBIA Education Foundation. “Add to that the impending wave of baby boomer retirements and changes in technology and tools, and there is a real need for qualified energy-sector employees.”.

“The students graduating from this training program worked hard for the last six weeks,” says CBIA project coordinator Deb Presbie, “And now they have the beginning foundation skills to help fill some of those energy-sector openings.”

A dozen of the graduates have been be selected to participate in a 10-week electric/gas utility training program at Northeast Utilities. The program, which runs through June, leads to industry-specific certificates.

The training programs are made possible by a grant from the Workforce Solutions Collaborative of Metro Hartford. The group’s mission is to convene employers, educators, government, service providers and philanthropic organizations to collaboratively address regional work force development needs. As an energy sector intermediary, CBIA’s Education Foundation leads and manages work force development initiatives on behalf of the collaborative.

The graduation ceremony took place last week at the CBIA offices in Hartford.

The graduates include:
• Derrick Bailey – Hartford.
• Dave Barbagallo – Kensington (Berlin).
• Daniel Beaulieu – Newington.
• Michael Cataldo – East Hampton.
• Peter Collins – Manchester.
• Troy Craig – East Hartford.
• Stanley Gabel – Vernon.
• Frederick Gentle – Hartford.
• Benjamin Gomez – Hartford.
• Ernestaly Gonzalez – Manchester.
• Juan Guzman – Hartford.
• Robert Henderson – Hartford.
• Umar A. Jalloh – Hartford.
• Ashton Long – Terryville.
• Scott Lush – Manchester.
• Robert McIntyre – Plainville.
• Miguel Ottey – Hartford.
• Kevin Page – Southington.
• Alex Perez — Colchester.
• Dave E. Thompson – Hartford.

CEFIA is utilizing the Locus platform to offer a bundle of hardware and web-based software that will track the performance of residential solar photovoltaic systems and make the data available to participating installers and homeowners. The performance data will be collected by Locus Energy’s industry-leading residential power meter, the LGate 101, and uploaded every 5 minutes to the SolarOS™ monitoring website. Participating installers will have access to the website which provides tools to track aggregated power generation as well as identify and address systems that are underperforming. CEFIA’s Program is designed to provide homeowners with access to personal portals so they can see how much electricity their system has produced and the corresponding environmental benefits. 

“We are delighted to be working with CEFIA on this effort,” said Michael Herzig, founder and CEO of Locus Energy.  “Having grown up in the Hartford area of Connecticut, I’m very happy to see the state continuing to offer innovative programs which help increase the adoption of solar energy systems.”

Please visit http://www.ctcleanenergy.com/solarhome for more information on CEFIA’s Residential Solar Investment Program and http://www.locusenergy.com for more information on Locus Energy’s monitoring solutions.

About Locus Energy

Locus Energy develops web-based asset management software for renewable energy systems.  We provide monitoring, analytics and data services for deployments of solar photovoltaic and solar thermal technology. By leveraging Locus’ products, renewable finance companies and integrators can drive down the cost and complexity of energy monitoring while making it much easier to maintain and service an installed client base. Founded in 2007, Locus has offices in New York and San Francisco, and monitors several thousand PV arrays worldwide.

About the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority

CEFIA was established by Connecticut’s General Assembly on July 1, 2011 as a part of Public Act 11-80.  This new quasi-public agency supersedes the former Connecticut Clean Energy Fund.  CEFIA’s mission is to help ensure Connecticut’s energy security and community prosperity by realizing its environmental and economic opportunities through clean energy finance and investments.  As the nation’s first full-scale clean energy finance authority, CEFIA will leverage public and private funds to drive investment and scale-up clean energy deployment in Connecticut.  For more information about CEFIA, please visit http://www.ctcleanenergy.com.

Under this grant program which started in 1999, Connecticut has seen 2,600 participants enter into employment and apprenticeship training programs with an average starting hourly wage of $14.70.

Connecticut Labor Commissioner Glenn Marshall announced the opening of three new “Jobs Funnel” locations to serve a greater population of job-seekers. The new offices will open up in Bristol, New Britain and eastern Connecticut. Currently, “Jobs Funnel” offices exist is Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport and Waterbury. The program is open to eligible people from all over Connecticut.

The state Department of Labor anticipates that future green construction investments in Connecticut will total $1 billion annually and will result in almost 20,000 new jobs over the next decade. The state also predicts there will be a 33 percent increase in construction industry employment by 2018, so the program aims to help build a highly trained green construction workforce to take over those jobs.

The Jobs Funnel program is a training initiative that helps people acquire the skills and certifications needed to enter the trades. The program has become a national model for promoting local hiring and placement into good-paying jobs. With the new funding and the expansion plans, the program seeks to reach out to returning veterans, urban populations and minorities.

 ”Reprinted from the CT Daily Politics”