John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... Despite a challenging economy where most industry sectors have reduced their workforce, one industry in Colorado’s economy is bucking that trend – the clean energy sector, Tom Clark , executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. said in a monthly newsletter that he released today.
Clark pointed to mjor expansions by clean energy companies such as Vestas Wind Systems, SMA Solar Technology AG, Ascent Solar, Abound Solar, and many others are fueling Colorado’s New Energy Economy growth, an economic development platform driven by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter.
“Over the past few years, we’ve established a clean-energy template that is creating thousands of new jobs, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and generating innovative technologies for the future,” according to Ritter. “The New Energy Economy in Colorado can serve as a pathway for all of America that will lead to greater economic, energy, and environmental security.”
According to a 2009 report by The Pew Charitable Trusts, jobs in Colorado’s clean energy sector grew more than twice as fast as overall jobs from 1998 to 2007.
In addition to new job creation, growth in the state’s clean energy sector brought in more than $600 million in private capital investment to Colorado from 2006 to 2008. And, for every $100 million in venture capital invested in the clean energy sector, 2,700 direct new jobs are created.
Almost three dozen clean-energy companies, , both local and national, are taking center stage at a forum being sponsored this week at the Hyatt Regency Denver hotel by the Golden-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory. For more information on the forum, check my earlier blog.
Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.
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