American Solar Energy Society - ASES 2007 Report On Renewable Energy

ASES 2007 Report On Renewable Energy

A 2007 report by the American Solar Energy Society (ASES), examined three scenarios of renewable energy policy development:

• a "business as usual" scenario, with no major policy changes;
• a moderate scenario that includes incremental policy advances; and
• an advanced scenario of aggressive growth in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

In the "business as usual" scenario, jobs created by renewable energy would increase 190 percent by 2030, while jobs created by energy efficiency would increase by 85 percent. In the moderate scenario, the jobs created by renewable energy would increase nearly sevenfold, while jobs created by energy efficiency would more than double. And in the advanced scenario, the jobs created by renewable energy increase 17-fold, while jobs created by energy efficiency quadruple. In the advanced scenario, renewable energy revenues increase to nearly $600 billion, while energy efficiency revenues increase to almost $4 trillion.

The ASES report stated that in 2006, 8 million people were employed in renewable energy and energy efficiency industries in the U.S., and $933 billion in sales were generated, $100 billion in profits, and $150 billion in increased federal, state, and local government tax revenues. The report noted difficulty in defining the energy efficiency industry, but found 196,000 people directly employed by the renewable energy industry, as well as 452,000 indirect jobs created, and revenues of $39.2 billion in 2006.