A nonpartisan business group that advocates for clean energy estimates that 403,000 jobs will be created by the 210 major energy projects announced since the Inflation Reduction Act took effect in mid-2022. Battery storage is expected to support 48,000 jobs, and solar is expected to support 35,000, both annually for five years. “As community colleges develop a rhythm for training the type of workers these companies need, that’s going to enhance the appeal of our workforce and state as a business location to more and more these clean energy companies," he said. Although investments in clean energy are “on hyperdrive,” other factors were supporting the clean energy labor transition before the IRA, said Joseph Kane, a researcher at the Brookings Institution nonprofit research organization. Labor shortages in the clean energy sector, particularly in construction, manufacturing, and electrical work are notable, said Thomas Kwan, director of sustainability research at Schneider Electric, an energy management and industrial automation company.

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Persons: “, Bob Keefe, Mateo Jaramillo, ” Jaramillo, Christopher Chung, ”, Chung, Joseph Kane, Kane, Thomas Kwan, Kwan Organizations: Environmental Entrepreneurs, EV, Economic Development, of, Brookings Institution, Labor, Schneider Electric, AP Locations: U.S, Weirton , West Virginia, West Virginia, of North Carolina, North Carolina