Missouri is expected to lead clean-energy job growth in Midwest

Missouri is projected to have the highest growth rate in clean-energy jobs this year, 8.3 percent, among a dozen Midwestern states, a report released Tuesday says.

The “Clean Jobs Midwest” report estimates that the region had 568,979 such jobs in 2015, including renewable energy generation, conservation and efficiency efforts. Of those, Missouri had 52,479 such jobs and Kansas had 27,005.

The region’s clean-energy job total is expected to grow 4.4 percent this year, the report estimates, and Kansas’ by 2.3 percent, the second lowest in the region. The full report is at cleanjobsmidwest.com.

“This report is more evidence of the strength of the clean energy and energy efficiency sectors in Kansas and across the Midwest,” said Joe Spease, whose Overland Park company, WindSoHy, develops renewable energy projects. But he said renewables “can really take off” with more support for policies that encourage clean-power generation through environmental regulation and investment and production tax credits.

The report, by three groups that support conservation and renewables, made its estimates by analyzing Bureau of Labor Statistics data and results from a survey of businesses across the 12 states. Besides Missouri and Kansas, they are Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, North and South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Among the findings:

▪ Kansas has a geographically diverse clean-power sector, with 6,500 jobs in the Kansas City area, more than 5,000 in Wichita and nearly 12,000 in rural communities. Nearly nine in 10 of those jobs are in energy efficiency, such as making and installing better heating and air conditioning, more efficient appliances and lighting, and better building materials.

▪ Missouri jobs also are focused in energy efficiency, more than seven in 10 jobs, but the state also has jobs involving vehicles powered by natural gas and in energy storage and smart grid technology. St. Louis leads the state with 24,000 clean-energy jobs; Kansas City has 8,300 on the Missouri side.

▪ In the Kansas City area, Jackson County has the most clean-energy jobs, 5,142, followed by Johnson, 4,634, Clay, 1,248, Wyandotte, 1,066, and Platte, 641.

▪ In renewable-energy generation, Kansas’ jobs favor wind over solar, 1,346 to 430, and Missouri’s favor solar over wind, 2,328 to 810, with almost 100 others in biomass.

▪ Greater Chicago had the most clean-energy jobs among metro areas, with nearly 66,000. The Twin Cities at 38,076 and greater Detroit at 37,269 were next.

The organizations that did the report are the Clean Energy Trust, a nonprofit based in Chicago that promotes and finances clean-energy companies, and Environmental Entrepreneurs, a national group whose members have founded or funded more than 2,500 companies. In Missouri they were helped by the nonprofit, public-private Missouri Energy Initiative.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 2:27 PM with the headline "Missouri is expected to lead clean-energy job growth in Midwest."