Maine weatherization contractors are scrambling to hire and expand as state incentives and soaring oil prices cause a surge in demand for their services.

Contractors registered with Efficiency Maine, the major administrator of efficiency programs in the state, are on pace to insulate twice as many houses this year as last. The average wait time to receive services is now close to three months. 

“Every contractor is fully booked,” said Andy Meyer, senior program manager for Efficiency Maine. “Most for months, some for more than that.” 

Weatherization is one of the strategies Maine is using in its efforts to cut emissions by 80% by 2050. The state has set a goal of weatherizing 35,000 homes by 2030. And in the past year, several factors have converged to pique consumers’ interest in implementing such measures. 

At the beginning of 2022, Efficiency Maine increased its rebates for weatherization services, boosting the rebate rate from 30% to 50% and the lifetime cap on rebates from $3,500 to $5,500. In concert, it launched a $1 million marketing campaign spreading awareness of the incentive program. 

Then, fossil fuel prices shot up: The price of heating oil more than doubled from May 2021 to the same month this year, bringing the cost of filling a standard tank over $1,500 in a state where 60% of homes use heating oil. 

Now, record numbers of homeowners are interested in better insulating and sealing their homes to cut down on fuel use and costs. By June of this year, requests for rebates were up 254% over June 2021. 

Raising wages to recruit workers

Even before this surge in interest, Maine’s energy efficiency companies had identified employee scarcity as an obstacle to growth, a dynamic made even worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now growing demand has translated into a pressing need for more employees. 

“We are by far the busiest we’ve ever been,” said Kristie Green, co-owner of Horizon Homes, an efficiency services company based in Westbrook, Maine. “We’re employing about twice as many people as we were a year ago and adding a crew every month or so.”

While Horizon is now hiring successfully, it took some effort to figure out the right formula to recruit and retain workers. In the end, Green said, the answer for them was quite simple: money. Earlier this year, the company was having trouble hiring for weatherization roles, despite increasing pay rates. Then the company noted that workers in similarly skilled trades, like roofers and drywallers, were still paid significantly more than weatherization employees. 

“Ultimately it is about weatherization techs being paid on par with other tradesmen. So we did that,” Green said. “And all of a sudden we get more applications. Our retention was always good but it got better.”

The state’s incentives are essential to Horizon’s ability to offer these higher pay rates, she said. Higher rebates drive more demand, generating more business and ensuring a level of income that allows the company to pay more attractive rates. 

It is this pattern Efficiency Maine is counting on. Meyer points to the development of the market and workforce in the heat pump installation field as a template for what is likely to happen in weatherization work as well. Recruiting may be more difficult in the early stages of a market expansion. But as employers gain confidence that demand is likely to continue, they are more willing to raise wages and invest in workforce development.

“These tend to be very entrepreneurial business owners,” Meyer said. “If demand exists, they will find talent or grow talent — they’ll make things happen.”

Building a pipeline

The state is also making an effort to introduce more residents to clean energy work and prepare them for careers in the field. In the fall, Gov. Janet Mills announced the commitment of $4 million to a Clean Energy Workforce Partnership intended to prepare more Maine residents for careers in clean energy. While the plan covers all sectors of clean energy work, energy efficiency employees make up nearly 60% of the clean energy workforce in the state. 

The state recently solicited proposals for initiatives that are designed to advance workforce training and development in the field. 

“It’s really aimed at, ‘How do we get people into that space?’” said Dan Burgess, director of the governor’s energy office. 

Apprenticeships could be an element in developing a robust pipeline of potential efficiency workers, said Francis Eanes, executive director of the Maine Labor Climate Council. Because apprenticeship programs pay trainees as they learn a trade hands-on, workers can launch or switch careers while still earning, while employers get more hands in the field.

“There are real, material contributions that come from ramping up apprenticeship programs,” Eanes said.

To encourage more people to consider trade apprenticeships, the state is pushing more pre-apprenticeship programs: brief courses that expose potential trainees to the trades, teach some basic math literacy, work on soft skills that are important in any employment field, and help with placement in apprenticeships in the trades. Participants could be high school or community college students or other young adults. 

The state recently adopted legislation to make pre-apprenticeship training more accessible to people from all backgrounds by providing funds to allow these programs to offer stipends, transportation, child care, and reimbursement of other expenses. A pilot pre-apprenticeship program — a partnership between Maine State Building and Construction Trades, the Maine AFL-CIO, and several community groups — is now recruiting participants from traditionally underrepresented groups to start a 120-hour course of study this fall. The program will help trainees prepare for any of the trades, though clean energy and efficiency roles are expected to make up a significant portion of the placements. 

“Folks aren’t excluded because of parenting or structural poverty,” Eanes said. “And once you’re graduated, you are in that trade and that’s an amazing career opportunity.”

Maine weatherization contractors race to hire and expand as demand booms is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

A Massachusetts agency is expanding a pilot program to recruit students of color for internships with clean energy companies with the goal of laying the groundwork for more diversity and equity within the sector.

“This is a great industry with really great paying jobs,” said Tamika Jacques, senior program director for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which runs the program. “We want to make sure that it’s inclusive of all races, no matter where you live or your upbringing.”

Massachusetts has long been considered a leader in solar energy policies and adoption, and was ranked the top state for energy efficiency by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy for nine straight years. Now the state is poised to be the first to deploy large-scale offshore wind with the development of the Cape Wind project. 

As these sectors continue to grow, state officials and environmental justice advocates have emphasized the importance of making sure people of color and low-income populations share in the economic gains the industries promise to deliver. 

“Getting folks in on the ground level so they are able to rise as the industry grows is of the utmost importance,” said Susannah Hatch, clean energy coalition director for the Environmental League of Massachusetts. “There’s enormous opportunity.”

How the program has evolved

One of the ways the clean energy center is trying to tackle this problem is by adjusting its flagship clean energy internship program, which launched in 2011, to more actively recruit and engage students of color. 

The central program works by matching potential interns with employers through an online database. Interested students submit their information and resumes to the system, then Massachusetts clean energy and water innovation companies can search for and hire interns from this pool. Businesses that hire interns through the program are reimbursed $16 per hour for the students’ work. Many employers pay interns more than the subsidy rate, and they are not allowed to pay less than $15 per hour. Each company can hire two interns through the program; if they want a third, they must choose an applicant who attends a community college. 

In its first 10 years, the initiative matched 4,400 students with internships; 880 of these students ended up with part-time or full-time jobs at their host companies. From the beginning, however, the program seemed to attract a narrow demographic, Jacques said. 

“When the program first started, it was heavily White males from private universities,” she said. 

The program became more inclusive over time. To further increase diversity and equity, the agency two years ago created a provision that required 60 internships to go to students from, or companies in, so-called “gateway cities,” a group of 26 midsize cities, many with high populations of people of color, facing stubborn economic challenges. 

Then, in 2021, the clean energy center added a new section, known as the Targeted Internship Program, dedicated to recruiting and mentoring interns of color and students from other underrepresented backgrounds. This initiative placed 38 students with employers around the state. The agency hopes last year’s performance was just a start. 

“We’re trying again to really grow those numbers,” Jaques said. “We’re trying to make it more innovative and making sure we really are tapping underrepresented communities all across Massachusetts.”

The pilot program contracted with four partner organizations that took on the work of seeking out candidates, getting them into the system, and helping make matches between students and employers. Partners reached out to their existing professional networks to publicize opportunities and recruit students. They even delved into the database to seek out matches that students and employers might have missed or didn’t have time to dig for. 

“We were almost like a contract [human resources] staffing entity with a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens on it,” said Kerry Bowie, president and founder of Browning the Green Space, one of the partner groups. “That’s a tremendous asset.”

‘There’s a lot of work we need to do’

For students, one of the most valuable aspects of the internship program was the exposure to new options they may never have considered before, said Mindy Wright, founder of partner organization Upward Project, a nonprofit focused on helping low-income, first-generation college students navigate college and career development. 

“The number one thing for all of our kids is, ‘wow, I did not know this industry is as big as it is,’” Wright said. “They definitely come out of it thinking differently.”

Once the internships began, the partner groups provided various training and mentoring support to the students. Students were invited to webinars on topics like building a personal brand and best practices for engaging with employers. Partners started a Slack channel for interns to connect and converse about their experiences. Browning the Green Space, a Boston-based initiative that aims to increase diversity and equity in the clean energy sector, paired interns with established professionals for one-on-one mentorship.

Abode Energy Management, an efficiency services company based in Concord, brought on an intern from the targeted program last summer and went on to hire the student to a full-time position in the fall. The company had worked with interns through the clean energy center in the past and saw the pilot program as a chance to expand its pool of candidates and take steps toward diversifying its staff, said Ryan Keeth, energy conservation program specialist at the company and himself an alumnus of the clean energy internship initiative. 

“We’re 90% White men,” Keeth said. “There’s a lot of work we need to do to diversify our workforce and lead by example.”

The clean energy center is now in the process of assessing the proposals from partner organizations for this summer’s program. It aims to place as many as 60 students in internships this year. The goal, Bowie said, is to help students of color start to build the sort of organic professional connections many White students already take for granted. 

“We’re starting to build sort of an ecosystem and a network,” he said. “You have a sort of cohort of people to talk to.”

Massachusetts program seeks to diversify clean energy job opportunities is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

The pandemic year of 2020 saw a sharp decline in clean energy jobs across the Midwest, the first year-to-year drop since the 2017 inception of annual clean energy jobs reports by the Clean Energy Trust and Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2).

At one point in 2020, more than 131,600 Midwest clean energy workers had filed for unemployment, according to the new report based on federal data. But during the second half of 2020, that job loss was mitigated by jobs being created or restarted. Ultimately, clean energy jobs in the Midwest were down 66,100 compared to a year earlier, representing an 8.9% decline across Ohio, Kansas, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri and Michigan.

The energy efficiency sector lost 12% of its jobs compared to 2019. Renewable energy lost 2.8%, grid and storage lost 7.8%, and clean fuels lost 5%. But jobs actually grew compared to 2019 in advanced and clean transportation, namely hybrid and electric vehicles, with an increase of 3% across the Midwest.

Now, advocates say, it is crucial that investment, incentives and policies are created to bolster clean energy jobs. E2 Midwest advocate Micaela Preskill said she is hopeful the reconciliation process for the recently passed federal budget and infrastructure package will enshrine in law a national clean energy standard and related programs.

“At a minimum, we need Congress to enact a national clean energy standard,” she said. “We need to be enhancing clean energy tax provisions; we need to make domestic manufacturing and deployment of clean energy technologies a priority; we need to fund a national clean energy accelerator that will provide financing for clean energy; we need to prioritize funding in communities of color and under-resourced communities; we need to fund workforce programs; and, of course, we need to invest in the clean auto industry to create jobs and make sure our country can compete abroad. The reconciliation process is what’s really going to deliver in this moment and bring bold action to address the climate crisis.” 

With 677,000 total clean energy jobs, the Midwest has more than 22% of the nation’s clean energy positions, the organizations calculated. And the clean energy sector could help drive a robust economic recovery from the pandemic in the Midwest, advocates say, given the likelihood of increased incentives for clean energy, the Midwest’s manufacturing infrastructure and other market forces. 

The annual clean energy jobs reports, based on the Energy Department’s 2021 U.S. Energy Employment Report, found that “clean energy jobs in 9 of the 12 Midwest states exceeded their overall economies’ job growth rate” last year.

“Despite the industry’s overall decline, more Midwesterners worked in clean energy than worked as accountants, auditors, computer programmers, web developers, and real estate agents and brokers combined,” the report said.

An uncertain future

While job creation in the second half of 2020 was encouraging, “it was a significant rebound from a pretty steep decline,” said Phil Jordan, vice president and principal researcher at BW Research, which conducted the analysis.

“We’re still behind pre-pandemic levels with the growth rates and overall employment. When the pandemic started, there was a much stronger shut down; people were sheltering in place. For the first few weeks, there was a lot of confusion over who was an essential worker — whether people would want contractors in their homes. Over time it became clear that things like utility-scale installations could continue and be done safely with PPE and outdoors.”

While such work will likely continue safely despite the delta variant of the coronavirus and rising infection numbers, residential and consumer-level clean energy sectors could suffer anew because of both safety concerns and the ongoing economic effects of the pandemic.

More than 70% of total clean energy jobs are in energy efficiency, which often involves work inside individual homes. Within the energy efficiency sector, HVAC systems account for the largest portion of jobs.

Jordan noted that research by E2 showed the federal Payroll Protection Program helped many smaller clean energy businesses survive, and similar assistance or other supports could be crucial in the future.

Success and potential

The report cited Minnesota’s recent clean cars program and Michigan’s 2050 decarbonization goal as drivers of jobs. Minnesota saw a 2% growth in alternative transportation. Michigan had only 1% growth in that sector given its already strong auto industry, but it had more than 24,000 people employed in advanced transportation at year-end, leading other Midwest states.   

Electric vehicle jobs specifically grew 6.3% in Michigan to 5,948 workers, the report found, with the sector “poised for future growth with supportive policies and significant commitments to EVs by major vehicle manufacturers like Ford and General Motors.” The report also identified wind as a bright spot in Michigan, with jobs growing 3% to almost 5,000 workers total employed.

While large auto companies play a major role in Michigan’s clean energy economy, 78% of Michigan’s clean energy companies were small businesses employing 20 or fewer people. Small businesses likewise are driving the clean energy sector across the Midwest, with 71% employing 20 or fewer workers.  

Veterans held 11% of clean energy jobs across the Midwest, the report found. And while Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis were hubs for clean energy jobs — at over 81,000 in Chicago — more than a fifth of clean energy jobs in the Midwest were in rural areas.

Across the Midwest, total solar jobs lagged only slightly behind wind jobs, with 37,842 versus 36,837. Ohio had 7,647 solar jobs, compared to just 1,147 wind jobs, and in Wisconsin and Minnesota solar also outpaced wind in total jobs. Illinois, by comparison, had 9,105 wind jobs and 5,526 jobs in solar — an industry that blossomed after the state’s 2017 energy law created incentives but has since suffered, from the pandemic and also the expiration of incentives and the failure to pass a bill that would renew them.

A tipping point  

Preskill emphasized that the dire Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released this week only underscores the urgent need to decarbonize generation, transportation, buildings and more, creating jobs in the process.

She said automakers’ commitments to electric vehicles, instituted as then-presidential candidate Joe Biden was emphasizing clean energy and clean vehicles on the campaign trail, is an example of how political will can drive rapid change. 

“That’s a snapshot of what leadership from the federal level can really mean in terms of job creation,” she said. “We’ve barely scratched the surface. There’s a lot more to do in advanced transportation, but when we do see that leadership, we see companies respond and jobs grow.” 

Even as things look hopeful on the federal level, she said the Midwest risks falling behind given recent trajectories on clean energy.

“The outlook in the Midwest states right now is a little depressing,” she said. “Illinois, which was supposed to be the leader, has failed to reach a compromise [on the proposed energy bill] and states like Iowa and Ohio are continuing to roll back clean energy and put up more roadblocks. The Midwest is a real hub of clean energy jobs, but it’s going to be up to state leaders to step up or cede some of these jobs to other parts of the country.”

The Midwest lost clean energy jobs in 2020, but there were signs of hope, new report says is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

A Massachusetts clean energy agency has awarded $1.6 million in grants to eight offshore wind workforce training programs, each of which targets a specific obstacle that might prevent people of color and low-income people from pursuing jobs in the burgeoning industry. 

“We wanted to up the game a little bit,” said Bruce Carlisle, managing director for offshore wind at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, the organization that awarded the grants. “We made a conscious effort in 2021 that we were going to focus exclusively on this issue.”

The 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project, which is slated to become the country’s first utility-scale offshore wind installation, received its last major federal approval in May, effectively jumpstarting an industry that is expected to be a major employer and economic driver in years to come. 

The offshore wind industry could produce as many as 83,000 jobs in the United States and pump an annual $25 billion into the economy by 2030, according to an analysis by the American Wind Energy Association. With some of the country’s most wind-rich waters located off the New England coast, the region stands to reap significant financial benefits. 

In the face of this opportunity, many community and environmental groups have been pushing to ensure that people of color, low-income communities, and other marginalized groups have an equal chance to participate in the benefits of a promising new sector. The existing energy system has overburdened communities of color, who often face more pollution and higher rates of respiratory illness, said Susannah Hatch, clean energy coalition director for the Environmental League of Massachusetts. A diverse, inclusive workforce could help redress some of this damage, she said. 

“As we are looking to a decarbonized world, we have to figure out how this new system can be equitable and not repeat the sins of the past,” Hatch said.

In designing this call for grants, the clean energy center emphasized that it wanted proposals that did more than simply create a training course. It wanted programs that would identify and grapple with specific obstacles to successfully entering the offshore wind industry.

Industry awareness and training

Some of the grant recipients are focused on boosting awareness of the offshore wind industry and the jobs it will create. Massachusetts nonprofit Browning the Green Space, for example, is partnering with Scottish clean energy consultancy Xodus to develop education and engagement programs aimed at demystifying an industry that is so new that few people know much about how it operates. 

Other Massachusetts industries have left people of color behind as they grew. Kerry Bowie, founder of Browning the Green Space, wants to make sure the pattern doesn’t repeat itself with offshore wind. 

“How’s that working out for us in the biotech space, in banking, in finance?” he said. “We’re not saying everyone in the space needs to be Black, Brown or women. But can we just get our fair share?”

Building Pathways, an established pre-apprenticeship program in Boston, will use its $250,000 grant to run an offshore wind-focused version of its 200-hour training program that introduces participants to the trades, unions, and the apprenticeship system. Recruitment will be focused on people of color, women, and residents of environmental justice communities.

The goal is to familiarize students with the full range of trades, how the offshore wind industry will create opportunities in these fields, and how to pursue an apprenticeship in one of these areas. 

“People may be familiar with the kinds of trades they see in their homes like plumbers and electricians, but there are so many other trades,” said Executive Director Mary Vogel. “It’s just making sure they have a clear understanding of all the opportunities that are out there.”

Transportation and financial assistance

Other grantees are tackling financial and logistical barriers. For many people in the communities prioritized by the grants, job training can take away valuable time when they could be working and earning a much-needed income. For others, simply securing transportation to a training site can be a major challenge. 

The Asian American Civic Association has been awarded $250,000 to support a partnership with Bristol Community College’s Offshore Wind Power Technology Certificate program. The grant will fund a shuttle bus to transport trainees to training sites and allow the association to provide trainees with a stipend during their studies.

“You can provide technical training, but if you don’t address everything else — their transportation, their social services — all the little things can lead to failure,” said Ed Hsieh, chief operating officer at the Asian American Civic Association. 

The Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology is taking a similar approach, using grant money to support students in the renewable energy engineering technology program. The median household income for students at the school is $24,000, so financial support is essential, said Kristen Hurley, the institute’s director of strategic partnerships. 

The courses will prepare students to work at a technician level in the offshore wind or solar industries. The clean energy center award will allow the school to offer stipends as well as bonuses for students who complete the program with at least a B average. The school will also connect incoming renewable energy students with mentors in the engineering school at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, to help them explore their options for continuing on to a bachelor’s degree. 

“Almost all of our students work when they’re at Benjamin Franklin and making school a priority can be a challenge,” Hurley said. Stipends could mean “maybe they don’t have to work as many hours, or maybe they can make college a top priority in their lives.”

K-12 curriculum

One grant recipient, Self Reliance of Bourne, is taking a particularly long view, using the money to implement a curriculum introducing the offshore wind industry to kids from kindergarten through high school. The program includes hands-on opportunities to design and test turbine blades, teacher training, and field trips to places including a blade testing facility and the campus of Massachusetts Maritime Academy, which offers coursework in renewable energy systems engineering. 

The program will focus on working with students in cities that are struggling economically as well as those located in tribal communities in southeastern Massachusetts. 

“We need to develop the pipeline, a multigenerational pipeline,” Executive Director Megan Amsler said. “That’s definitely our objective — to get kids excited about this stuff.”

Together, the programs chosen for grants have the potential to make a noticeable difference in the diversity and equity of the emerging offshore wind workforce, said Carlisle of the clean energy center. 

“These eight awards,” he said, “they’re not only going to make a difference, they’re going to start to move the needle.”

Massachusetts grants focus on equity in offshore wind workforce development is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

Members of environmental justice communities have borne the brunt of adverse health effects from carbon-based industries, while enjoying few of the financial rewards. Likewise, individuals within or aging out of the foster care system, formerly incarcerated people, women and people of color have been disproportionately disadvantaged in the clean energy job sector.

To help close that gap, work is underway in Illinois to implement a solar training program established by a 2016 clean energy law.

The Illinois Solar Training Pipeline Program is one of three workforce development programs administered by ComEd to provide opportunities for members of these demographics to obtain entry into the clean energy sector. The other two programs are the Craft Apprenticeship Program and the Multi-Cultural Job Training Program. The three programs are part of the Future Energy Jobs Act. 

Along with promoting renewable energy throughout the state and providing savings on utility bills for consumers, the Solar Training Pipeline Program is designed to create a diverse pool of solar installers, giving them an opportunity to land good-paying jobs created through the Illinois Solar for All Program.

Earlier this year, the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership was tapped by ComEd to solicit requests for proposals from program providers to receive workforce development grants totaling $3 million in 2021. Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership will also make final grant recommendations to ComEd, which will disburse the funds and provide actual program implementation through selected grantees.

The proposal submission period closed on June 7, and grant recipients are expected to be announced in mid-July, according to Kit White, senior policy analyst for Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership.

Individual grants range from $150,000 to $1 million, to be disbursed over four years. Eligible grant recipients include not-for-profit, governmental and for-profit entities, along with educational institutions. Organizations located in and providing services for environmental justice communities have been given priority. Minority- and women-owned companies were also encouraged to apply.

The program has a goal of providing training for 2,000 individuals — especially formerly incarcerated people and individuals who are within or who have aged out of the foster care system — with a target of 50% of trainees from environmental justice communities, according an email response from Diana Sharpe, vice president of economic and workforce development at ComEd.

Sharpe said that ComEd has also contracted with another organization to help graduates apply for jobs and is helping to organize a job fair. 

Grant recipients are also encouraged to provide training to women and members of BIPOC communities. However, anyone age 18 or older who is eligible to work in the state of Illinois can receive training through the program. Mid-career workers who have been displaced from fossil fuel-based jobs could especially benefit from this training, according to White.

“Anyone who is transitioning out a career in fossil fuels would be great for this program,” White said. “I can’t say that we’re specifically targeting that cohort other than the fact that we are looking for people from environmental justice communities, but absolutely, a career transitioner would be great.” 

Grantees will determine start dates for their respective programs, and are also responsible for conducting whatever outreach is needed to recruit participants, according to an FAQ provided by Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership. ComEd has identified the numbers of participants in targeted populations as a success metric, as well as how many people complete training and acquire jobs. 

Along with industry-specific training, programs by grant recipients should include components addressing job readiness and soft skills training. Individuals completing training should ideally be qualified to earn one or more industry-recognized credentials, such as North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners certification, according to a set of slides that accompanied an April 19, 2021, webinar for prospective grant applicants conducted by White and fellow senior policy analyst Jasmine Williams.

Susan Massel, chief of communications and external affairs for Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership, is confident that the program will be successful. 

“We are the largest publicly funded workforce system in the United States,” Massel said. “When organizations private or public are looking for a workforce — about 87% of the people that we serve are Black and Brown. We have a large segment that we are doing outreach now, through a federal grant for formerly incarcerated [people]. We are all about meeting people where they are, and lifting them up and bringing them to a career that will sustain their families and their spirits, [maybe] sounding a little bit corny, but that’s the truth.”

Illinois solar training program aims to build path for diverse workforce is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.