Wind jobs overtake coal jobs

Submitted by acohill on Fri, 01/30/2009 - 10:29

A new report says more workers are employed in the wind-based power generation business than in the coal industry. Bad news for coal? Not necessarily, as coal will continue to be an important alternative to imported fossil fuels. Coal and nuclear will be important to support base load electric generating capacity, as wind and solar can't provide reliable 24/7 power.

The wind energy business is creating new manufacturing jobs in the midwest, west, and south, and the article notes that wind generation is adding a significant percentage of the new generating capacity right now. But wind still only supplies about 3% of the U.S. electric power, compared to coal's 43%, and some of the comments question the article's statistics, noting that it seems to be comparing coal mining jobs to wind manufacturing jobs.

Hat tip: Ed Dreistadt