Government to provide green work placements

The US is going large on wind power and it’s not just hot air.

I was interested in an article yesterday in Green Futures showing that the USA has now overtaken Germany as the largest producer of wind energy and is forging ahead with innovation in wind and solar, with Texas at the van.

The conditions for this are being supported by Obama’s sweeping rhetoric on supporting green jobs and development but the conditions for the boom were largely created by the void in George W Bush’s federal approach.  Under Bush, individual states instigated a combination of carrot and stick initiatives to such an extent that the solar industry has tripled in size since 2000 and wind generation has doubled since 2008.

Now that the support is there from the federal government, we can only expect things to get better even more quickly.  Already, something in the region of 20% of capital investment from venture capitalists was invested in cleantech over the past twelve months.

All this at a time when the UK is battling with Vestas and our own pledge to offer green jobs pales into insignificance in terms of money invested.  By US standards, we’re still on the allotment waiting list.