REPORT: Clean energy grew 5X faster than rest of Pennsylvania economy, added 3K jobs in 2024

HARRISBURG (Nov. 20, 2025) – Clean energy jobs in Pennsylvania grew more than five times faster than the rest of the state’s economy in 2024, raising the total number of clean energy workers in the state to over 104,000, according to the Clean Jobs Pennsylvania report released today by the national, nonpartisan business group E2, the Energy Efficiency Alliance, and PA Solar Center. 

“Clean energy is delivering jobs, lower costs, and reliability for Pennsylvania. Walking away from policies that support that progress puts those benefits at risk.” said Micaela Preskill, E2’s Director of State Advocacy. “The data makes one thing undeniable: investing in clean energy means investing in Pennsylvania’s economic future.” 

Pennsylvania added 3,722 clean energy jobs last year – which ranks fifth in the United States, above Virginia, Ohio, and Colorado. 

Despite the strength of this sector, Governor Josh Shapiro and state lawmakers chose earlier this month to pull Pennsylvania out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). RGGI participation would have generated 30,000 jobs and an extra $2 billion dollars in GDP for the state, by 2030, according to analysis by Resources for the Future. 

“Now, more than ever, in an era of escalating utility bills, energy efficiency delivers powerful savings for businesses and consumers. Plus, it’s a jobs powerhouse as this new report demonstrates,” said Jeaneen Zappa, Executive Director of The Energy Efficiency Alliance. “Pennsylvania’s leadership should stand up and cheer for the energy efficiency sector and accelerate it even further.” 

Jobs in energy efficiency, renewable generation, storage and grid, and other clean energy subsectors continued to grow faster than the broader economy in 2024, accounting for an increasingly large share of the state’s workforce. The energy efficiency sector hosts more than two thirds of Pennsylvania’s clean energy jobs, supporting over 76,000 jobs. 

Clean vehicles-related jobs saw a slight dip in 2024, losing 195 jobs after hitting a record high of 10,141 workers at the end of 2023. Clean vehicles-related jobs took a similar hit across the country, as did jobs related to internal combustion engine vehicles. 

Though not reflected in the 2024 data, recent policy actions by Congress and the Trump administration — to kill projects, revoke tax credits, cancel permits and add new regulatory red tape — have already caused major job losses in the clean energy industry, with more expected to come.  Coupled with Pennsylvania’s RGGI reversal, the state could see additional job losses moving forward. 

“Electricity prices are rising everywhere due to skyrocketing energy demand, and renewables are the fastest and cheapest energy to deploy to meet that demand,” said Sharon Pillar, Founder and Executive Director of the PA Solar Center. “State lawmakers should be doing everything they can to expand solar and storage resources as quickly as possible so we can ease Pennsylvanians’ energy burden with less expensive power — and create more jobs while we’re at it, as this report demonstrates.”

According to separate E2 research, since January 2025 companies across the country, but none in Pennsylvania, have canceled more than $24 billion in planned clean energy related factories and other projects across the country that were expected to create at least 21,000 new jobs. 

With clean energy companies and investors reeling from federal decisions to slash clean energy support, the sector’s importance to the region’s overall economy is clearer than ever. State policy that invests in grid modernization, streamlines clean energy permitting, and expands workforce development programs would help accelerate project deployment and protect the state’s standing in a rapidly growing clean-energy economy. 

Clean energy now accounts for 37 percent of all energy and vehicle-related jobs in the state, and almost two percent of all jobs. Industry-wide, nearly two-thirds of the state’s clean energy jobs (more than 68,000 jobs) are in construction or manufacturing. 

Allegheny County is home to over 13,000 clean energy workers, tops in Pennsylvania.

A note on demographics: Veterans made up 10 percent of the clean energy workforce for Pennsylvania in 2024. 

For more information, data requests, or to speak with clean energy business leaders in your area, contact Daniel Baker ([email protected]; 202-836-9390). 

Methodology 

This analysis of U.S. clean energy employment is based on employment data collected and analyzed by the BW Research Partnership for the 2025 U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER). The USEER analyzes data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) to track employment across many energy production, transmission and distribution subsectors. In addition, the 2025 USEER relies on a unique supplemental survey of 42,800 business representatives across the United States. Created and conducted by BW Research, the methodology has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This survey is used to identify energy-related employment within key subsectors of the broader industries as classified by the BLS and to assign them into their component energy and energy efficiency sectors. 

A full methodology on the sectors and types of jobs this analysis includes and does not include is available in E2’s Clean Jobs America report here. 

Other Resources 

• Clean Jobs America 2025 Report and Map 

• Clean Economy Works | Monthly Tracking: More details plus an interactive map of each of these projects shows what’s trending in America’s booming clean economy. 

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E2 is a national, nonpartisan group of business leaders, investors, and professionals from every sector of the economy who advocate for smart policies that are good for the economy and good for the environment. Our members have founded or funded more than 2,500 companies, created more than 600,000 jobs, and managed more than $100 billion in venture and private equity capital. For more information, see www.e2.org or follow us on LinkedIn (@e2org) or X/Twitter at @e2org. 

The PA Solar Center is a 501c3 nonprofit organization with the mission to expand the benefits of solar to all Pennsylvanians to ensure a resilient, sustainable, and affordable future. The Center offers technical assistance to more than 300 non-profit organizations, schools, businesses, and communities to help them go solar, savvy media communications and online resources for all solar stakeholders, and education for decision-makers and advocates about the benefits of robust solar policy. Learn more at www.pasolarcenter.org. 

The Energy Efficiency Alliance (EEA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that advances energy efficiency in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. EEA engages and educates stakeholders and decision-makers to drive programs, policies, and funding that accelerate energy efficiency. Our work grows the market for EE businesses, flexible solutions, and technologies that lower energy use in buildings, foster affordability, and reduce pressure on the grid. EEA works closely with an affiliated 501(c)(6) trade association serving Pennsylvania and New Jersey’s energy efficiency industry as the Keystone Energy Efficiency Alliance (KEEA) and the Energy Efficiency Alliance of New Jersey (EEA-NJ).