Summary:
Colorado’s clean energy workforce added 3,298 new workers in 2023, growing 5.2 percent and adding jobs at a much faster rate than the state’s overall employment, which grew 2.5 percent. The state has the 18th largest clean energy workforce nationally in 2023, with 67,060 clean energy jobs in total. The bulk of the workforce were in construction and professional services industries. In 2023, clean energy accounted for over two times more jobs than fossil fuels in Colorado. Three counties made the top 100 list for most clean energy jobs in the nation: Denver County (12,968 jobs), Arapahoe County (7,539 jobs), and Jefferson County (7,209 jobs).
- RENEWABLE GENERATION: Renewable generation grew 3.9 percent in 2023, bringing Colorado’s renewable generation workforce to 18,718 individuals—the seventh largest in the country. Solar and wind account for the majority of the sector’s workforce with 9,017 jobs and 7,880 jobs respectively.
- ENERGY EFFICIENCY: Energy efficiency is Colorado’s largest clean energy sector with 37,835 workers. The sector grew 5.5 percent in 2023, the third fastest growing energy efficiency workforce in the nation.
- STORAGE AND GRID MODERNIZATION: Jobs in battery, storage, and grid modernization grew 4.4 percent in 2023, making this sector the third fastest growing clean energy sector in the state behind energy efficiency and clean vehicles. Colorado’s storage and grid modernization workforce totaled 3,383 in 2023— the 15th largest in the nation.
- CLEAN VEHICLES: The clean vehicles sector has the fastest growing workforce in Colorado’s clean energy industry, growing 10.1 percent in 2023 to employ a total of 5,148 workers. The sector grew much faster than the gas/diesel vehicles sector in Colorado, which shrunk 1.4 percent in 2023.
- CLEAN FUELS: Colorado’s clean fuels workforce makes up the smallest clean energy sector in the state with 1,976 total jobs. Clean fuel jobs shrunk 0.1 percent in Colorado from 2022 to 2023.
Previous Reports
Clean Jobs Colorado 2024 is the 8th clean energy jobs report for Colorado from E2. Previous reports can be accessed in the below links.
Background
This is the eighth annual Clean Jobs Colorado report produced by E2 based on analysis of the USEER, which was first released by the DOE in 2016. E2 was an original proponent of the DOE producing the USEER and was a partner on the reports produced by the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) and National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) after the Trump administration decided to not produce it in 2017.
For additional insight into E2’s Clean Jobs Colorado or our other annual clean energy economic reports, visit e2.org/reports.
An FAQ is available at e2.org/reports/clean-jobs-america-faq.