Georgia’s clean energy economy grew 4.7 percent and added 3,517 new workers in 2022. Clean energy employment grew faster than overall energy employment (4.3 percent) and faster than employment in the overall economy (3.5 percent) in Georgia. The state’s 78,400 clean energy jobs is the sixteenth largest and thirteenth fastest growing clean energy workforce nationally. In 2022, the state employed 885 percent more clean energy workers than the fossil fuel industry’s 8,857 jobs.
Three Georgia counties were in the top fifteen for clean energy job density in the U.S. in 2022—Pulaski County ranked seventh, with over 22 percent of all workers employed in clean energy; Montgomery County ranked thirteenth, with nearly 15 percent of all workers employed in clean energy; and Jefferson County ranked fifteenth, with over 12 percent of all workers employed in clean energy.
Summary
- RENEWABLE GENERATION: Georgia’s renewable generation jobs grew 7.1 percent in 2022, bringing the sector to 10,500 total jobs and making it Georgia’s second largest clean energy sector behind energy efficiency. The solar subsector accounted for most of the renewable energy jobs in the state, employing 7,761 individuals–accounting for nearly 74 percent of the sector’s total employment.
- ENERGY EFFICIENCY: Energy efficiency is Georgia’s largest clean energy sector with 55,605 workers as of the end of 2022. The sector grew 4.3 percent in 2022, ranking Georgia in the top ten for fastest growing energy efficiency workforce nationally.
- STORAGE AND GRID MODERNIZATION: Jobs in battery, storage, and grid modernization grew 8 percent in 2022 in Georgia— the second fastest growing clean energy sector workforce in the state. As of 2022, there were 4,369 total battery, storage, and grid modernization jobs in Georgia, the ninth largest workforce for the sector in the U.S.
- CLEAN VEHICLES: Clean vehicle jobs grew 2 percent in 2022 to employ a total of 7,452 individuals. The majority of the workforce is in the hybrid electric vehicles subsector (3,400 workers) and electric vehicles subsector (2,162 workers). However, since the federal Inflation Reduction Act passed, 15 major electric vehicle manufacturing facilities have been announced in Georgia, which is expected to add at least 9,000 jobs to the state’s clean vehicle workforce in the coming years.
- BIOFUELS: Georgia’s biofuels sector grew 8.8 percent in 2022 to employ a total of 476 individuals. Employment in the sector was the smallest but fastest growing in Georgia’s clean energy economy.
Other Clean Jobs Reports
Clean Jobs Georgia 2023 is the first standalone clean energy jobs report for Georgia from E2. Previous 2023 clean energy employment reports can be accessed in the below links.
Background
This is the first Clean Jobs Georgia report produced by E2. The 2023 report is based on analysis of the 2023 U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER), which was first released by the Department of Energy (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 abandoned it in 2017. For methodology questions, see pages 201-206 of the 2023 USEER.
For additional insight into E2’s Clean Jobs Georgia or our other annual clean energy economic reports, visit e2.org/reports.
An FAQ is available at e2.org/reports/clean-jobs-america-faq.