2.5 Million Clean Energy Employees in U.S., Report Finds

There are more than 2.5 million employees of the clean energy industry in the U.S., according to a new report.

The Clean Jobs in America report revealed that energy efficiency is the largest sector of the clean energy industry, employing 1.9 million people, reported Energy Matters.

Of the 2.5 million people the industry employs as a whole, 414,000 of those jobs are in renewable energy. The majority of those jobs are in solar power, while 77,000 of them are connected to wind energy. The solar industry in particular is experiencing a boom, with the solar workforce growing 12 times faster than the total U.S. workforce in 2015, according to the Solar Foundation.

The Clean Jobs in America report was published by advocacy group Environmental Entrepreneurs, also called E2.

“In a short amount of time, clean energy has become a huge part of our workforce and our economy,” said E2 executive director Bob Keefe.

The findings come as the U.S. Department of Energy released its first annual analysis of how the American energy landscape is impacting national employment. According to the website of the department, the analysis found that 3.64 million Americans work in traditional energy industries and that 30 percent of the 6.8 million construction industry workers across the country work on energy-efficient projects.