that would invest about $375 billion to deal with climate change could mean “gigawatts and gigawatts” of new renewable energy and thousands of new jobs in Colorado and across the county, industry representatives say.
The national Solar Energy Industries Association expects the country’s workforce of about 250,000 in the solar and battery-storage sectors to quadruple. Colorado’s estimated workforce of 7,000 will likely double by the end of the decade as a result of the federal legislation and the state’s renewable-energy goals and requirements to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, Kruger said.
Amster-Olszewski said this year has been tough for the solar industry because of ongoing supply-chain problems, inflation and tariffs on imported parts. “But we’ve been changing our strategy in the last 10 days based on this because it signals a massive investment over the next decade, which gives us certainty.”
“This puts cooperatives, finally, on a level playing field with other utilities and removes the barriers for our direct investment in renewable projects,” Boughey said.