A new Brookings Institution report illustrates an important point I have made here many times.
The next economic boom has begun, and it lies in renewable energy.
Some 2.7 million people are now working on reducing energy drain, increasing efficiency, or producing green energy, the report says. Most of those jobs are located in major cities, where jobs are most needed.
While Brookings may be dismissed as a “liberal think tank,” the report was produced in concert with Battelle's Technology Partnership Practice.
Right now, for instance, over 43,000 Atlanta jobs are tied to “green” technoogies, with conservation jobs having grown 6,000% between 2003-2010. This is the cheapest form of renewable energy, the easiest to capture, the low-hanging fruit.
When you insulate a home or business, or when you replace low-efficiency equipment with higher-efficiency equipment, you can easily calculate the payback. The higher prices go, the more money customers can save, and the sooner their investments gain a return. Many of these jobs don't require a high level of education, meaning they're just the kinds of positions we need to create for social peace.
Different cities and regions are trying to specialize. San Diego sells its sun. Houston sells its access to energy-related capital. Ohio sells its manufacturing base. Atlanta can sell its proximity to GE Energy, one of the larger factors in the market.
Remember. These jobs provide stimulus three ways. You create energy, either free energy from efficiency or new energy. You create a local job. And you reduce demand, which puts downward pressure on prices.
The cavemen who try to pretend that success here is impossible, like Jim Rogers, only see the percentage of green energy against the total, see it as relatively modest over the near-to-medium term, and thus dismiss it. But energy efficiency is also energy, and when you combine free energy with new energy, when you scale these up and concentrate research investment in them, you drive costs down and accelerate growth.
We don't have to replace all oil with solar energy in order to have a profound impact on market prices and (most important) market psychology. But once we break through the floor – once solar and wind and biomass become cheaper than oil, gas and coal – then prosperity becomes a virtuous cycle, because prices and costs aren't just going to stay there.
They will continue to go down.
