Estimating employment from energy-efficiency investments

Abstract

We develop a methodology for estimating the number and types of jobs that would result from investments in energy efficiency in homes, businesses, and industry. The methodology involves the development of input-output (I-O) bills of goods that characterize how energy-efficiency funds would be spent across sectors of the economy. The methodology builds on and adds greater articulation to the research conducted in prior studies of U.S. energy-efficiency policies.•The first two steps involve estimating the magnitude of investments in energy-efficient technologies and systems required to produce a unit of energy consumption reduction, and then identifying how these investments are expensed across the broad investment categories, which creates the preliminary “bills of goods” for investments in energy efficiency in homes, businesses, and industry.•The third step involves soliciting feedback on the preliminary bills of goods from experts in delivering and evaluating energy-efficiency programs, and then making necessary modifications.•In the final step we apply the input-output coefficients representing the bills of goods to estimate the direct, indirect and induced employment per million dollars of investment in energy efficiency.