The impacts of COVID-19 on clean energy labor markets: Evidence from multifaceted analysis of public health interventions and COVID-health factors

Chien fei Chen; Yuanyang Liu; Jamie Alexander Greig; Zhenglai Shen; Yunye Shi

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112880

The impacts of COVID-19 on clean energy labor markets: Evidence from multifaceted analysis of public health interventions and COVID-health factors

Chien fei Chen, Yuanyang Liu, Jamie Alexander Greig, Zhenglai Shen, Yunye Shi

Building Envelope Materials Research

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has affected clean energy labor market. Using real-time job vacancy data, this study analyzes the impacts of the pandemic on the U.S. clean energy labor market in 2020, including biomass, energy efficiency (EE), electric vehicle (EV), power/microgrid, solar, and wind industries. This study identifies how COVID-health factors and public health interventions influence clean energy job availability during the early COVID pandemic. Overall, California had the most energy jobs and experienced a significant decrease in April 2020. EV and solar had the highest percentages of job vacancies during the pandemic in general. Still, lockdowns had the most severe influence on EE and wind jobs. Stay-at-home orders negatively affected clean energy job vacancies in biomass, EV, power/microgrid, and wind. Social-gathering restrictions, however, did not have much influence. Increased COVID tests at the state level had the strongest and most positive influence on clean energy job postings, indicating the importance of a state's ability to manage public health infrastructure or crisis issues. COVID hospitalizations negatively influenced the job vacancies in biomass and wind but did not affect the other four sectors; conversely, as COVID death numbers increased, the number of jobs in biomass, EV, power grid, solar, and wind decreased, but not in EE jobs.

Original language	English
Article number	112880
Journal	Energy Policy
Volume	164
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112880
State	Published - May 2022

Funding

C.-F. Chen was supported by (1) the Engineering Research Center Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy under NSF award EEC-1041877 and the CURENT Industry Partnership Program; and (2) NSF award CMMI-1901740 . The authors thank Hannah Nelson for manuscript preparation. This manuscrpt has been authored in part by UT-Battelle, LLC , under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access.

Funders	Funder number
National Science Foundation
U.S. Department of Energy	DE-AC05-00OR22725, EEC-1041877, CMMI-1901740

Keywords

COVID-19
Clean energy jobs
Energy efficiency
Green energy jobs
Public health interventions
Renewable energy

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112880

Cite this

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title = "The impacts of COVID-19 on clean energy labor markets: Evidence from multifaceted analysis of public health interventions and COVID-health factors",

abstract = "COVID-19 pandemic has affected clean energy labor market. Using real-time job vacancy data, this study analyzes the impacts of the pandemic on the U.S. clean energy labor market in 2020, including biomass, energy efficiency (EE), electric vehicle (EV), power/microgrid, solar, and wind industries. This study identifies how COVID-health factors and public health interventions influence clean energy job availability during the early COVID pandemic. Overall, California had the most energy jobs and experienced a significant decrease in April 2020. EV and solar had the highest percentages of job vacancies during the pandemic in general. Still, lockdowns had the most severe influence on EE and wind jobs. Stay-at-home orders negatively affected clean energy job vacancies in biomass, EV, power/microgrid, and wind. Social-gathering restrictions, however, did not have much influence. Increased COVID tests at the state level had the strongest and most positive influence on clean energy job postings, indicating the importance of a state's ability to manage public health infrastructure or crisis issues. COVID hospitalizations negatively influenced the job vacancies in biomass and wind but did not affect the other four sectors; conversely, as COVID death numbers increased, the number of jobs in biomass, EV, power grid, solar, and wind decreased, but not in EE jobs.",

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The impacts of COVID-19 on clean energy labor markets: Evidence from multifaceted analysis of public health interventions and COVID-health factors

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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