“With more than 100,000 workers and a robust 7% increase in jobs expected this year, advanced energy is an exciting growth sector for Virginia’s economy,” said Harry Godfrey, Executive Director of Virginia Advanced Energy Economy (Virginia AEE). “But this industry is far from meeting its full potential in the Commonwealth, as it is held back by a variety of policy obstacles and uncertainty in the market...”

“Advanced energy is growing quickly in Virginia,” said Godfrey. “To create more of these durable, well-paying jobs here, we need to sustain and accelerate the growth of this industry. To do that, we need smart public policies that remove obstacles to deployment and create market certainty.”

Advanced energy businesses operating in the Commonwealth echoed Godfrey’s remarks.

“At TRANE, we’re hiring at a record clip here in Virginia as more businesses, residents, and municipalities invest in energy efficiency,” said Larry Cummings, Marketing Leader for Strategic Partnerships at TRANE. “But there are untapped opportunities that could create even more jobs for advanced energy companies like ours, like deferred maintenance projects at our public colleges and universities. These self-funded projects, which tally into the hundreds of millions of dollars, would create jobs while saving students and taxpayers money. We need public policies to prompt more smart energy investments like that.”

“We’re hiring as fast as possible to keep up with our exponential growth. In the past year, Sigora expanded operations to 10 new states, most of which have made long-term commitments to grow solar,” said Logan Landry, CEO, Sigora Solar. “As a Virginia-based company, we would prefer to hire more Virginians. Sadly, absent the GA prioritizing programs to grow our advanced energy economy and reforming significant policy barriers — like the cap on PPA [power purchase agreement]projects and rooftop solar — Sigora will have to continue to look elsewhere to grow and hire skilled staff...”