Advanced Energy Perspectives

Earlier this year, we published the Advanced Energy Now 2015 Market Report. That report showed that the U.S. market for advanced energy products and services grew 14 percent in 2014, five times as fast as the U.S. economy overall. At just under $200 billion in revenue, advanced energy is now bigger than the U.S. airline industry, equal to the pharmaceutical industry, and nearly as large as consumer electronics. That is big news. Just as important is what’s driving the growth of the advanced energy market in this country.

Looking across the market and policy landscape, I see five drivers of market growth for advanced energy companies, now and into the future.

1. Reducing Carbon Emissions. EPA’s Clean Power Plan won’t be final until later this summer, but the draft rule is already shaping markets for energy investment. For reducing carbon emissions from the electric power sector, advanced energy is the answer. Energy efficiency and demand response. Low-emission natural gas generation. Zero-emission renewable energy. Advanced grid technologies and energy storage. As described in our Advanced Energy Technologies for Greenhouse Gas Reduction report, these are the measures states can use to meet EPA standards and modernize their electric power systems for the 21^st century. AEE member companies are ready to deliver their solutions on a large scale. That means revenue growth for the industry and economic growth for the states that put advanced energy to work.

The year 2015 is starting out with signs that the U.S. economy is picking up steam. Recent reports show strong economic growth in 2014 and 3 million jobs created – the most since 1999. The advanced energy industry has played a role in this return to prosperity. Thanks to a number of recent reports, we can now say with certainty that advanced energy is a significant job creator. 

Over the past year, a bumper crop of surveys and studies – by state agencies, by our AEE Institute, and by our state partner organizations – documented the jobs gained and retained by the advanced energy industry state by state. 

The states enjoying the greatest job benefits are those that have made advanced energy a priority in state policy. California has long been the leader in forward-looking energy policy. It has the jobs to show for it: more than 431,000 advanced energy jobs, 2.4 percent of the state’s workforce, half-again as many as are employed in the state’s marquee motion picture, radio, and television sector, according to AEE Institute’s California Advanced Energy Employment Survey. California is well on its way to more than half a million people employed in the advanced energy industry, with employers reporting plans to hire at a 17 percent clip in the coming year.

In our ongoing efforts to build an advanced energy economy, we go through moments of drama. But some of the most important work we do takes place during periods of relative quiet – building relationships, documenting economic value, and demonstrating public support. I started thinking about that after a long phone call with Ivan Urlaub, executive director of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA), AEE’s state partner in the Tar Heel State.

We just released our new Advanced Energy Now 2014 Market Report. It is a remarkable piece of work, produced for us by Navigant Research. It shows the market growth across all the segments and subsegments of what we define as advanced energy, in the United States and around the world.

From this wealth of data, here are two conclusions I take away: Business is booming, and policy makes a difference.

This is a pivotal year for the U.S. economy. After five years of contraction followed by a fragile recovery, we are now returning to stability and growth.  During the period of slowdown, no part of the economy changed more than energy.

When America went into the Great Recession, it was dependent on foreign oil to make the economy run. Now in 2014 we are poised to be energy independent to an extent the United States has not been in over half a century.