By Crystal Yormick
Boston University News Service
Massachusetts needs to train about 29,000 additional clean energy workers by
2030 to reach its climate goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,
according to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s 2024 Industry Report.
Jennifer Applebaum, MassCEC’s managing director of workforce development,
said in reaching that estimate the agency looked at both its goals and what the
market is saying at the moment.
“What drives hiring is absolutely still local industry and business demand,”
Applebaum said. “The programs and workforce efforts that we set up and
support have to be tied to that local and real time demand.”
The Healey Administration, in partnership with Social Finance — a national
nonprofit and registered investment advisor — recently implemented the
Massachusetts Climate Careers Fund to fill climate employment gaps, grow
economic mobility and prop up a diverse workforce.
The CCF offers 0% interest loans to low-income Massachusetts residents for
climate career training. Once a worker is certified in a “good-paying role that
supports the climate transition,” and earns at least $47,000 annually, they
begin repaying their loan. Repayments will help fund future participants,
according to the Social Finance website.
“We get to spend that same dollar over and over again,” Massachusetts Climate
Chief Melissa Hoffer said at a climate workforce forum of about 50 people
hosted by the Boston Foundation and Social Finance Oct. 8.
Programs include electrical and plumbing apprenticeships, HVAC certification
and solar tech training.
The original goal for the fund was $10 million, comprising both public and
private philanthropic investment. MassCEC has not formally announced what
the state’s specific contribution amount towards the fund will be yet,
Applebaum said.
Kirstin Hill, president and chief operating officer of Social Finance, said there
has been a “meaningful focus” on higher education nationwide but less
investment in the workforce compared to other developed countries globally.
“One of the critical levers that’s missing, not only in Massachusetts, but across
the country, is the workforce, and is the skilled labor workforce, in particular,”
she said.
Applebaum said historically the workforce was a limiting factor for clean
energy, but with properly-skilled employees, these companies could be
growing faster.
“Solutions are reaching places where there’s scale and need for much larger
numbers of folks that are going to do the installation and the maintenance
to make these changes really happen across the commonwealth,”
Applebaum said.
Barriers that can prevent both training and employment include
transportation, child-care and rent payments. The opportunity cost for training
can sometimes derail workers from completing the needed steps, and other
times, the jobs trained workers hold can be unsustainable for personal or
external reasons.
The International Renewable Energy Agency reported in July that 91% of
renewable energy projects in 2024 were less expensive than their fossil fuel
alternatives while renewables outpaced coal generation globally for the first
half of 2025, according to a Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights report by
Ember, a global energy think tank.
So the “horse is out the barn” — or a done deal — Hoffer said at the forum,
referring to the globalized clean energy transition.
“[Massachusetts] is in line with that forward thinking, and the market is
supporting these transitions,” said Mary Wagner, clean energy training
manager at Holyoke Community College.
Jobs in the clean energy sector include electricians, energy auditors, electric
vehicle mechanics and HVAC technicians as well as solar, offshore wind, EV
repairs and geothermal technology related careers.
The clean energy industry makes up 3% of the Massachusetts workforce,
according to MassCEC’s 2024 Executive Summary, and the industry has
experienced 100% job growth since 2010. As it expands, the supply of workers
and the training and resources needed must increase to keep up with demand.
“Filling those jobs is a tremendous economic impact. We need the workers,
and [these are] good high paying jobs.” said Rep. Jeffrey Roy, D-Franklin,
who is currently sponsoring a bill to establish green energy tracks in
vocational schools.
Andrew Baker, workforce training manager at HCC, expects there to be
job growth in the trades during a time when other jobs are threatened by
artificial intelligence.
“You can’t AI your way out of a broken furnace,” Baker said.
This story originally appeared in the Boston Business Journal.
