KEMA analyzes for Obama team how smart grids affect employment

KEMA analysis on behalf of GridWise Alliance indicates smart grid deployment will boost U.S. jobs.

January 9 – A KEMA analysis demonstrates that deployment of smart grid technology in the U.S. will lead to an increase in the number of direct jobs by 280,000. This analysis was conducted on behalf of GridWise Alliance, a U.S. public-private platform for ‘smart grids’ or ‘smart electricity networks’. President-Elect Barack Obama's transition team asked the Gridwise Alliance to project the number of jobs that would be created by government investment in the deployment of a smart grid. KEMA has been providing consulting services to the U.S. Department of Energy since early 2008.

KEMA's report ‘The U.S. Smart Grid Revolution: KEMA’s Perspective for Job Creation’ also anticipates that an investment of $16 billion in smart grid incentives over the next four years will work as a catalyst in driving associated smart grid projects worth up to $64 billion. Moreover, a substantial – not yet quantifiable – number of indirect jobs will be created. By the end of 2009, over 150,000 of the 280,000 new direct jobs will have been created.

President-Elect Obama and various members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives have on several occasions stated that they view smart grids as an economic driving force. Obama's economic plan includes a further shift towards clean energy and the creation of 5 million new 'green' jobs.

The KEMA report is available here.

Comment by Pier Nabuurs, CEO of KEMA:
‘Consensus is building in Europe as well as in the U.S. that smart grids are the key to increasing sustainable energy and are therefore inextricably linked to international climate and sustainability goals. After all, any decentralized energy generation –whether from wind farms, solar panels or biomass—still needs to be integrated into the grids. We're very pleased to have been selected to perform this analysis on behalf of GridWise for President-Elect Barack Obama's transition team.'

About GridWise Alliance
Founded in 2003, Gridwise Alliance (www.gridwise.org) now has 75 member organizations from various industries, including energy, IT, technology and research. The Alliance advocates a vision of an integrated electric system for more efficient and cost-effective energy generation, distribution and utilization. Its members include ABB, Alcatel-Lucent, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Cisco, Computer Sciences Corporation, Duke Energy, Florida State University, General Electric, Google, IBM, KEMA, Lockheed Martin, Sharp Laboratories, Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution and Washington State University.

For the US press release, please click here.