Frequently Asked Questions

The map presents users with data from established industry sources and examines the economic contribution of clean energy from the national level down to the state voting district. Equipped with economic data, map users, including citizens, advocates and policymakers, can understand how investments in clean energy impact the local, state and national economy and make informed decisions about energy policies.

Localizing data is important for demonstrating the benefits on a street-level basis and enabling the comparison of benefits by political jurisdiction. The national and state top-line numbers are very important for overall impact, and will be incorporated into the map once they can be localized. What makes this map unique is its goal of making transparent the direct community benefits for map users by showing what clean energy is doing for them, where they live.

State and federal policymakers are facing legislative decisions that could impact the competitiveness of clean energy significantly, so it’s essential to provide impartial facts to citizens and politicians as they weigh policy options. On a global scale, advancing clean energy industries is becoming the standard. U.S. corporations and national governments around the world are taking significant steps to reduce their environmental impact because clean energy makes economic sense.

Kevala, Inc., a San Francisco-based software analytics company, developed the map. Kevala provides data-driven insights for the evolving energy market by combining proprietary analytics with advanced grid mapping. Kevala’s goal is to accelerate a clean energy future by making energy related data meaningful, transparent and broadly accessible.

Kevala specializes in aggregating data from a diverse range of sources, developing proprietary analytics on top of its datasets, and regularly refreshing those datasets. In 2016, Kevala raised $1.7 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative to help scale its Grid Assessor platform, a mapping and grid analytics software that helps solar energy system developers identify the best project locations based on demand and grid value.

The map has no official association with any government body. Kevala developed the map and will continue to update its data. As a free public resource, the map is available for any citizen or organization to use.

Kevala built and will maintain the map with updated data, but cleanenergyprogress.com is a free public resource that anyone can view and use.

Partners are part of a voluntary, joint effort to promote the U.S. Clean Energy Progress Map as a valuable resource. Organizations promoting and using the map have a common goal to advocate for clean energy growth, as we understand that policy incentives and investments in clean energy are creating millions of jobs in various industries across many areas of the United States.

To date, there is no other resource that compiles economic data on the wind, solar and energy efficiency industries across the United States in an interactive and accessible format. However, other public resources can be used in conjunction with the U.S. Clean Energy Progress Map when evaluating the energy sector. For example, this interactive map focuses on clean energy job creation in the Midwest specifically.

The U.S. Clean Energy Progress Map estimates investment of $234 billion in solar and wind energy in the United States, with solar accounting for roughly $72 billion and wind accounting for roughly $162 billion.

*The U.S. Clean Energy Progress Map does not present energy efficiency investment because of a lack of consistent and comprehensive data for energy efficiency projects and investment estimates.

The U.S. Clean Energy Progress Map shows approximately 2.2 million jobs in the solar, wind, and energy efficiency sectors nationwide. Wind accounted for nearly 105,000 jobs, solar accounted for more than 260,000 jobs, and energy efficiency accounted for nearly 1.9 million jobs across the United States.

The U.S. Clean Energy Progress Map utilizes national data developed using conservative methods and disaggregated at the electoral jurisdiction level. Other credible sources do not provide data at the level of spatial detail needed for presentation on the map. Because the map uses conservative, disaggregated data with some time lag, it is reasonable to conclude that actual national totals may be higher than represented based on other studies. For example, the 2017 study by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates 2.2 million energy efficiency jobs, compared to the estimated 1.9 million jobs in energy efficiency from the U.S. Clean Energy Progress Map (which sources their data from E2 and E4 the Future; see cleanenergyprogress.com/methodology for details).

The data sources from the U.S. Clean Energy Progress Map and the U.S. DOE reports differ and present a trade-off: the map utilizes older data that provides the geospatial information necessary to provide this hyper-local information, whereas the more recent U.S. DOE data cannot be mapped out at a sub-state level of detail. Kevala plans to help other researchers understand the spatial detail needed so future studies can be geographically located on the U.S. Clean Energy Progress Map.

The U.S. Clean Energy Progress Map will be updated semiannually, though investment, job and census data sources are updated annually. Some data sources have time lags. For example, the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) data reported in 2017 covers information through 2016, and Environmental Entrepreneurs and E4 the Future data reported in 2016 covers information through 2015.