37,000 Clean Energy Jobs Disappeared. That’s Not the Whole Story

There's no question that it's been a difficult year for many parts of our industry. We've all watched as projects get canceled or delayed, companies reduce headcount, and experienced people unexpectedly find themselves looking for work.

This headline caught my attention last week: the U.S. clean energy industry lost nearly 37,000 jobs in 2025, according to E2's newly released Clean Jobs America 2026 findings. It was the industry's first annual employment decline since the pandemic in 2020.

But 37,000 jobs disappearing doesn't tell the entire story

What interests me as a recruiter is what's happening underneath those numbers. Energy efficiency, renewable energy and clean vehicles all lost jobs, while storage, grid modernization and biofuels were the only sectors to show growth.

Battery storage deployment continues to set records. The U.S. installed a record 18.9 GWh in Q2 2026, according to Wood Mackenzie and SEIA's latest storage market report, with average battery duration climbing from 2.8 to 3.5 hours in just a year as developers build increasingly larger and longer-duration projects. That growth is creating demand for a very specific set of skills and experience.

On the solar side, I'm talking with IPP executives every week whose companies have shifted from growth mode to monetizing existing portfolios. At the same time, I'm seeing capital and talent increasingly move toward battery storage and data center development.

For most of the past 16 years that I've worked in the industry, renewable energy companies were competing primarily with other renewable energy companies for talent. Increasingly, they're also competing with data centers and infrastructure investors for many of the same people.

That creates an interesting contradiction. We can have tens of thousands fewer clean energy jobs nationally while individual companies still struggle to find experienced people for critical positions.

After 25 years recruiting, I've seen plenty of cycles

But, this one feels different because there isn't really one clean energy job market right now. Some parts of the industry are contracting. Others are investing, building and hiring.

So yes, losing nearly 37,000 clean energy jobs matters. But if you want to understand where the industry is going next, pay attention to where the jobs are being created, not just where they disappeared.