Top States and Cities for US Cleantech Manufacturing Revealed by RMI Analysis
The “Clean Growth Tool” provides policymakers and investors with a guide to clean energy manufacturing and jobs opportunities in all 50 states.
Washington D.C. – July 2024
Nonprofit climate and cleantech research institute RMI (founded as Rocky Mountain Institute) has launched a new analytical and data platform, the Clean Growth Tool, which identifies the states, cities, and regions where clean energy industries are most likely to thrive in the United States given their underlying economic strengths.
RMI data from the Clean Growth Tool reveals that key regions in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, and North Carolina — states that have attracted significant cleantech investment in the wake of the Inflation Reduction Act — are well-positioned to extend their industrial leadership in manufacturing solar components, batteries, and electric vehicles. The Clean Growth Tool also highlights the extraordinary potential that other states including Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Utah have in these same and related critical industries. The Clean Growth Tool covers all 50 states, providing policymakers and investors with the data they need to pursue the most promising opportunities, strengthening local prosperity and American competitiveness amid the accelerating global energy transition.
“Cities and states need to know where it makes sense to invest to be most competitive amid the global clean energy manufacturing boom,” said Aaron Brickman, RMI senior principal. “We’re giving policymakers and investors the workforce and industry data they need to unleash their full potential, spur innovation, boost productivity, and create new export opportunities. America can successfully compete in the manufacturing of not only emerging technologies like clean steel, but also widely deployed ones like solar. Economic competitiveness is key to sustained job growth in cleantech manufacturing, and we hone our competitive edge by steering the right investments to the right places.”
Additional Information:
- The Clean Growth Tool builds on economic methods introduced at the Harvard University Center for International Development and workforce development research at the Brookings Institution. It covers sectors, technologies, and industries associated with all stages of energy transition and clean energy supply chains — including, but not limited to, electric vehicles, heat pumps, low-carbon iron and steel, solar manufacturing, wind manufacturing, hydrogen, and critical minerals processing.
- The Clean Growth Tool offers two geographic filters — metropolitan statistical area (MSA), which includes cities and their immediate surroundings, and economic area (EA), which covers both urban and rural areas.
- Data source inputs for the Clean Growth Tool include the Clean Investment Monitor (MIT/Rhodium), Smart Growth Cities, the American Community Survey (ACS), Lightcast, and the Green Transition Navigator (LSE).
- RMI will update the Clean Growth Tool as new industrial, technological, investment, and policy information becomes available.
Read more here: https://rmi.org/batteries-in-phoenix-heat-pumps-in-houston-heres-where-cleantech-industries-are-best-poised-to-thrive/
Media Contact
Leah Komos, lkomos@rmi.org; Ben Feshbach, benjamin.feshbach@rmi.org
About RMI
RMI, founded as Rocky Mountain Institute, is an independent nonprofit founded in 1982 that transforms global energy systems through market-driven solutions to align with a 1.5°C future and secure a clean, prosperous, zero-carbon future for all. We work in the world’s most critical geographies and engage businesses, policymakers, communities, and NGOs to identify and scale energy system interventions that will cut climate pollution at least 50 percent by 2030. RMI has offices in Basalt and Boulder, Colorado; New York City; Oakland, California; Washington, D.C.; Abuja, Nigeria; and Beijing. More information on RMI can be found at www.rmi.org.