With the volatility of oil cost, and its negative impacts on the environment, solar energy is destined to get a lot of attention in the coming years. The Solar Energy Research Education Foundation (SEREF) has produced maps illustrating the growth of jobs likely to result from growth in the solar energy industry for the US. They got help from Google Earth Outreach and Google.org to produce the maps using Google Earth technology. The maps show over 400,000 new jobs due to solar energy industry growth by the year 2016.
You can view the map using the GE plugin on a web page here 
. Or, you can load it directly in Google Earth using this KML file .
The KML file also includes additional maps for the different types of solar energy, and includes a 4D animated prism map of the job growth (but, the last map file is missing at the moment). via Official Google Blog
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.
Thanks for the blog!
John F. Kennedy once said, “When you have seven percent unemployed, you have ninety-three percent working. ” It is that type of optimism that we need to help us to move onto a path of growth and hope! These days, there is so much to keep us down and frightened about the future not just on TV but on the Internet and everywhere.
So many people are focused on the negative and constantly playing the armchair quarterback in a negative way. The pundits in the media have an endless supply of bad news and speculative forecasts that, if listened to and dwelled upon, could cause people to wonder, “Why get out of bed tomorrow. What’s the point?”
Let’s focus on the good news because the glass is really “half full”:
CleanTech took the lead in the amount of venture funding received in 2008.
The amount invested in CleanTech by venture companies grew from $6 billion in ’07 to $8 billion in ’08. While that is predicted to decline slightly in ’09, it is still well above ’07 figures.
The total invested in Clean Technology grew last year from $75.8 billion to over $115 billion.
The US took over as the largest producer of Wind Energy in the world.
Smart grid investment is set to improve our use of electric power with new investment in smart grid technology in ’08 of over $3 billion.
The US stimulus plan has $70 billion in incentives to help grow Clean Technology which, in turn, should help create Wind Jobs, Solar Jobs, Hydro Jobs, Biofuel Jobs, etc.
Of that $70 million in stimulus, $17 million is devoted to help move solar and wind power from remote locations to the consumers.
The news in the stock markets in the US has been strong with a gain of 20% in recent weeks.
Being at the forefront of today’s leading technology, gives all of us the ability to shape the future of the world in many aspects – from economically to environmentally. Let’s take the lead on having a positive attitude! So I am inviting anyone that has good news to post it as frequently as possible.
Bob
Attitude is everything!
Thank you for posted this article……..
The Solar Energy is a very good source for renewable source of energy. Solar energy is very well used using solar panels. This produces sustainable source of energy.
That’s a lot of new jobs being generated. I see renewable energy as the industry that will get us out of this recession.
Solar Energy Green Energy
Using solar energy and getting it setup is not as hard or expensive as it used to be. Home or farm, you can use green energy to reduce costs at every level.
Dear Sor/Mam,
Regards,
I want to work with Google Earth from Nepal. I want to be a tiny part of Google. I have a good Knowledge of GPS, Geotaging, Map Source and Arc View. I will provide of all the data GPS and photo of the Remote route, Trekking Rout of Himalyan Region, Hilli village region.
Please response me.
Thank You
Akash Upadhyay
Dhangadhi,
Nepal
There are more and more jobs in solar energy industry. Using solar energy is to save our environment and resource. Solar will be the main energy using in the future for our world!
Thanks for sharing this. I’ve been researching about solar energy and this post had most of the information I needed.