The Green Jobcast, episode 23, is a short news segment with information about green jobs making headlines across the country. This week news on a new electric car plant in Indiana, new green training initiatives and a biofuel plant in Georgia. (download mp3) (4 min)

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TRANSCRIPT

An electric car maker plans to open a factory in a northern Indiana plant that once made parts for recreational vehicles. The plant in Elkhart will be Think North America’s first in the U.S. and provide much-needed jobs in a city that has been struggling since the RV industry collapsed during the recession. Think North America, a subsidiary of Norwegian-based Think Global, projects its new factory could have 415 full-time jobs by 2013. Think Global currently makes its compact, two-door electric passenger cars at a plant in Finland.

The government is funneling nearly $100 million into training programs for green jobs, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said today. The funds, part of a $500-million green workforce development initiative through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will go to 25 projects around the country.

The programs are designed to help workers find jobs — such as hybrid and electric auto technicians, weatherization specialists, wind and energy auditors, and solar panel installers — in growing energy-efficiency and renewable-energy industries.

The money will be parceled out in Energy Training Partnership Grants ranging from $1.4 million to $5 million each. Projects in communities affected by the restructuring in the auto industry will receive $28 million.
In texas The Central Texas area’s green work force is getting a boost from a different kind of green.
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett announced a $4.8 million grant Wednesday to train 1,000 local workers for jobs in the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries. The Central Texas plan, funded by the federal economic stimulus program, will train 1,000 workers for jobs at solar power plants in Austin and San Antonio and projects in nearby cities and states. The training will prepare workers for a variety of jobs, including in solar installation. The Austin IBEW will partner with ImagineSolar LLC, an Austin-based company that does job training for the solar energy industry, and the Austin Workforce Investment Board.
The training will begin as early as March and take place at JATC’s training facility in Southeast Austin over the following months.

Nebraska’s largely untapped wind-energy resources could create up to 40,000 jobs over the next two decades if a federal goal is met, according to a report. The report, done by the National Renewable Energy Lab for the Nebraska Energy Office, says that if a federal goal of having wind energy make up 20 percent of the U.S. energy supply by 2030 is met, 7,800 megawatts of wind energy would be produced in Nebraska. Up to 4,000 of the projected 40,000 jobs would be permanent jobs lasting as long as each wind facility operated, which is typically about two decades.

According to the Associated Press— Gov. Sonny Perdue says a biofuel demonstration plant will be built in Thomaston early next year. The plant is being developed by Diamond Alternative Energy and American Process Inc. It’s designed to show the commercial viability of alternative fuels. The governor says the plant will provide 25 to 30 jobs in Upson County and Atlanta.

Another solar business will be coming to the Mid-Hudson Valley NY in the near future.
The Mid Hudson News is reporting that Congressman Maurice Hinchey said the new company will add to the growing Solar Energy Consortium he has funded to the tune of millions of federal dollars.

“It will be a new business, a new company, and new jobs, that go above the 200 that we have already created and they will be in the context of the 1,000 we estimating over the next few years,” he said.
Last year Hinchey helped secure nearly $12 million for the consortium and its member companies, part of the $31 million he’s brought to the region since TSEC was created in 2007. that fundingis expected to start flowing into the region this year.

The article goes on to say that the TSEC has already created about 200 jobs, and that Hinchley is anticipating about 1,000 new jobs over the next few years,” he said.