A new report by advocacy groups shows that Iowa’s clean energy industry now employs more than 30,000 people, buoyed by a 4.5 percent rise in energy efficiency jobs.

Clean Energy Trust’s third annual report, in cooperation with Environmental Entrepreneurs, found that Iowa now employs 19,694 in energy efficiency. More than two-thirds of the clean energy jobs here, 68.3 percent, are in construction and manufacturing. 

All 99 counties have jobs in clean energy, the report noted. An interactive map shows that Polk County has 6,715 clean energy jobs, with 1,115 in renewable energy and 4,539 in energy efficiency. Linn County has 2,590 and Scott 1,904.

Renewable energy came in second to energy efficiency with over 5,000  jobs – led by wind and solar with a combined 4,809.

Iowa employers in the survey project 7.8 percent growth in clean energy this year. 

The group noted that Iowa lawmakers changed the state’s energy efficiency program — a move environmental groups criticized as weakening a successful program. 

“Clean jobs count in Iowa,” said Micaela Preskill, E2’s Midwest advocate. “But recent legislation will curtail investment in the state’s largest clean energy employment sector, energy efficiency. We need policymakers to continue to prioritize clean energy development, not threaten the source of essential economic growth.”