ACEEE Releases Job Calculator for Energy-Saving Stimulus Projects

Washington, D.C. — Today the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) published a jobs calculator for estimating the employment impacts of energy efficiency projects funded through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The calculator will be useful for estimating jobs created by state or municipal energy efficiency projects eligible for ARRA funding. The calculator can be used in applications for energy efficiency conservation block grants, state energy programs, weatherization assistance, and efficient transportation programs, among others. The calculator’s general structure makes it suitable for projects in any economic sector, with energy savings in any fuel or energy form.

“What we have here is a jobs calculator that a variety of parties can use to estimate the economic impacts on net job creation, including well-paying manufacturing and industrial jobs,” stated Dr. Neal Elliott, Director of ACEEE’s Industrial Program.

ACEEE’s stimulus jobs calculator builds on the organization’s previous work by including inputs specifically useful in analyzing stimulus spending. These inputs include a variable level of savings, variable amount borrowed, and a variable period over which efficiency investments occur. These features allow the model to maintain both a high level of realism as well as sufficient flexibility to be applied to a wide variety of projects.

“This spreadsheet-based tool provides a valuable analytical calculator that can help stakeholders accurately project the impact of productive investments in cost-effective energy efficiency resources. This is the type of timely information that will help get our economy moving again,” said John A. “Skip” Laitner, Director of Economic and Social Analysis for ACEEE.

Click the links in text for the: calculator and its user’s guide.