Job growth in Colorado’s so-called “advanced energy” industry — including renewable energy, energy efficiency, electrified transportation, biofuels — has been robust and is expected to expand by about 9% this year, according to new data from a national trade organization.

A fact sheet released Thursday by Advanced Energy Economy said the number of Colorado-based workers in the industry increased by 4% last year to 65,400, compared with the state’s overall job growth of 2.4%. And this year’s projected increase of 9%, based on interviews with Colorado employers, is higher than the expected national average increase of 6%, said Emilie Olson, a principal with the organization.

There are 3.5 million advanced energy jobs nationwide, according to the report.

“The advanced energy landscape is definitely growing in Colorado and really shows some impressive strengths,” Olson said. “The state is already reaping dividends from its energy policies and investments.”

Advanced Energy Economy, whose members include Tesla, Apple and Lockheed Martin as well as many smaller companies, supported several bills approved this year by Colorado lawmakers. Those include ones extending state tax credits for electric vehicles and setting goals for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.

Colorado stands out when looking at jobs in energy efficiency, Olson said. Those jobs, which include construction and performing audits, numbered 34,300 in 2018 for a 7% increase, compared with 3% nationally.

Another area where Colorado excels is in hybrid, electric, natural gas-fueled and other “advanced” vehicles, Olson said. That sector, with a total of 3,300 jobs, grew by 22 percent, well above the national average of 15 percent, Olson added

“Colorado definitely shines through as a leader in that regard, which I would chalk up to the fact that former Gov. (John) Hickenlooper laid that foundation with low-emission vehicle rule-making,” Olson said of the standard approved in 2018. “And obviously, we saw groundbreaking advances on Gov. (Jared) Polis’ watch.”

In January, Polis signed an executive order directing state agencies to develop policies to get more electric vehicles on the road. The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission approved a zero-emission vehicle standard in August, which will require that at least 5% of automakers’ vehicles available for sale in Colorado by 2023 be electric.

“We have confidence that advanced energy will continue to pay off in economic development” in Colorado, Olson said.

Boulder-based Uplight, the result of a merger of two startups, is experiencing “the kind of be-careful-what-you-wish-for growth rate,” said CEO Adrian Tuck.

Uplight, which Tuck described as a software company, works with utilities and other energy providers and customers to manage energy use, provide data, reduce electricity costs and move utilities and customers toward increased clean energy. Uplight, which has acquired four other companies since the merger of Simple Energy and Tendril in July, is growing at about 30%.

“We’re about 350 people and have 85 utility customers in North America and just over 100 million homes and businesses on our platform,” Tuck said.

The growth in renewable energy, energy efficiency and other clean-energy businesses and jobs is being stoked by utilities setting their own renewable energy and emission-reduction goals, as well as demands by businesses and the public, Tuck said. The federal government initially provided the momentum, Tuck said, but now it’s coming from state-approved targets for cleaner energy and lower greenhouse-gas emissions.

In fact, Advanced Energy Economy released its report the same day that the federal government announced the rollback of light-bulb efficiency standards approved by the Obama administration. The Department of Energy said the standards, set to take effect Jan. 1, 2020, weren’t economically justified.

The demand to install more efficient lighting is high, said Clayton Reed, a program portfolio manager with CLEAResult, a Texas-based company with offices in Colorado and across North America. The company works with utilities, businesses and homeowners using a number of tools to reduce costs, increase energy efficiency and meet environmental goals.

One of the effects of the growing and changing clean energy industry is a gap in skilled workers to fill jobs, Reed said.

The report by Advanced Energy Economics said that 27 percent of Colorado employers in 2018 found it “very difficult to find qualified candidates for advanced energy jobs.” However, that was an improvement from 54 percent in 2017, Olson said.

“We’re not seeing enough people enter these blue-collar trade crafts,” Reed said. “Basically, I’d say it starts in middle school. You really have to get to kids early to understand that there are options other than college.”

The industry is creating more jobs than schools are graduating people to fill the spots, Tuck with Uplight said. Tighter immigration policies also are making it more difficult to recruit qualified candidates from other countries, he said.

“It’s helpful that Colorado is an attractive place to live, so you can go and recruit from places like California where there are plenty of jobs but the cost of living and the amount of traffic” can be drawbacks, Tuck added.

The 2018 employment information in Advanced Energy Economy’s report came from data collected for the 2019 U.S. Energy and Employment Report, produced by the Energy Futures Initiative in partnership with the National Association of State Energy Officials. BW Research Partnership collected and analyzed the information, which also came from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Other findings included: