By Prashant Gopal

When Alden Zeitz started the Wind Energy Program at Iowa Lakes Community College five years ago, 15 students enrolled.

This year, 102 students enrolled in the two-year training program for wind turbine technicians, including some students who abandoned another career for the economic promise of green technology. The wind energy industry hasn't been immune to the recession, but students are counting on the federal government's injection of $80 billion in clean energy projects to change that.

Stimulus for Green Energy

The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 is a stimulus package that includes money for solar farms, wind turbines, electrical grid updates, mass transit, and the weatherizing and retrofitting of buildings. Besides its environmental benefits, the spending is expected to produce much needed jobs—about 1 million to 1.5 million of them, according to estimates by some environmental groups.

"We've had a slow year because of the global economy," Zeitz says. "But our industry is poised to recover quickly."

The clean energy economy accounted for about 770,000 jobs in 2007, according to a recent study from the Pew Charitable Trusts. But job boards might soon be populated with openings for environmental engineers, construction managers, hydrologists, architects, and interior designers with green building training, as well as for directors of environmentally focused nonprofit groups.

Best-Paying Green Jobs

Not all of these jobs will pay top salaries. Many of the new green-collar jobs will be taken by blue-collar construction workers. BusinessWeek teamed up with PayScale.com to determine the highest-paid green jobs. Wind turbine technicians, who earn a median pay of $53,600, ranked 12th on our list of 21 jobs. Environmental engineering managers, who typically earn $103,200, topped the list.

You won't necessarily need a science degree to land a green job. Environmental companies will need secretaries, administrators, and public relations specialists. And construction companies will need workers to install energy-efficient boilers, windows, and insulation.

"We project that about a million jobs will come out of the stimulus investment," says Phil Angelides, chairman of the San Francisco-based Apollo Alliance, a coalition of labor, business, and environmental groups that advocates for clean energy.  (BusinessWeek July 23, 2009, 10:45AM EST) Full Article