Nordic Windpower employs seven people in Idaho now, but by the end of this year the wind-turbine manufacturer expects to have 25 employees in its Pocatello plant.

"We are using Idaho for a launch pad to support customers all over the country," said Prakash Ramachandran, Nordic Windpower's chief financial officer.

Nordic isn't alone. The Pew Research Center found that between 1998 and 2007, Idaho jobs in the wind, solar, biofuel and energy efficiency industries grew at a rate of 126.1 percent, while overall Idaho jobs grew by 13.8 percent.

Idaho, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming led the nation in percentage growth.

There were 4,500 of these jobs in Idaho in 2007, and today even more growth is coming. Just down the road from Nordic in Pocatello, the Hawaiian company Hoku Scientific is building a $390 million plant to make silicon for solar panels.

Once the plant is fully operational in 2010, Hoku expects to have 200 workers in Pocatello. It could expand to more than 300 eventually.

Here in Boise, 50 people already are working in the new light-emitting diode business that Micron Technology has committed to join later this year. Solar companies are looking to relocate to Nampa's former MPC Computer fabrication plant.

Wind farms and biomass plants are expanding the jobs into rural Idaho as well.

A VARIETY OF JOBS

"The state has more wind power potential than Oregon and Washington combined," said Phyllis Cuttino, director of the U.S. Global Warming Campaign at the Pew Environment Group.

Pew says the clean energy economy "generates jobs, businesses and investments while expanding clean energy production, increasing energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, waste and pollution, and conserving water and other natural resources." It comprises five categories: clean energy, energy efficiency, environmentally friendly production, conservation and pollution offsets, and training and support.

Idaho's clean energy jobs include engineers, plumbers, administrative assistants, construction workers, machine setters, marketing consultants, teachers and many others with annual incomes ranging from $21,000 to $111,000. Venture capital investment in clean technology in Idaho totaled nearly $28 million in the past three years.

Nationally, jobs in the clean energy economy grew at a rate of 9.1 percent between 1998 and 2007, while total jobs grew by only 3.7 percent.

Idaho has done well, Ramachandran said, because of its low cost of living, low cost of doing business, availability of labor and favorable local government support.

Rocky Barker: 377-6484