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'Green' jobs: Top 10 states for clean tech

Clean Edge, a clean-tech research and advisory firm based in San Francisco and Portland, has ranked states for their leadership in clean tech. Here are its Top 10 picks:

1. California

Lucy Nicholson/Reuters/File
Solar panels are shown with a fisheye lens in the parking lot of 1929 building Walter J Towers, near downtown Los Angeles.

California has topped Clean Edge's list every year since the firm started ranking states four years ago. For 2013, California earned a score of 91.7 out of 100, 14 points ahead of second place. It isn't much of a surprise.

The state is home to some of the biggest names in clean energy and information technology: Google, Facebook, Apple, Tesla Motors, SolarCity, SunPower, and the list goes on.

California boasts the nation's most renewable mix of electricity generation, according to the EIA: No. 3 in hydroelectric, No. 1 in geothermal, and No. 1 in other renewable sources. Its mild climate and aggressive efficiency policies make it No. 48 in per capita energy consumption.

The state is one of the friendliest toward electric vehicles and biofuels, so it's no shock to learn 14.9 percent of the nation's alternative vehicles were on California roads in 2011.

For more information, visit Clean Edge's 2013 US Clean Tech Leadership Index.   

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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