This from the Regional Growth Partnership :

During the last decade's dotcom employment boom, much of the job creation was concentrated in Silicon Valley. In contrast, green jobs are popping up all over—some of them in very unexpected places. A good example is Toledo, a rust-belt manufacturing center with no shortage of vacant downtown buildings. Historically, Toledo's big employers have been auto factories or auto suppliers—particularly glass manufacturers that make car windshields. But lately Toledo has established a growing national reputation as a hot spot for firms developing solar panels.

Why Toledo?

Glass is a key component in solar technology, and the University of Toledo has been doing hard-core solar-cell research for two decades. Local economic-development officials recently launched a $22 million venture fund to help launch more start-ups. The payoff from this combination of forces: according to the local Regional Growth Partnership, the Toledo area already has nearly 6,000 people employed in the solar industry. "We're seeing this transition of people moving from automotive to alternative energy," says Steven Weathers, CEO of the Regional Growth Partnership.

Walk the hallways of these energy firms and you'll meet a fair number of physicists and chemists. But as these technologies mature, they need traditional business people, too. First Solar, a solar-panel manufacturer outside Toledo that employs more than 550 workers, currently has 38 job openings. Some of those spots require a Ph.D., but the firm has also been hiring in human resources, accounting and information technology. "Just about every discipline has an opening or two," says Carol Campbell, First Solar's HR chief.