Growth in green jobs has stalled in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for its strong environmental credentials as well as for its ability to attract money and technology. Despite the news — which comes to us via the Green Business Survey from SF Works, an green industry advocacy group — area businesses remain optimistic the trend will improve.

According to the survey, a number of factors have contributed to the recent slowdown. Uncertainty surrounding Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing options is one, as relayed by the San Francisco Examiner:

… green job growth has been crippled in the last year as financing programs and other green loan programs have been dropped or stalled at the federal level, including Property Assessment Clean Energy and the Home Star loan program that would provide rebates. … This summer, the federal housing agency forced local jurisdictions like San Francisco to suspend cutting edge green financing program that would have created thousands of green jobs citywide and infused money into residential and commercial green building projects.

For an explanation of why PACE financing has effectively been suspended, read here. Suffice it to say that it’s difficult to know the options and rules when they’re subject to change: “We need a more comprehensive green jobs strategy, and not this fits and starts we are seeing now,” said San Francisco’s Director of Climate Protection Initiatives Johanna Gregory Partin, to the San Francisco Examiner.

As noted above, the good news is that, despite the current trend, the spirit of the many Bay Area green companies remains in tact. This sentiment is summarized by the authors of the SFWorks survey, which includes the responses of roughly 60 area businesses:

Our findings were that the main challenge facing green businesses is a lack of demand for their services, as well as problems with securing financing and not knowing how to access tax credits and other incentives. Despite these obstacles, green businesses were optimistic about their growth prospects, particularly those in the energy efficiency and solar sectors, which had the highest expectations for increased demand.

The businesses are broken down into seven categories: green building, remodeling, green building and remodeling, solar, energy efficiency, waste/recycling and environmental consulting. Among the companies — only eight of which have more than 100 employees — 70 percent of the businesses said they expect to grow and hire new employees in the next two years. The group that least expects growth is green building. But more than half — 58 percent — still expect growth. The group most optimistic is solar, as 90 percent of the solar companies surveyed expect to grow in the next two years.