Like communities from Michigan to Massachusetts to California, Austin, Texas, is retooling for a green economy, and the money to do it is rolling in.

The problem is figuring out just what a green job is, how many green jobs there will be, and how to train people for them. In Austin and elsewhere, an all-out effort is being made to solve that problem.

The Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities, which is taking a lead in Austin in creating a green workforce development plan, has tapped green energy consulting firm Good Company Associates to study the area’s green workforce needs. And there’s considerable activity going on and money being spent for Good Company to factor into its analysis.

Since the beginning of 2007, Workforce Solutions Capital Area Workforce Board has invested more than $700,000 in state and federal funding in green energy training.

Last week, American Youthworks, a nonprofit aimed at at-risk youth, received $1.4 million in federal funds to build a green charter high school that will prepare students for jobs in solar-panel installation, green facilities management, and other jobs.

In the last few years, Austin Community College received $99,031 from Workforce Solutions for solar and weatherization training and, more recently, $59,800 from the Department of Labor to increase the number of women in green job training programs.

And ACC is hoping to bring more funding to Central Texas in federal grants. ACC is part of a group of Texas community colleges that have applied for $3.5 million in funding to build solar-energy training programs.

While the Obama administration and the state of Texas have made an effort to invest in green jobs, the challenge for Central Texas and other areas of the country is to create workforce training programs that will anticipate the needs of government and industry, while not flooding the market with skilled talent, green job experts said.

“The real challenge is that we all have to make some decisions together as a community about where we’re going, and then we have to create a process in which we can together identify what that’s going to take,” said Bob King, president of Good Company Associates.

The good news, King said, is that Austin is better positioned than most cities to define its green job demands thanks to the ongoing collaborations between the workforce board, higher education institutions, nonprofits, and other workforce training providers.

What these entities have discovered so far is that green jobs won’t likely come in the form of new occupations, but rather a new shade of green for existing ones. Roofers, plumbers, HVAC repairmen, electricians, and others will likely have to learn new skills and earn certifications that will position them for tomorrow’s jobs.

“We really view it as a greening of existing jobs, which will require people to develop new skills,” said B.J. Stanbery, chairman of the Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities and chief strategy officer and chairman of HelioVolt Corp. “For many people, this is a long-term retraining effort.”

Predicting the number of green jobs that will be needed is also difficult to do until a better picture of the demands of industries, from solar energy to geothermal power, emerges, King said.